Welcome to The Motherload®. This website www.the-motherload.co.uk, images (unless specified in credits) and services (henceforth referred to collectively as ‘website’) is owned by The Motherload® Limited (also referred to as ‘The Motherload® Ltd’, or ‘TML’). The Motherload® Ltd is registered with Companies House in the UK under registration 09971082. These terms and conditions are for all users, providers, consumers and customers of The Motherload® Ltd and it’s website provision and sets out an agreement of terms governing your use of this website. By using, accessing or uploading any content to this site, you agree and accept to be legally bound by these conditions and our Privacy Policy.
AMENDMENTS, CORRECTIONS AND MODIFICATION OF TERMS
The Motherload® Ltd reserves the right to make changes or amendments to these Terms and Conditions at any time by updating with specified revision and ‘effective from’ dates on this website. It is advised that whenever you visit this website, you should check as to whether these conditions have been amended or updated.
QUESTIONS, COMPLAINTS AND CONCERNS
If you have any questions or concerns in respect of these conditions, please contact The Motherload® Ltd at 39 New Street, Bedfordshire SG175BW or at hello@the-motherload.co.uk.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
This website, it’s content, images and services are intended for use by adults, and is not intended for use by any person under the age of 16. Any account to be found activated by persons under this threshold will be immediately removed and blocked from the site.
PRIVACY POLICY
We may collect data through and during your use of this website, either through the registration process, or subscription service, or through activities such as competitions. You can view our Privacy Policy here:
Our Privacy Policy sets out our use of your data, and how we may collect it from your use of our website, and your rights relative to that data. Please review the Privacy Policy prior to use of this website. If you are unwilling to accept the conditions of the Privacy Policy, you are not to access or use this website.
USE OF CONTENT & INFORMATION BY USERS & SUPPLIERS
This website constitutes of a variety of information, opinion, advice, recommendations, reviews, messages, biographical information, comment, posts, software, music, sound, imagery, photographs, videos, data and other content (referred to as ‘content’). This content is provided through via The Motherload® Ltd, its suppliers, external third party businesses, and users. User content (‘users’) concerns opinions, advice, and views provided within our Community Areas; groups, forums, and blog posts in Features. The Motherload® Ltd strives to ensure the accuracy of posts, and provide complete and up-to-date information. The Motherload® Ltd cannot guarantee and will not be held responsible for, the accuracy, completeness, timeliness of any Content on this website, whether provided by The Motherload® Ltd, or any of its suppliers, businesses, or users.
DISCLAIMER: The information available on this website is provided with the explicit understanding that The Motherload® Ltd, or its suppliers or affiliate businesses, or users, is not responsible for engaging in the production or provision of medical, legal, counselling or any other professional service or advice. Information provided by The Motherload® Ltd, its supplier or users, is only intended as a general educational aid, and should not be interpreted as, or taken in lieu of, professional medical or healthcare advice, and should not be taken used for diagnosis or treatment advice, for any problem. The information or advice provided on this website should not be substituted for professional medical or healthcare advice and The Motherload® Ltd strongly advises that any persons seeking advice do so from a registered healthcare professional who is familiar with your personal circumstances and medical history before embarking on any new, or change to, treatment.
NO OBLIGATION TO PRE-SCREEN
The Motherload® Ltd does not have any obligation to prescreen, edit, or remove any Content provided by users or suppliers. However, in order to maintain the ethos of The Motherload®, in accordance with our Mission Statement, The Motherload® Ltd will have the right (but not the obligation) to prescreen, edit, remove, refuse to accept or move any Content on the website.
CONTENT PROVIDED BY THE USERS
You, the user, are responsible for all content that you post, submit or make otherwise available to or through the website. By doing so, you agree that:
- Any content you provide in any form is not subject to confidentiality, and you have all permissions required to submit, post or make available by any other means;
- Grant to The Motherload® Ltd and it’s affiliates, full, non-exclusive, perpetual, fully sub-licensable, royalty and right free to use worldwide;
- License to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute (including, without limitation, making available on-line, electronically transmitting or otherwise communicating to the public), perform, and display such Content (in whole or part) worldwide via the website or otherwise, and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed.
