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We take your
privacy seriously. You are very welcome to use the website without
any requirement to join or sign up.
Joining trAce
You can join
trAce by filling in the web form
. After joining, you will be added to
the trAce Member Mailing List, which will keep you up to date
via email with news about trAce. Your homepage will
also be added to the Member Homepage section of trAce, so
that other members can see your writing. However, trAce has a
strict email privacy policy and will not make email addresses available to
any other organisation without your express permission. General
demographic information may be used for planning and publicity
purposes, but your individual details will not be used without your
permission.
If you are a
published author and would like trAce to link to your book on
Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, go to the Shop for further
information.
If you join
trAce, you can leave at any time. To cancel your
membership, simply send an email to trace@ntu.ac.uk with "Leave trAce"
in the subject line, and your details will be removed from the
database. Don't forget to quote your
current email address and any previous ones under which you may have
registered.
If you change
your email address, please let us know by writing to trace@ntu.ac.uk.
Joining the
community
You are welcome to read
the discussions in our community on
WebBoard as a guest without signing up, but in order to post
messages you must sign up (this is a separate process from joining
trAce). To do this you are required to accept cookies and to give a
name and password. This is to allow the system to keep track of your
visits so that it can tell you. for example, which messages you have
not already read. To cancel your subscription, simply send an
email to trace@ntu.ac.uk with "Leave
WebBoard" and your username in the subject line, and we will delete
your details.
We recommend you
join both trAce and WebBoard to get the most out of the trAce
community, but by joining one you do not automatically become
registered with the other.
Cookies
Cookies are used on the
trAce site. This is why:
- Cookies are
NOT used to identify individuals in any way.
- Cookies on
our site are used to gain statistical information about the users
of our site. For example, information such as the geographical
location of users helps us to plan content. The UK user-base is
building up, for example, but we still have many more US users,
and we also get visits from over 99 other countries which tells us
we have to make sure the site is accessible to those for whom
English is not their first language.
- Information
about the browser you are using makes it possible to plan the site
in innovative and interesting ways so as to take advantage of the
available technology. If we know that 90% of visitors have
browsers of version 4 or higher (which we do), then we are able to
use more advanced Web technologies (Flash, Shockwave, DHTML) to
improve the content of the site and its interest for you, and to
show cutting-edge web work from some of the most dynamic and
creative writers working on the Web today.
We hope we can make
provision for the 10% who still have a version 3 browser, but we
know that we don't have to cater for version 1 and 2 any more. The
majority of the informational pages on the site remain simple,
text-based and accessible.
- We are able to
assess not just the number of hits to our site but the average length
of time visitors stay (which has increased from 8 to 16 minutes
in the past two years), the pages they look at most, and where
they come from (for example which search engines are referring to
us the most). This helps us to plan for the future, enhancing
features/pages that visitors use most and removing or redesigning
those that they don't. But we do not track
visitors individually.
- Statistics
help us with marketing, so that we have an idea which web sites we
need to get our site mentioned on, or which offline advertising
works best, and it gives us statistics on numbers and locations of
users which are very important for a venture that is dependent on
grants and sponsorship.
If you
don't like cookies, then perhaps you can get the most out of the
trAce site by deleting all cookies every time your computer is switched off
(you can automate this), then you can get the best of both
worlds.
Constant Upgrades
This site is
updated every day. We are constantly trying to improve and enhance
our service to writers. While we try to avoid problems, please tell us of any you
encounter.
Community
principles
trAce exists to provide a professional
and social online community for writers, readers and other artists.
In support of that purpose, the trAce community has adopted three
general governing principles:
- the Principle of Tolerance,
- the Principle of Artistic and
Intellectual Freedom, and
- the Principle of Responsible
Behaviour.
Artistic Policy
We support free
speech and try to avoid censorship. We are committed to supporting
artistic practice across its entire range, recognising such practice
as a basic means of expression - and thus a basic right - of diverse
individuals and communities in society, and regarding as fundamental
our protection and promotion of the artistic and intellectual
freedom of the artists with whom we work. This commitment is seen as
a natural outcome of, and providing important support for, our
policy on equal opportunities.
Disclaimers
The trAce web site is run on a server at The Nottingham
Trent University. We endeavour to provide the best possible service
and will do all in our power to keep the web site available, useful
and up-to-date. However, we reserve the right to shut it down, kick
you off, display unexpected pages, and fail in any way possible.
We do not
endorse any site which is linked off this web site. We endeavour to
keep all content accurate and up-to-date, but we cannot guarantee
it.
No contributor
may use this server for any purpose which is considered illegal in
the UK or which infringes the University's code of
practice.
Copyright
The entire site content is copyright
1995-2001 by The trAce Online Writing Community and its contributors
with all rights reserved. Reproduction of material by any other
parties without written permission is strictly prohibited. All trademarks are
property of their respective owners.
If
you don't find the information you need here, you are welcome to
contact trAce at
trace@ntu.ac.uk
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