We're very lucky here at gurgle. Lucky because you, our users, make our lives very easy. Like all online communities we have a list of house rules that govern what you can and can't post on gurgle, but unlike other communities it's very rare that these rules are broken because we have the friendliest and most helpful pregnancy and parenting community on the web.

In most cases, when someone does break a rule it's because they weren't aware of it rather than a deliberate attempt to cause trouble. Therefore we thought it would be useful to use this week's How To blog to post a quick reminder about exactly what our rules are.

The rules are also listed in our terms and conditions but we thought it was also worth presenting them in a slightly easier to digest form here...

1. Thou must not libel anyone
We won't bore you with the precide legal definition of libel, but in short, don't say someone is gay unless they've publicly admitted they're gay, don't say someone is a paedophile unless they've been convicted in a court of law, don't say someone is a drug addict unless... you get the picture.

2. Thou must not be in contempt of court
Please do not discuss ongoing or pending criminal cases. Once a judge and jury have done their thing you can talk about it as much as you like, but until then please don't talk about criminal trials on the site because we could be held in contempt of court. The maximum punishment for that is two years in jail and we're sure you'll understand why we'd much rather not do that.

3. Thou must not abuse other users
One person's abuse is another person's constructive criticism; it's a fine line. As a general rule, criticising someone else's opinion is fine; we want to encourage healthy debate. Making that criticism personal is not... so 'you're talking rubbish' is OK, 'you're talking rubbish because you're an idiot' is not. In addition, please do not impersonate other users or start discussions that invite negative comment about a specific user.

4. Thou must not post offensive content
Again, the word offensive is fairly general, but the following will definitely not be tolerated:
- racism, sexism, homophobia (this is the 21st century after all)
- swearing (please don't try and get round the swear filters, we'll just add your new variations to the filter too)
- naked/sexual imagery (to be specific, pictures of babies' bottoms or breastfeeding are fine, pictures of babies' genitals, or naked breasts, are not)
- images of weapons, violence or drugs (yeah, unlikely we know, but just in case)

5. Thou must not advertise (not for free anyway)
I'm sure you'll agree that one of the best things about gurgle is that it is completely free to use. However, we here at gurgle do need to feed ourselves when the day's work is over and we do this is by selling advertising on the site. To protect this very important part of our business and ensure that we can continue to provide gurgle for free, we ask that users do not use gurgle to sell anything. If you are an advertiser and would like to pay to advertise on gurgle, please email ads@gurgle.com

And just in case that all sounds very negative, here are some things thou MUST do...

6. Thou must sign up for a free gurgle account to get personalised, week-by-week updates on your pregnancy and parenting journey.

7. Thou must take full advantage of the amazingly helpful gurgle community by posting as many questions as you like in our chat and answers section.

8. Thou must show the rest of the world how cute your baby is by uploading pictures to our image galleries.

9. Thou must share your parenting journey with us by starting a gurgle blog.

10. Thou must contact gurgle at info@gurgle.com, or via our Facebook and Twitter pages, if you have any problems using the site or any suggestions for improving it.

If you have any questions feel free to post a comment below or via the means outlined in commandment 10...