- Consent to all relevant acts, or omissions, regarding your moral rights with regard to any and all Content that may or might constitute infringement or breach of those moral rights, and to the extent as permitted by law, waive all your moral rights in such Content.
You agree that you will not submit, post, or otherwise make available to or through the Website any Content, that:
- Is, or is perceived to be, unlawful, harassment, defamation, abuse, threats, obscene content, tortious, libellous, harmful, or invasive of another’s privacy;
- Infringes or violates any party’s trademark, copyright, trade secret, patent or any other proprietary right;
- Includes any unauthorised advertising, junk mail, spam, promotional materials, chain letters, or any other unsolicited content, including by private message, to persons or entities, including members or users, who have not explicitly agreed to receive or take part in such mailings or promotions;
- Contains any harmful, disruptive destructive files, programs or codes, including but not limited to viruses and worms;
- You do not have the right to submit, post, disseminate or transmit.
COMPLAINTS ABOUT CONTENT
Any concern or complaint regarding content on this website should be referred to Kate Dyson, CEO and Founder and submitted either by email to hello@the-motherload.co.uk, or by writing to 39 New Street, Bedfordshire, SG17 5BW. Complaints will be addressed and responded to within 7 working days from receipt.
YOUR USE & THE LAW
You, the user, agree to comply with all laws applicable to your use of the Website. You also agree that you will not use this website in any way to:
- Impersonate any person or entity; falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity; intentionally omit, delete, forge, or misrepresent transmission information, including headers, return mailing, and Internet protocol addresses; or otherwise manipulate identifiers to disguise the origin of any Content that you submit or transmit through the website;
- Disrupt the normal flow of dialogue or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other Users’ ability to engage in real-time exchanges;
- Interfere with, disrupt, or harm in any way the Website or servers or networks connected to the website;
- Electronically stalk or otherwise harass another User;
- Engage in any activities that would violate the personal privacy rights of others, including but not limited to collecting and distributing information about other Users without their permission, except as permitted by applicable law; or
- Use the website in violation of any applicable laws or regulations, or any rules or guidelines established by The Motherload® Ltd.
OWNERSHIP & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
This website is owned by The Motherload® Limited. All right to, title to, and interest in the Content available via the website, the website’s look and feel, the designs, logos, trademarks, service marks, and trade names displayed on the website, and the website URLs, including www.the-motherload.co.uk, www.the-motherload.com and www.wearethemotherload.co.uk, are the property of The Motherload® Ltd and are protected by copyrights, trademarks, patents, or other proprietary rights and laws.
LICENSE TO USE CONTENT
The Motherload® Ltd grants you a nonexclusive, nontransferable, revocable, limited license to view, copy, print, and distribute Content retrieved from the website only for your personal, noncommercial use, provided that you do not remove or obscure any copyright notice, trademark notice, or other proprietary rights notices displayed on or in conjunction with the Content. You may not use any Content available via the website in any other manner or for any other purpose without the prior written permission of The Motherload® Ltd. All rights not expressly granted in these conditions are expressly reserved to The Motherload® Ltd.
TRADEMARK NOTICES
All trademarks, service marks, logos and designs used on this website, whether registered or unregistered, are owned by The Motherload® Ltd. You may not use or display any trademarks, service marks, logos or designs owned by The Motherload® Ltd, or its affiliates, without our prior written consent.
CONTACT WITH ADVERTISERS, AFFILIATED BUSINESSES OR THIRD PARTIES
Any arrangement or dealing that you have with any business or third party sourced, found or accessed by the website, including through The Motherload® Store & Directory, or within the Groups via user to user personal sales, is solely between you and the business or third party. These dealings include, but are not limited to; your participation in competitions, promotions, the payment for goods or services, the delivery of any, if applicable, and any terms, conditions, warranties or other representations. The Motherload® Ltd will not be held responsible for any agreement, transaction, promotion, product or service provided to you by any business or third party.
