Guidelines and Etiquette For Our Forum

[Love_Me]

**Guidelines and Etiquette For Our Forum**

This message board is here for everyone's enjoyment. Please behave as if you are a guest in a friend's home, and imagine that you are speaking face-to-face with those with whom you interact. The forum is run by the site administrators, and they are in charge. A forum is not democracy. Free speech is not an absolute right on message boards; there are practical limitations.

Respect the moderators and site administrators. Message boards employ moderators to help enforce the rules and keep things running smoothly. While you may not agree with them, they are helpful for the general benefit of the community, and should be afforded respect and courtesy. If you have a problem with a moderator or an administrator, please contact one of them via private message.

The goal of our message board is to create an open forum where all members are welcome to post their perspectives. With this in mind, we encourage discussion and we respect differences; at the same time, we discourage outright attacks, name calling and other such acts and reserve the right to lock threads and if necessary, ban users that create a hostile environment.

Review the rules of the forum and abide by them. If you don’t like the rules, search out another board that is more in line with what you feel is appropriate or are willing to abide by. It is the right of the site administrators to dictate the terms of use. If you don’t like them, rather than ruin the experience for everyone, find another forum or start up your own. Most rules are common sense and in place to ensure an enjoyable constructive experience for all members.

If you are new to the forum, “lurk” for awhile to get a feel for the community and personalities of the regulars before you post. You will be participating in an established community and don’t want to just bust in and blurt out your opinions, demands or questions before getting a good idea for the feel of the group.

Always review your comment before you click send/post. Make sure it expresses the appropriate tone you want to relay. If you are joking, add a ;-). Use emoticons to reflect the seriousness or lack thereof of your comments. We have many emoticons for you to choose from. “I didn’t mean it that way…” doesn’t apply online – people will take your words at their face value! If you type it, you’d better mean it and be willing to accept the repercussions that can possibly ensue. Review your comment for spelling and grammar.

Please remember that there will always be differences of opinion. Try to remain objective and not personalize issues. You can disagree with others by being firm and expressing your opinion with clarity without resorting to name calling, slurs or innuendos just to make your point. Posters that behave in that manner are generally those whose opinions are weak or not based in any truth or facts and are viewed as such by the community. Disagree with ideas, but avoid challenges that may be interpreted as a personal attack. Be open to be challenged or confronted on your ideas or prejudices.

Ask Before You Attack. In many cases, a seemingly offensive post is not meant the way it sounds due to the lapses in communication on the Internet. Before you dig in with both claws to provide a snappy or nasty comeback, consider asking the original poster to clarify what he or she meant. If it turns out that you were correct in your original interpretation, you can feel free to speak your mind; however, if you weren't correct, people will respect you for having an open mind.

If conversations get out of hand and others resort to personal insults or innuendo because of your comments, try not to take it personally – they don’t know you. When you feel you need to defend yourself, do so politely based on your opinion — not personal digs. Always take the high road and you will be respected by the other members of the forum.

Take personal issues off the forums. Internet forums and message boards are for public discussions which bear relevance to more than a few people. If you have a personal issue with someone else, take it off the forums. Problems of this nature are best discussed privately by using the private message feature.

Don’t fall for trolls. Trolls are those who will post rude or baiting comments just to get a rise out of everyone involved. Ignoring people who do this simply halts their efforts to disrupt the forum and get them the attention they seek. All members have the option to "foe" someone if they so choose. Please use this feature rather than respond. Move on to more constructive conversations.

Ignore Spamming. One of the great things about this forum is that there are very few instances of spamming. When it does happen, members should ignore whoever is creating the ruckus. Don't encourage spamming by drawing attention to it; instead, pretend it doesn't exist or notify a moderator so the offending post can be removed. Likewise, don't provide your own spam; keep self promotion to a forum section that allows it, if any.

Creating and using numerous accounts to pretend that posts made by the same person originated from different individuals will not be tolerated. We can detect sockpuppet activity and we will revoke access to all accounts involved.

[GuardianAngel]

Choose your words wisely. Here is an example of how to word your opinions according to the rules of the forum. Thanks to Amberish for providing this example.

Amberish wrote:


If I may and please forgive if perceived as overstepping, but using the word, "you" is also argumentative. The edited to be more appropriate statement would be,

Unkind comment.  Untrue.  She's a personal friend. And you anyone would be lucky to have her as a friend in your their life or even a person who is 1/2 as good of a soul as hers.