Connecting the Connected — Code of Conduct

Version: 1.0 · Effective date: 26 September 2026

Connecting the Connected (CTC) is an invitation-only network for creative professionals, operated by THE YARD (MANCHESTER) LTD. These rules protect members and their work. Invitation and approval are decisions about membership; they are not a guarantee of another member’s identity, qualifications, work or conduct.

What we expect

  1. Represent yourself honestly. Do not impersonate anyone or make misleading claims about your experience, qualifications, work or services.
  2. Treat other members with respect. You may disagree and criticise ideas or work. Do not harass, threaten, intimidate or abuse anyone, including through discriminatory abuse.
  3. Take no for an answer. Respect declined connection requests and requests to stop contact. Do not use information obtained through CTC to pursue another member who has made clear that they do not want contact, including outside CTC. Do not use another account or person to get around that boundary.
  4. Do not post, send or use CTC to facilitate illegal content or activity. This includes fraud, threats, stalking, unlawful hate, child sexual abuse material or grooming, non-consensual intimate images, cyberflashing, terrorism, and encouraging or assisting suicide or serious self-harm. These examples are not exhaustive.
  5. Respect other people’s information and work. Do not republish another member’s work, photographs, biography or contact information outside CTC without permission or another lawful entitlement. Do not scrape or collect member information in bulk.
  6. Do not send unsolicited sales pitches or spam. You may accurately describe your own work and availability on your profile, but do not use CTC to solicit members who have not asked to hear from you.
  7. Share only material you are entitled to share. Obtain any necessary permissions and give appropriate attribution. Naming the creator does not, by itself, give you permission to use their work. Respect copyright, privacy and other people’s rights.
  8. Respect private conversations. Do not share private messages outside their intended audience without permission, except where reasonably necessary to report harm or wrongdoing, obtain confidential advice or support, protect someone, exercise or defend legal rights, or comply with law. Share only what is needed. These exceptions also apply to rule 5.
  9. Do not retaliate against someone for raising a concern in good faith. A report that cannot be substantiated is not, for that reason alone, a false report. Do not knowingly fabricate evidence or make deliberately false reports.

How we respond

Gabriel Hamburger administers CTC on behalf of THE YARD (MANCHESTER) LTD and currently makes conduct decisions.

Depending on the seriousness, impact, available evidence and any relevant previous conduct, we may:

These are possible responses, not a sequence we must follow. We may remove content or end membership immediately where necessary, including for serious breaches or urgent safety concerns. Where appropriate, we will give you a chance to respond before deciding. We act swiftly to remove illegal content once we become aware of it.

We will explain decisions affecting your content or membership and how to ask for a review, subject to lawful restrictions and the need to protect people’s safety and personal information. We will correct mistakes and take appropriate remedial action. Deleted content may not be recoverable.

CTC has no temporary-suspension feature or automatic strikes system. Ending membership does not automatically delete that member’s existing content. We assess content removal separately. Statutory data rights continue after membership ends.

Contact and privacy limitations

There is no block or mute button. Removing a connection stops further private messages between you and that member but preserves the conversation history. It does not prevent a new connection request or contact elsewhere on CTC. A declined connection request cannot currently be reversed. You do not need to wait for another request before reporting unwanted contact.

Administrators cannot browse private messages through CTC’s normal administration tools. If a concern involves a message, tell us what happened and provide relevant text or context where safe and lawful. Messages are not end-to-end encrypted: authorised operational access to the underlying database and backups is technically possible. The Privacy Notice explains access to personal information.

Reports, complaints and reviews

Email contact@connectingtheconnected.com to report a concern, complain about how CTC handles safety or your information, or ask us to review a moderation or membership decision. You do not need an active account. Our accompanying Reporting and Complaints Procedure explains what to include, how we respond and how to request a review.

When these rules apply and change

These conduct rules apply from the effective date above. We will not describe earlier conduct as a breach of rules that were not then in force. We may nevertheless act on current safety risks and content that remains available, including illegal content.

We will notify members of material changes and their effective date in advance where practicable, explaining any urgent change when we make it. Where agreement to a change is legally required, we will seek it. Posting a revised date alone does not establish your acceptance.