Here you will find our 'Terms' page.
On this page we will define the [ Terms ] used and the [ Rules and Regulations ] all Visitors, Registered Members and the website's Administration Team will have to follow and obey.

Terms

1. 'We', 'the Website', 'the Site', 'Us', 'Our', 'the Team', 'the Administration Team', 'the Staff', 'the Admin', 'the Administrator', 'the Editor', all refer to a person or a member of the group of persons that is responsible for maintaining and publishing the website named: 'www.thelostworlds.com'.
2. 'Visitor' or 'Guest' refers to a person that is not a (logged on) Registered Member or a member of the Staff, that is just visiting the Website and/or browsing/reading the Website's content.
3. 'Registered Member' or 'Member' refers to a person that has registered for a user-account with which this person can log on to the Website.
4. 'User' refers to the person and/or information registered in our database to maintain services to a Registered Member.
5. 'Editor' or 'Edr' refers to an administrative title a Staff- or Registered Member can have. Editors have additional permissions within the Website and are responsible for keeping the textual-content in accordance to our [ Rules and Regulations ].
6. 'Moderator' or 'Mod' refers to an administrative title a Staff- or Registered Member can have. Moderators have additional permissions over those of Editor and are responsible for keeping the topic-content in accordance to our [ Rules and Regulations ].
7. 'Administrator', 'Admin' or 'Adm' refers to an administrative title only a Staff Member can have. Administrators have superficial permissions and are responsible for maintaining site-content in accordance to our [ Rules and Regulations ].
8. 'Area' refers to a group of 'Topics'. Areas are maintained and can only be created/modified by Administrators.
9. 'Topic' refers to a group of 'Entries' or 'Posts'. Topics are maintained and can be created/modified by Administrators and Moderators.
10. 'Entry' or 'Post' refers to a piece of content, written by a Member,Editor,Moderator or Admin. Entries are maintained and can be created by any Member and modified by the (owning)Member, Editors, Mods and Admins.
11. 'Content' refers to anything resembling text, scripts, images, sound and data that is part of the output of the website. With 'Content' pages are represented and with this 'Content' people can read, write, listen or interact. As 'Content' on the Website can be placed by the Staff as well as by Members, the Staff is not explicitely responsible for the 'Content's' content and can not be held liable or responsible for such content in case of dispute or legal issues.
12. 'Illegal' refers to anything that is published on the Website that goes against our [ Rules and Regulations ] or against applicable law. In case 'Illegal' activities or content is noted such actions or content should be reported to the Administration Team at once, so we can act accordingly by moderating, editing or removing the illegal activity or content. Persons that are involved in instigating illegal activities risk being banned from the website and their actions may be reported to the proper authorities.
13. 'Copyright' refers to the legal and creative ownership of the published content on the website. As creative owner of content a person has creative copyright on such content. However, by publishing the content on the website, the creative owner transfers creative copyright to the website. Since the website is 'Public Domain', there is no protection against the content being redistributed on other places on the internet.
14. 'Public Domain' refers to the publicly accessible 'World Wide Web' also known as 'Internet'. In accordance to the Internet's original setup, all published content should be publicly available without restrictions. Thus, all content should also be available for public use indefinately. According to this definition, there can be no 'Copyright' on content, published on the internet. This was altered later by the addendum, that password protected content was to be considered 'private', and therefore in such cases, the copyright remains with the creative owner. Our site is part of the 'Public Domain', since we do not password protect our content, only our Member's credentials.
15. 'Log on' refers to the function a person can use to identify himself or herself as a Registered Member, which enables him or her to participate to all kinds of functions in the Website.
16. 'Log off' refers to the function a person can use to destroy the 'Log on' credentials when he or she leaves the Website. By not using the 'Log off' function, the credentials will remain available for the set lifespan of the credentials.
17. 'Account' refers to the credentials for a Registered Member registered in our database. A Registered Member needs an 'Account' (aka 'Credentials') in order to be able to 'Log on'.
18. 'Owner' refers to several instances:
    in relation to an account, it means the person that registered for the account.
    in relation to a message, entry, post or content, it means the person related to the account that placed the message, entry, post or content.
    in relation to the website, it means the Administration Team.
19. 'Verified Address' refers to the verification of the provided emailaddress of the Registered Member. A 'Verified Address' means that we were able to send an email to the emailaddress provided and that we got a reply from the same address.
20. 'Username' refers to the Name or 'Alias' a registered Member has to use to 'Log on' to our website. It is also the name that is printed near each 'Content' or 'PM' a Member produces.
21. 'Password' refers to a combination of numbers and characters with a specified length that a Regeistered Member has to use to 'Log on' to our website.
22. 'Session' refers to a personal token for a Registered Member.
23. 'Credentials' or 'Personal Information' refers to the information a person has to provide in order to subscribe to a periodical service, to register as Member, to Log on as a Member.
24. 'Periodical Service' refers to a service that appears at periodical intervals. such a service can be (but not explicitely) a newsletter, distributed by email.
25. 'Online' refers to the state when Registered Member is Logged on. A Member can decide to 'hide' his or her 'Online' presence via the 'Profile Control Panel'.
26. 'Profile Control Panel' or 'PCP' refers to the page on which a Member can edit his or her Credentials.
27. 'Personal Message Centre' or 'PMC' refers to the function with which logged on Members can communicate privately in person to person message-windows.
28. 'Personal Message' or 'Private Message' or 'PM' refers to the message sent through our 'PMC'.
29. 'Locked', 'Suspended', 'Banned', 'Inactive', 'Blocked', refers to an administrative state the 'User'or 'Account' has been set to. There are several phases:
    - Phase 0 means the account is active and ready for use.
    - Phase 1 means the account has been 'Locked out'
      due to multiple 'Log on' faillures (5 failed attempts).
    - Phase 2 means the account has been 'Suspended' due to inactivity.
      (Not logged on to for more than 3 months.)
    - Phase 3 means the account has been 'Banned'
      due to illegal actions of the Registered Member from the account.
    - Phase 4 means the account has been 'Inactive' for more than 6 months.
    - Phase 5 means the account has been 'Blocked'.