The Motherload® Ltd will not represent, or negotiate between any parties as a result of any dealings that result in services or products or items agreed between parties. Further, you agree that The Motherload® Ltd will have no liability in respect to loss or any damage of any kind incurred as a result of any dealings made between you and any business or third party, or as a result of the presence of any business, charity or third party on the website.
AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE
The Motherload® Ltd is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk.
LINKED EXTERNAL WEBSITES
The Motherload® Ltd, users, businesses in The Motherload® Store & Directory, advertisers or other third parties may post links to other websites and/or resources that are accessed via this website and over which The Motherload® Ltd has no control. These links are provided solely as a convenience to users and members of the website, and The Motherload® Ltd will not take any responsibility, nor should endorsement be construed for the content, services or products that are provided by external, third party websites. You access and use any external or third party website, their services, content, products, terms entirely at your own risk. The Motherload® Ltd will not make any representation or warranties with respect to content, personal information collection practices, ownership, trademarks or legality of such linked websites. The Motherload® Ltd has no responsibility or liability for the availability, content, advertising or promotion available through such external websites.
COMMUNITY & GENERAL USE
The Motherload® ethos is to be supportive, honest and truthful about parenting, and especially motherhood. We are an inclusive community and we will not tolerate behaviour that is bullying, mean-spirited or overly critical of other members. We expect all members to uphold the values of The Motherload® within our site.
Any queries, or concerns should be directed to The Motherload® HQ team by contacting one of the administrators either on the group that you are on at the time, or through the report button. You can also contact us at hello@the-motherload.co.uk and one of our team will get back to you asap. We endeavour to reply to any emails within 24 hours, but in a busy period this may be slightly longer. Please bear with us! We promise to get back to you.
OUR COMMUNITY
The Motherload®’s Community values are to be honest, supportive and witty at all times. We rely on our wonderful membership to uphold our values throughout our groups and forums, and to be on the whole, self-moderating. However, for clarification, there are some specific guidelines that we expect members of The Motherload® to abide by. Members who breach these guidelines, deliberately or not, may have their account suspended or even removed from the site, and in extreme situations this may be done without warning.
GENERAL:
- No MLM, Network Business, or Independent Business Owners (IBOs) connected to a Network Business model are permitted to advertise or promote products, or recruit and network, or make unsolicited contact with any member of The Motherload® without their expressed permission. These businesses include but are not limited to: Forever Living, Juice Plus, Herbalife, Body Shop at Home, Stella and Dot, LifeTree World, Jamberry, NuSkin, Ariix etc.
- Members must not use any reference or terminology that can be perceived to be racist, homophobic, transphobic, sexist, or discriminatory.
- Violent wording and/or threats are not permitted.
- No member shall remove or block a moderator or administrator of a group that they are a member of, or similarly, a member of The Motherload® HQ team.
GROUPS
- ANY MEMBER OF THE MOTHERLOAD may create or administrate a Community Group. They must adhere to these guidelines and take responsibility for the group by holding the ‘Group Admin’ role. They may invite other members to assist with administration of a group.
- Group roles are as follows:
Members: By default, when a user joins a group, he or she has the role of member. What does it mean to be a member of a BuddyPress group? That depends on what kind of group it is. Members have all the same privileges as members in a public group. Members should be aware that content within the group is private, but anything posted into the group or general forum is public.
Moderators: When a group member is promoted to be a moderator of the group, it means that the member receives the following additional abilities:
– Edit group details, including the group name and group description.
– Edit, close, and delete any forum topic or post in the group
– Edit and delete other kinds of content, as produced by certain plugins
Administrators: Administrators have total control over the contents and settings of a group. That includes all the abilities of moderators, as well as the ability to:
– Change group-wide settings (Admin > Settings). For instance, administrators can turn group forums on or off, change group status from public to private.
– Change the group avatar (Admin > Group Avatar)
– Manage group members (Admin > Manage Members). More specifically, only group administrators have the power to promote members to moderators, or to ban individual users from the group
– Delete the group (Admin > Delete)
– The individual who creates the group is automatically the group’s first administrator. As a result, each group must have at least one administrator, though the first admin can choose to appoint others.
- The Group Admin will agree to liaise with The Motherload® HQ team on any matter, and will not block or disengage with The Motherload® HQ at any time.
