Version 1 | Last Revised 2025-02-25
1. Description
As part of its collaboration in teaching, research, and knowledge dissemination, the McMaster University Libraries (“MUL” or “Libraries”) offers access to its multisite WordPress service (herein referred to as MacBlog) for members of the McMaster University community to create and manage websites.
These terms of service (ToS) outline the relationship between the Libraries and the eligible individual who is granted administrative access to site (the “Site Owner”). This document is complemented by and reinforces the MacBlog help page and FAQs. Site Owners are strongly encouraged to review both documents regularly to understand roles, expectations, and operations.
2. Eligibility and Roles
A MacBlog website is available to employees of McMaster University (e.g., faculty, librarians, archivists, researchers, staff). Students and community partners can use MacBlog under the sponsorship of an employee Site Owner (see below). Final decisions on eligibility are subject to the discretion of MUL. MUL also reserves the right to decline to provision or host any given website.
Site Owner
The Site Owner of a MacBlog site is responsible for all content posted on it.
Your Participation
By becoming a Site Owner of a MacBlog site, you consent to abiding by these ToS. It will stand until and unless:
- It is modified by mutual agreement of MUL and the Site Owner.
- The MacBlog web publication system is discontinued by MUL.
3. The MacBlog Platform
The following subsections outline what is provided by MUL for each MacBlog Website.
3.1 Software
MacBlog is an MUL-managed instance of WordPress using the multisite feature.
3.2 Version
MUL will update WordPress and associated plugins regularly. Notice will be provided to Site Owners in advance of and following updates. In cases where an update leads to an incompatible theme or plugin, Site Owners will be required to remove the outdated theme or plugin, or select a different, compatible one.
3.3 Plugins
A wide array of plugins exist to extend the functionality of the site. Some plugins are made available by default for all Websites. Upon request from the Site Owner, MUL will assess any other desired plugin to determine whether it meets security and compatibility requirements. MUL reserves the right to refuse installation of, or uninstall (with notice, where possible) any plugin posing a security risk or causing technical or maintenance issues.
3.4 Themes
External and custom themes are permitted with the understanding that Site Owners are responsible for:
- Ensuring that they meet minimal accessibility requirements.
- Addressing any incompatibility issues that arise after WordPress upgrades.
3.5 Public Functionality
For all publicly hosted MacBlog sites, members of the public will be able to browse the site unless the Site Owner has password protected it. Public commenting will be available at the discretion of the Site Owner.
3.6 Client Functionality
Access is provided to Site Owners through the MacBlog site administrative interface. All work and customization for the site is performed through this interface.
3.7 Additional Services
In addition to the core platform, MUL will provide the following ancillary services:
- WordPress platform upgrades, maintenance, and system support.
- Pre- and post-upgrade notification to Site Owners
- Site recovery in case of catastrophic hardware or software failure and site rollbacks for extraordinary cases of user-caused non-recoverable data loss. While efforts will be made to recover as much content as possible, MUL does not guarantee full content recovery in all cases.
- MUL will support the Site Owner by conducting regular accessibility scans using the institution’s preferred scanning tool. Issues will be reported to the Site Owner to address.
- Client training and support:
- Upon request, MUL will provide an orientation training session for the Site Owner to become familiar with MacBlog website.
- MUL will also provide help documentation for Site Owners and other users to train in a self-directed manner.
Requests for additional support should be made via libweb@mcmaster.ca.
3.8 Exclusions
MUL cannot be held accountable for service interruptions or issues involving infrastructure or resources beyond its control. For such issues, MUL will advocate for and act on behalf of the Site Owner.
MUL reserves the right to change the provision of MacBlog service at any time and at its sole discretion. The software environment will be maintained for as long as MUL considers it to be a viable platform. Upgrade paths may involve significant changes to look-and-feel and functionality of the software, themes, and plugins. MUL will notify the Site Owner prior to any migrations or upgrades that will affect their site’s integrity.
4. Platform and Website Availability
The MacBlog platform is hosted by MUL. Availability may be interrupted for maintenance and other upgrades and is provided on an ‘as is’ and ‘as available’ basis only. The timing of this maintenance is at MUL’s discretion; however, Libraries employees will make a best effort to notify the Site Owner of any significant disruptions to MacBlog.
In the event of the outage, MUL will respond within the first 24 hours after the opening of business hours (9:00 – 17:00 ET, Monday – Friday, excluding holidays), and work to the best of its ability to restore the service as soon as possible.
