Who produces and maintains this website?

The site is maintained in-house by St James Ethics Centre. It is currently entirely managed and produced by our Website and Publications Manager, Simone Walsh.

A new design and organisational structure for the site has just been launched. Read more the site credits for the new site design and learn more about the very exciting upgrade developments that are still to come.

Who can make use of this website and what are its aims?

Anyone can make use of it! The site is aimed at anyone interested in or wishing to know more about ethics and ethical decision-making in every day life. Learn more about St James Ethics Centre.

Our ethics services pages are aimed at businesses, other organisations and individuals seeking specific assistance from or engagement with the Ethics Centre, while our interactive areas, such as our Ethics Poll and Ethics Forum are for individuals to participate in. And everyone can learn something from our Ethics Articles!

The site has two key aims: one is to simply work towards creating a world where people engage in the ethical dimension in their daily lives; the other is to promote the specific work the Ethics Centre undertakes to realise its vision, as well as to encourage people to support this work.

How do I search this website?

For this interim version of the website, we recommend you use Google to search the site. To do this, simply go to Google and enter your search terms, followed by:

site:www.ethics.org.au

This will cause Google to show results for your specific search which are only within the Ethics Centre's domain name. For example,

ethics consulting site:www.ethics.org.au

... will produce search results within the www.ethics.org.au domain which relate to the search terms 'ethics consulting'.

Note that for the first few weeks after launching the newly organised version of our site in late-October 2006, Google may still show results for older pages that have been moved. Unfortunately we have no control over this.

If you are still unable to find what you are looking for, please check our sitemap, where you can do a word search in your browser (control-F or command-F).

You will be relieved to learn that there will be a very comprehensive search function in the full version of the website that is to come - learn more about the future development of the site.

However, for this interim version we have been unable to find a suitable, easy to implement and inexpensive temporary search measure that doesn't involve advertising being displayed to visitors over which we would have no control. As such, we decided not to take this path.

Do I need any particular software or hardware to use this website?

We have designed the site to function in as wide an array of circumstances as possible, with a focus on it looking great and working perfectly for the vast majority of users.

However, the site is designed to be viewed on a screen resolution of at least 800 x 600 pixels - although it should still work at smaller sizes. It is also designed to be viewed using a modern, standards compliant browser - the vast majority of which are freely available for anyone to download.

We strongly recommend Firefox as a browser for PC and either Safari or Firefox for Mac users. Get Firefox and make both yourself and good web designers happier, and your web browsing more secure - it's free and fast!

Alternatively search for other modern standards compliant browsers which suit your needs.

If you are having trouble viewing the site in other circumstances, we suggest turning off CSS and images if you can and viewing just the marked up HTML. You will need to consult the help files for your browser if you would like to do this.

Please contact us if you are experiencing unexplained problems, however, please note that we are not able to provide technical support for the set up of your own computer or software.

Javascript:

While the website will still basically function with Javascript disabled, there are a number of features which will not work - or will not work as well - and you may be unable to make use of our current Ethics Forum and other interactive areas.

Note that our fully upgraded site will make extensive use of modern Javascript, but with provisions for those who are unable to utilise it for some reason.

If you have no specific reason to be unable to use it, we highly recommend you leave Javascript turned on in your web browser (which it will be by default).

Audio:

There is a small amount of audio content on the site at this stage - we hope to add to it in future.

Wherever possible we have created MP3 audio files which can be played using a wide variety of audio software, including Quicktime, iTunes and Windows Media Player.

However, some files have been created in Real Media format - we have been unable to change this to date, but a free Real Player is available.

Flash:

There is now very little or no animated Flash content on the site, however, some older areas which have not been upgraded may still feature Flash content. This will require the free Flash player to view.

How do I report a broken link or another site problem?

Please contact us to let us know and we'll do our best to address the issue as soon as we can. Please be sure to include the address of the page where you saw the problem and a full description of the issue - just saying that a page isn't working may not help us.

We greatly value your input in helping us to maintain what is a very large site given our limited capacity.

However, please note that as the site is currently managed by a single staff member at the Ethics Centre we may not be able to respond to an issue immediately.

