Sussex University ChatLive
Rules of Use and Netiquette

ChatLive offers you the opportunity to talk online with a range of experts, course tutors and students.

About our ChatLive service
In order to use our ChatLive service, you will need to register.

About your live chat messages

• Our chatrooms are for you to chat online with a range of experts and receive answers to your questions.
• Keep your contributions civil, tasteful and relevant.
• We're committed to providing an atmosphere in which constructive and mature dialogue takes place.
• Be respectful to other users and those who moderate or facilitate online communications.
• No swearing or abusive language.
• Unlawful, harassing, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, racially offensive, or otherwise objectionable material is not acceptable.
• Avoid writing EVERYTHING IN CAPITAL LETTERS.
• No advertising or spam.
• No HTML or computer script.
• Do not include URLs to unsuitable sites – unsuitable includes sexually explicit, racist or sites with other potentially offensive material and those which promote illegal activities or infringe copyright.
• Communicate in English. Messages containing languages other than English will not be responded to.
• Do not impersonate others. Impersonating someone else is unacceptable.
• Adopting an inappropriate chat nickname (one that is vulgar, offensive, etc.) is also unacceptable.
• For your own personal safety, we do not allow you to post your personal details such as phone numbers, email addresses, or information about your family or workplace.
• Post only messages related to the topic of the chatroom session. If you post a message, which is not related to the chatroom topic, it will not be responded to.
• Any messages that are in breach of these guidelines will not be responded to. Users who persistently misuse the chatroom will be banned.
• ChatLive transcripts remain available in the online archive for 12 months before being automatically deleted.

About your privacy

• Sussex University will not publish or provide your email address or personal data to anyone. Our secure registration process requires you to supply us with your email and personal profile details, but we will only use this information to validate your access to our chatroom systems and for client monitoring purposes.
• Only Sussex University staff will have access to client data and this is never divulged to a third party, without your written permission.
• From time to time, Sussex University staff may contact you in order to obtain feedback on the quality of our chatroom systems.
• Your comments are kept confidential. We may use your comments to improve our services.
• There may be occasions when Sussex University will need to contact you via email to respond to your feedback or comments.
• Sussex University follows recommendations listed in the 1998 Data Protection Act.
• Sussex University does not allow you to send messages to individual users. *All messages posted in our chatrooms are viewable by all users. Therefore, 1-to-1 conversations cannot take place within a public chatroom.