- The Group Admin must be an active member of The Motherload® Community, and agree to respond to any issues or reports on the group within 12 hours.
- Groups can be created for any purpose, as long as they maintain and are in line with, The Motherload® values and mission statement (which can be found at the top of this page.)
- Members are discouraged from cross posting between groups any information or details that can be perceived to be provocative, argumentative or hurtful.
- Selling/In Search Of (ISO) posts are only permitted on designated groups and posts must be in keeping with the individual group’s guidelines. The Motherload® Ltd will not be held responsible for any transactions that take place as a result of contact or agreement through our community.
- Competitions may be run across our website, and networked groups in tandem if appropriate and relevant to the group purpose and membership.
- The Motherload® Ltd advises members of The Motherload® Community to make any financial transaction through Paypal Goods or Cash on Collection. The Motherload® Ltd will not be held responsible for any transaction that is not completed and any concerns or complaints should be directed to Paypal who will guide you through their complaints process. Group Admins will not be held responsible for transactions made through The Motherload® Groups, but may be informed and moderate accordingly, and will be supported by The Motherload® HQ.
- The Motherload® HQ always has the final say, and will not enter into long discussion on any decision that has been made as a result of moderation within The Motherload® Community areas.
ADVERTISING & PROMOTION OF PRODUCTS OR BUSINESSES
- Any businesses or individuals who wish to advertise with The Motherload®, in any part of our site, are invited to contact Kate Dyson, CEO & Founder, to discuss the various opportunities available.
- We charge a reasonable rate for any promotion or advertising throughout our site. Our current rates can be found on The Store page, or by contacting Kate: kate@the-motherload.co.uk.
- Advertising on The Motherload® is not permitted unless expressly permitted by The Motherload® HQ. This includes within our groups and local listings.
- Members may genuinely recommend or review a product, service or business within groups.
BREACH OF GUIDELINES
- Should a member breach any of these guidelines, they will be warned, and may be suspended from the site. In extreme circumstances, members may find that their accounts and email address are blocked from the site altogether.
COMPLAINTS
- Complaints regarding process, use and moderation can be directed to: kate@the-motherload.flywheelsites.com.
- You can expect to receive a reply within 24 hours, however in busy or holiday periods, this may be extended to up to 48 hours.
PRESS ENQUIRIES
Our team are on hand to answer any press enquiries, or make comment on a range of topics. Please contact:
Kate Dyson, CEO & Founder: kate@the-motherload.co.uk
Alison McGarragh-Murphy, Editor & Partner: alison@the-motherload.co.uk
GUIDANCE FOR JOURNALISTS & BLOGGERS
HOW WE CAN HELP
- We are always delighted to assist with any requests from journalists or bloggers to assist with articles or research. If you would like to plunder our brilliant community for their opinions or personal experiences, please contact us at The Motherload® HQ at hello@the-motherload.co.uk and we will be more than happy to accommodate your request.
- We can tailor how you reach our members: Post stickys within our forum or groups, or set up a specific research group within our community – we can even devise a poll, if you’d rather!
- We will moderate the group or forum thread, and send results to you within 48 hours of the closure of the post.
- We are also able to provide speakers and case studies for print and broadcast media on a range of subjects, using the contacts above.
- Should you wish to republish any of the Content on this site, online or in print, please do get in touch and we can liaise directly with the author.
WHAT WE EXPECT
- The Motherload® must be credited within any press article or online blog, post or feature where research has been used.
- We additionally expect backlinks to our website from any online publication of information, advice, opinion or experience sourced within our community. Please keep us informed of publication – we would love to collate clippings and links to any press on our site and are happy to promote any press that we receive in our Forums.
FEATURES & CONTRIBUTORS
First of all, we are DELIGHTED that you have joined our Contributor Team! Your features are a key part of our site, and we love expanding our writing team.
There are a few things to bear in mind though, before you submit your first post (this is the serious bit!):
EXCLUSIVITY OF CONTENT
- The Motherload® Ltd will hold exclusive rights over any post, image, feature, video or other content that you submit to us for publication.