How often do you update this website ?

The short answer is, “As often as we can!”. It is largely dependent on the capacity of our staff for creating new content and adding it to the website.

However, our aim is to update certain areas of the site regularly, such as:

• Ethics News: as often as we come across suitable ethics-related news stories, ideally most business days.
• Ethical Dilemmas: we aim to put up a new fictional ethical dilemma for you to think about each month.
• Ethics Events: as often as we receive information about events we think should be on our website.
  We also remove past events.
• Ethics Polls: we aim to have a new poll question each month.
• Ethics Articles: there is usually a selection of new articles added from our newsletter, Living Ethics, each quarter, along with a new Ethics Cartoon. Other articles written by Ethics Centre staff are added as they become available.
• Ethics Forum: this is entirely up to our site visitors! Generally there is a great deal of lively discussion on our Ethics Forum every day of the year.

Note that when key staff responsible for producing the above content are on leave or otherwise engaged, these sections will need to be put on hold. We will let you know if this is the case.

Also note that regularly updated areas of the site - with the exception of user-added content areas like the Ethics Forum - are generally put on hold from late-December to mid-January due to festive season leave.

Is the website standards compliant and does it have accessibility features?

We're enthusiastic about web standards! Newly designed areas of this site validate as XHTML 1.0 Transitional and CSS.

However, for this interim version of the website there are still older areas of the site in place, such as our Ethics Forum. These are not standards compliant at this stage, however, they will be when the full version of the new site functionality is put in place and these areas will be entirely replaced.

Also, at this stage our accessibility features are fairly limited, other than the use of 'alt' image attributes, the separation of style from content and correct use of HTML mark up.

However, we have given serious thought to accessibility features for the full version of the new site and believe we have come up with a great solution which will greatly assist those in need of such features. Stay tuned!

Learn more about the future development of the website.

Why is the spelling on this website funny?

It's not! As an Australian-based organisation we use Australian English, which has a lot more in common with British English than US English. This is why we are a 'Centre' and not a 'Center', an 'organisation' and not an 'organization', for example.

If there are two or more spellings of a word in common use in Australia, we will more often than not lean towards the accepted British spelling.

Having said that, if you do see any clear spelling or typing errors on the website please let us know, including the full address of the page/s in question, so we can correct them. We greatly value your input in helping us to maintain what is a very large site given our limited capacity.

What is the future of this website?

The future is bright! For much of 2006 we have been working behind the scenes on a very major upgrade to the design, organisation and functionality of the website. The new design and organisation are largely now in place, as of late-October 2006, however, the functionality is still being completed.

The new functionality will include a new Ethics Forum, new interactive areas such as a wiki and blog, a full user accounts system integrated across the entire site, the ability for more staff at the Ethics Centre to edit and create content ... and much more.

Learn more about the future development of the website.

Are there any rules or legalities involved when I use your site?

Yes. As is standard on most websites we have copyright limitations in place, as well as a general legal disclaimer - read this legal and copyright information.

The interactive areas of the website (primarily the Ethics Forum at this stage) also have their own rules governing how these areas are to be utilised and what responsibilities users and the Centre have in regard to this content. This is to protect both the Ethics Centre and our site users.

Key to our participation rules are that you do not defame people and that you attack another user's arguments rather than attacking them on a personal level. Of course spam is not permitted and will be removed as quickly as possible - please report any spam to us asap.

Visit the Ethics Forum to view these rules - you will also be asked to agree to them and abide to them on an ongoing basis when you register to use the forum.

Members' Corner looks really out of date. What's going on?

For now Members' Corner is being kept 'alive' primarily so that members can update their membership details or renew their membership online. Members can also download full versions of recent issues of Living Ethics in this section.

However, when the full version of the website is implemented, Members' Corner will no longer exist as an independent area of the site.

Instead members of the Ethics Centre will be able to renew their membership and update their contact details in our new user accounts section. You will also have access to additional content, such as full versions of Living Ethics, across the website when you are logged in as a member, as well as access to a members only forum area.

Learn more about the future development of the website and stay tuned for exciting things!