5. Support Term, Activity Review, Decommissioning, Archiving
The MacBlog Platform is not a permanent preservation system; as such, it is expected that Websites will have a finite lifespan. Prior to Website creation, the MUL and the Site Owner will agree on an initial support term (default of 2 years). At the end of the initial term and every year thereafter, account activity will be monitored for the Website. If no activity has been detected for the past year or the Site Owner is no longer eligible, MUL will try to contact the Site Owner to determine whether to continue hosting the Website. If no response is received after the agreed upon period of retention has elapsed, the site will be taken offline.
At any time, the Site Owner may request MUL to take their website offline.
When a website is taken offline, its Site Owner may request MUL to create and share with them an archived version of the Website. At its discretion and to the best of its ability, MUL will attempt to create and share the website archive with the Site Owner in either WARC or ZIP formats.
6. Site Owner Responsibilities
- It is the responsibility of the Site Owner to provide MUL with an up-to-date email address. Site Owners must notify MUL of any contact information changes by contacting libweb@mcmaster.ca.
- The Site Owner acknowledges that the MacBlog platform is not a true preservation system. While the MUL will make regular backups of systems, data loss is possible. As such, it is the responsibility of the Site Owner to ensure that materials comprising items in MacBlog are saved and backed up elsewhere.
- As a user of the Service, you must comply with all federal, provincial, and other applicable laws; all McMaster University rules and policies, including the Information Security Policy, Policy Statement on Research Involving Human Participants, Research Integrity Policy and the Policy for the Handling of Personal Information (For more information on Governing Council policies, see: https://secretariat.mcmaster.ca/university-policies-procedures-guidelines/); and all applicable contracts and licenses. The creation of sites may involve incorporating original works of third parties (e.g., literature, photographs, music, software, film, and video works) covered by copyright laws. Site Owners and other users of MacBlog are responsible for understanding the copyright status of the materials on the site and obtaining all permissions that may be necessary to incorporate works of third parties (For more information on copyright, see: https://copyright.mcmaster.ca/ and the MUL Omeka S Copyright Guidance Document).
- The Site Owner has administrative access to the account and is responsible for ensuring that all site users with editing rights follow the requirements and guidelines of the Platform and all content posted on their Website through the Service.
- It is the responsibility of the Site Owner to become familiar with the functionality and software environment of MacBlog to provide support for their users, such as a research group, community partners, or students. Refer to the help documentation for more guidance.
- MacBlog sites will be available on the internet and, therefore, can be indexed and searched unless the site’s Site Owner disables this feature (i.e., sets the website to ‘Private’). Each site must display a) a method of contacting the Site Owner; and b) this disclaimer or a link to this disclaimer:
“These pages do not in any way constitute official McMaster University content. The views and opinions expressed herein are strictly those of the authors. The contents have not been reviewed or approved by McMaster University. McMaster University makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the site’s operation or the information, content or materials included on this site. Questions or concerns about content should be directed to the site’s Site Owner.” - The Site Owner is responsible for ensuring that their site meets accessibility standards, as outlined in the McMaster Accessibility Hub. MUL will support the Site Owner by conducting regular accessibility scans using the institution’s preferred scanning tool. Issues will be reported to the Site Owner to address.
7. Inappropriate content and use
Although MUL does not routinely pre-screen, monitor, or regularly review content, it reserves the right to remove, at any time, at its sole discretion, any content that it considers to violate this MoU or the terms of any other campus user agreements that may govern use of the campus networks, or that it deems in violation of McMaster University policies or local, provincial, or federal law. Should MUL receive reports regarding perceived inappropriate content, the site’s Site Owner will be contacted to initially discuss the issue. In exceptional cases, where the content and/or use is obviously unacceptable, MUL will immediately remove the content prior to contacting the Site Owner. Unacceptable content of this sort also may result in account suspension, and in extreme cases, may result in disciplinary proceedings against the Site Owner and/or other users of MacBlog as appropriate. Reports regarding inappropriate site content may be sent to libweb@mcmaster.ca.
8. About this document
This document has been adapted from Terms of Service documents from McMaster University (September 2021), University of Toronto Mississauga Library (August 2019) and York University Libraries (June 2018), the University of Guelph’s Research & Scholarship Service Level Agreement (no date), New York University’s Terms of Web Hosting Pilot Service document, December 2017, University of Ottawa’s Terms of Service document, May 2018, and York University’s Terms of Service document, June 2018.
Last updated February 2025 by McMaster University Libraries.