- This exclusivity period will be in place for 12 weeks from publication date and within that time period, you are prohibited from republishing your article, in full or part form, on any other website or online publication. You may publish it in print in this time, but we expect credit to be made to The Motherload® or our website www.the-motherload.co.uk
- You may share your post on social media, your own blog, website or any other online publication by linking to your live, published post, image, feature or video on our site.
- Following this 12 week exclusivity period, you are welcome to republish your post, image, feature or video in any format or form. However, should any research for your article have been sourced in our Community Areas (groups, timelines, forums) we expect you to credit The Motherload® and provide links to our site.
- Once published on our site, The Motherload® Ltd reserves the right to republish, online or in print, your post, feature, image or video in any format or form.
- Should your post, feature, image or video attract media or other party interest, The Motherload® Ltd reserves the right to authorise its use without consulting you first. We will, as a courtesy, let you know if this happens, and may, in some circumstances, refuse on your behalf if appropriate.
Phew. Now onto the fun stuff!
GUIDELINES FOR WRITERS, ILLUSTRATORS, VLOGGERS
Here’s a few guidelines for uploading your posts onto The Motherload®, what we expect, and some hints and tips:
WRITER’S TIPS
- Your features should always be along the lines of The Motherload® ethos – Supportive, Honest and Witty. If your posts sound contrived, your readers will know so try and keep them true to life and your experience. If appropriate, be witty! Share your opinions, be a bit feisty, be YOU.
- What you call your post is up to you, but we find that punchy, witty titles work best. Quotes, play on words, use of alliteration or familiar phrases can work well.
- Tone should be colloquial, informative, bright, chatty; as if you are talking to your own friends.
- We don’t mind swearing, but bear in mind that a little can go a (fucking) LONG way.
- Don’t overuse punctuation, ellipses, exclamation or question marks if you want people to not think you sound a bit, well, daft.
- Your posts can be anything from motivating and uplifting, to questioning and full of pathos. It’s good to have a balance though.
- We don’t have a word count per se, but be careful of rambling posts that don’t have a pay off. A pay off is always good!
- If you wish to link to other websites, please keep it to just one or two. We know with lists etc that you will need to do it to show the reader what you are discussing, but with general text posts it can break the flow of an article if used too much.
IMAGES
We ask that all contributors supply an image to accompany their post, feature or video content. We want the imagery to reflect the look and feel of our site, and represent our ethos of being honest, supportive and witty.
- Images that we really like are retro, vintage, personal, black and white, filtered (if you wish), cool, graphic, industrial. Think laterally! Sometimes the best images are not necessarily instantly connectable to the text, but they somehow just FIT.
- We don’t pay for images, but there are different ways that you can source pictures and images if you don’t want to pay for them either! There are a number of free image sites available, and some great ones that we can recommend are Flickr, Pablo, MorgueFile, Pixabay, GraphicStock, among many others. We are always happy to provide a list to you to try should you need further resources. You must ensure that any image you find on any website is free to use, and right-free or available under Creative Commons, and please provide the appropriate credit, where necessary.
- However, we really like personal images! You can use Instagram photos, your own personal collection from your phone or tablet, or even a scanned image from your Gran’s collection. Please remember though – you must have the permission of anyone who is depicted in the images, or we won’t be able to use them, and if you didn’t take the photograph or create the image you will need to provide credit for the person/party who did.
- If we feel that your images don’t quite fit, please don’t be offended if we use something else. If you give permission, we’ll keep your image on file and you, or with your permission, we, will use it at a later date.
- Please supply your images in jpeg, or png format.
- Your images must be a MINIMUM of 800px WIDTH x 534px HEIGHT. Should you need to crop or resize, we recommend www.pixlr.com/editor/ or http://cropp.me/.
- Resolution should be 72dpi and colour space set to RGB, if possible.
- If you need help with images, just shout! We are always on hand to help.
Things to avoid are:
- Images found via Google Image Search – unfortunately it’s not always reliable for finding free to use, right-free imagery.
- Pictures of Celebrities (unless they are free to use)
- Images of children in a state of undress or nude – either your own, or someone else’s.
- Please don’t raid our media library or gallery. The images that are in there have all be used previously, and where possible we would like the site to remain fresh with new imagery that hasn’t previously been seen.
SHARE THE LOVE!
Sharing is caring! We want to sing your praises and let everyone see your amazing work. Here’s some tips on how to do that and in return, get a lot of love back!
- Like our Facebook – that’s where we will promote your wonderful work!
- Follow us on Twitter – we’ll retweet your links, comments and funnies and say lovely things!
- Follow us on Instagram – the home of our honest and witty photos.
TIPS FOR SHARING
Share Far and Wide, to your family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances by posting links on your Facebook profile and asking your friends to repost. If you share your post, others will too – so it’s important to have confidence in your own work. Post a status on your Facebook and include a link to your article on our site!
Don’t Be Afraid to tag people that you think might like your blog – or even those that you don’t know if they will! Twitter is especially good for this.
Like, and Like Again! The more you ‘like’ and comment on your own posts, the more they get promoted and seen on Facebook. If someone comments on a post with your link to your blog in it, make sure you comment back! This will keep your post active in your friend’s timelines and engage your audience.
Tweet, Tweet, Tweet: Get on Twitter and tweet everyone you can think of who might want to read your work. Tweet us too, by tagging us; our handle is @themotherloadhq and we will share the love for you on our account too.
Blah Blah Blah! Comment on your work on our site. This will encourage others to do the same, and it shows a bit of YOU behind the post itself, which readers love. Encourage them to share it using our fancy buttons too!
Get Sharing: Not just your own work, but your fellow MOLO authors – and they will no doubt do the same right back atchya.
Email: Do send an email to anyone else who might not check their social media all the time. If you give links to your Facebook or Twitter, it might jog them to go and share on there too!
THE STORE & DIRECTORY
Creating your own business takes guts! We know and understand how much work it takes to run a start-up, especially with a young family, and that’s why we want to actively support entrepreneurial parents. We have developed The Motherload® Store & Directory for exactly this purpose; we prioritise MOLO businesses over external enterprises, making this a very unique part of The Motherload®.
We are always looking for new, unique businesses that have been created by our fellow MOLOs and we will always prioritise advertising from MOLO businesses throughout our site.
WHAT’S THE OFFER?
When you list your businesses or choose to advertise with The Motherload®, you get more than just a listing. Dependent on the package or services you choose, we can offer:
- Bespoke packages, aimed to maximise traffic and click throughs to your site from our site;
- A dedicated page for our advertisers on our website, called The Motherload® Store & Directory;
- A spot for your business, with a link to your business page, a space for your logo and and overview of up to 3 products;
- Detailed, full length advertorial on our homepage, which is then added to our Features section for a subsequent 11 weeks.
- Your spot and subscriber discount featured in our subscriber weekly email;
- A dedicated area in our Community to network with other Store & Directory advertisers, to share tips and advice and contacts;
- Sponsorship opportunities at our Events;
- Brand to hand opportunities
- Affiliate marketing opportunity
- Our brand loyalty and implied recommendation of your business;
- The Motherload® Store & Directory badge for your website!
How do I know if my business is eligible?
To be a part of The Motherload® Store & Directory, you must meet this criteria:
- Be a reputable business, that is currently trading;
- Be able to demonstrate a high commitment to customer service and satisfaction;
- Be of good reputation;
- Positively promote The Motherload®;
- Be able to show that the business is owned by you and you have the right to advertise it and commit to a contract;
- Commit to a discount for The Motherload® subscribers;
- Show that your business is not affiliated to or be a part of a Multi-Level Marketing scheme (ie. Forever Living, Younique, Juice Plus, LifeTree World, Usborne Books, Neals Yard etc)
In addition, to be listed in The Motherload® Store, you must have a reach that is UK wide, and have an e-commercial website for your customers to use. We welcome applications for The Motherload® Directory from smaller, local business who meet the above criteria
ADVERTISERS RATE CARD
We are always looking for new, fresh businesses and advertisers for our site. Whether you are a Motherloader or not, we welcome your application! To discuss options and packages tailored to your budget, please email: