Post by Admin on May 11, 2013 12:46:28 GMT
Depression Forums Rules
1. Users must register in order to participate.
2. Users must provide name, username, telephone number and maintain a valid email address.
3. It is our intent to protect the real-world identity and privacy of those who wish to maintain online anonymity.
4. We will prominently display guidelines for forum etiquette and violation enforcement procedures.
5. The official language of the main forum is English, in the interest of reaching the widest audience.
6. The Depression Forums provide an essential community for our members. For the good of all, we ask you to adopt our principles and to act within our guidelines.
The Depression Forums Guidelines
1. These forums are the property of the Depression Forums. The Depression Forums reserves the right to revision of guidelines at any time. This forum is provided as a free service to embody a community of members sharing their experiences of depression. This venue is our responsibility. Membership is a privilege, and we reserve the right to reject member posts or to cancel member privileges at any time at our sole discretion.
2. We do not endorse any particulars group name or affiliate our forums with any organization.
3. Though we may substitute certain words and phrases deemed universally offensive, we protect freedom of speech. These forums are regulated and if you find that disturbing, you may wish to reconsider participation. However, with the intention of maintaining civil dialogue in the forum, some violations of conduct, described in the section below, still apply and will be enforced.
4. The forum moderators may reject posts based on their interpretation of these guidelines and specifically the violations listed in the section below. The infringing member may be warned, suspended, subjected to post moderation or have his/her membership permanently revoked, depending on the severity of the violation(s), as deemed by their discretion. Repetitive violation or disregard of our warnings may result in stricter civil and legal actions. Membership will be revoked if private messages from moderators or administrators are ignored.
5. It is our intent to protect the real-world identity and privacy of those who wish to maintain online anonymity.
6. There are laws, both civil and criminal, against certain forms of speech, if so proven in court, such as libel, defamation of character, harassment and threats. We do not assess these matters of law. However, it is the prerogative of any member to pursue legal action. All members should realize there may be serious consequences for illegal behaviour.
7. Any ISP rules apply to all e-mail, chat and instant messaging even if they are in response to posts or discussions on our boards. All members are personally responsible for whatever they say in private communications such as e-mail, chat and instant messaging may find unwanted or offensive material actionable.
8. Members open links or URL's in posts at their own risk. However, links posted that are in violation of any of our rules may also be subject to censor.
9. Ignorance of these guidelines is not an acceptable excuse for violations.
The Depression Forums General Principles
Tolerance: Please respect the rights of others to hold beliefs and perspectives, which differ from yours. Our forum members are of many nationalities, ages, and cultures. Healthy, vigorous debate will further our goals, but only when guided by the tolerance that springs from mutual embrace of mission.
Intellectual Freedom: Embrace diversity of practice. It is impossible to understand an action without first understanding the actor and their environment. Know that varied environments call for varied response. Your way may not be the best way.
Freedom of Speech: We resist censorship in favour of free speech. Within our forums, we support the broadest range of perspectives and expression, for it is the unification of diversity to cause that gives strength to our community. We are committed to equal opportunity. Influence and responsibility here are inseparable, and both spring solely from a demonstrated commitment to furthering the topics discussed in our forums. Bear in mind, however, that some language and conduct is still considered inappropriate.
Responsible Behaviour: Your attendance here carries a responsibility. Ours is a mission of mind and perspective, and consequently, attention is our most precious resource. Do not waste what attention you may attract, nor seek to attract it with wasteful actions. Remember that personal worldview is a most powerful motivator; never treat another's lightly.
The Depression Forums Violations (Don'ts)
1. No Advertising: No advertising or links to advertising or "Spam" is permitted (including signatures, member titles, images). Advertising, defined as the buying, selling or trading of any commercial or personal product or service, or the solicitation of money, such as for investments, charities, or private gatherings.
Do not post links for the purpose of selling, soliciting or promoting by someone that has ownership or other "vested interest" to the web site involved, including efforts to promote other online forums, blogs, or web sites by web site owners. This includes posting messages for the sole purpose of promoting personal agendas that are not appropriate in the opinion of forum moderators. We do not allow links to other blogs or forums in posts anywhere on the forum.
A link to your personal page is allowed in your profile as your homepage. Commercial links are not allowed as your homepage. Links must be appropriate and abide by the forum rules or they will be removed.
Posts and links about fundraising (including non profit fundraisers) are NOT permitted unless permission is granted by Admin. Please do not post casting calls for Radio or TV appearances without the permission of Admin. Please do not post asking for information for research, surveys, or school projects without the permission of Admin.
Links to informational, inspirational, and educational sites not related to products or services are permitted when they are posted by someone without any "vested interest" AND whose purpose is NOT to solicit, advertise, promote, fund raise, etc. This includes links to outside agendas that are outside the scope of our main purpose, which is support for depression of members, friends and family members.
Links, broken links, counters or trackers are not allowed in signatures, member titles, avatar images, profile picture, or any other image. Do not post images with scripts or codes linked from another site (clickable images). All links that violate forum rules will be removed without notice. Permission may be granted by Admin and dependent on what the link is. If it is for a personal blog, for eample, or personal Facebook page etc this will usually be allowed.
2. Outside Agendas: No posts of an overtly political or religious nature OR posts promoting advocacy of particular personal, medical, legal, religious, political, or non-profit causes. The forums are intended for offering mutual personal support, for family and friends. This is our primary purpose. Debating controversial subjects should be taken elsewhere. Limited references are allowed, but the forums should not be used to convert others. Do not post content or links or materials to and from sites that flame someone's person, religious beliefs, race, national background, sexual orientation, or medical support.
3. Breaching of privacy: Solicitation of names and addresses or other personal information for commercial purposes or, in the case of minors, for any purpose. Revealing personal information, including e-mail addresses, about other members that would identify them in the real world and which they have not otherwise made public online. This includes posting the contents of emails, private messages, private phone conversations, private letters, and/or any other private information that has not been shared on the forums by the member/non-member personally.
Do not post offline personal contact information (ie. your home address, phone numbers, email address etc.) and do not ask for personal information from others. Sections 1 -4 are private to the member and Admin. Use of full names (your first and last name) is allowed but strongly discouraged. This is to protect your security and identity.
4. No Flaming: Posting of any content with the intention of disrupting the forum or inflaming members-be it on someone's person, religious beliefs, race, national background, sexual orientation, or medical program. This includes flaming, flame baiting, registration of multiple accounts or impersonation of another member. Do not Harass, threaten, embarrass or cause distress or discomfort upon another Online Forum participant. This includes flaming on our forums or other public forums.
No posts that attack, insult, "flame", defame, or abuse members or non-members. Respect other members of the community and don’t belittle, make fun of, or insult another member or non-member. Decisions about health and recovery are highly personal, individual choices. "Flaming" and insults, however, will not be tolerated. Agree to disagree.
It is also our policy not to allow threads that are purely to announce that you are unhappy here and "leaving the site'" or to post threads discussing why someone left or was banned. Such posts often detract from our purpose of providing support. Posts of this nature may be removed and continued posting of this nature could jeopardize your membership. If you wish to “leave” or just take a break from the site you are welcome to notify your friends via the Private Message feature.
Ignore bothersome members. If there is someone on the forum that bothers you can put them on your Ignore list via your profile and don't read their posts.
5. Flooding: Any action apparently intended to consume board space or to hamper other member postings, including the posting of essentially identical threads into different forums or identical replies into different threads. This is called cross posting and is not allowed. Duplicate threads and posts will be removed without notice.
6. No Posts encrypted to prevent other members from reading them.
7. No Materials that violate the law such as copyright infringements.
8. No posts seeking to circumvent these guidelines.
9. If it shouldn't be viewed by minors, then it shouldn’t be posted to the forums. This is a public, family-friendly forum. In addition, if something would not be considered “work safe” (to a boss or co-worker), then it shouldn’t be posted.
10. Medical Advice: No Posts giving medical advice, medication advice, or psychiatric advice. Do not use the forum to give or ask for professional medical or psychiatric advice. If you are a medical professional, please remember the forums are for peer support only and not to be used for distributing professional medical advice and/or using the forum to represent your professional services. Medical and Psychiatric advice includes giving a diagnosis, treatment plan, medication advice and dosage suggestions, over the counter and natural home remedies that should be approved by medical professionals. Please consult with your physician.
12. Do not disrespect forum leaders or moderators. Be respectful in the forums and any private communications. These members are volunteers that donate many, many hours of their own time to help in the forums. Violations of this rule will not be tolerated.
If you see a problem report it to us immediately and let us review the problem and take the appropriate actions.
If you feel that a decision has been made arbitrarily you may contact an Administrator privately for clarification. It is against the forum rules to ignore private messages from Forum leaders or Administrators. Publicly denouncing the actions of one of our volunteers can lead to having your membership permanently revoked.
13. ***Please do NOT post suicide notes, or anything which could sound like you might kill or seriously harm yourself!
This can be incredibly damaging to members and guests ... and we are *not* trained in counselling to deal with such things.
If you post such a note it will be deleted from the forum.
If you DO feel suicidal, please, please contact a real life counsellor or support helpline.
Please visit a hospital emergency room for immediate assistance.***
***Please be aware that any posts that contain serious threats of suicide or serious threats to harm another person may be reported to the proper authorities.***
14. Members are responsible for their own actions, what they post and who they share their information with, here and outside of the Depression Forums. They are reminded that anyone can read here, people don't have to join the Depression Forums in order to read what is written. However some boards are private to members only. Only under rare circumstances will Administrators here edit what has been written as it is not fair to other members who have taken the time and thought to respond and for the smooth continuity of running these forums.
General Posting Tips
Make sure you are posting in the correct forum. If you're not sure where to post, please introduce yourself on the newcomers forum and ask for directions..
Please don't write all in UPPERCASE - Please write using uppercase and lowercase letters. Topic titles and whole messages that are all in UPPERCASE are considered to be the written version of SHOUTING, and are harder to read than normally-written text.
Please break up your posts with paragraphs. Typing a 400 word run-on sentence is very difficult to read. Your posts are important and members will likely skip over what you have to say if your posts are hard to read.
Please don't post private information - Use caution when posting your phone number, address, photo and other personal information. These forums are read by tens of thousands of people around the world.
Remember that it's hard to interpret the meaning of posts correctly when all you have is the written word without voice tones and facial expressions. If something offends you it's a good idea to give yourself 30 minutes to calm down before replying.
If you feel your message has been unreasonably deleted, or if you wish to complain about a post that you find offensive then please get in touch with the moderators through a private message. Don't try to handle the situation yourself. It often makes the situation worse.
1. Users must register in order to participate.
2. Users must provide name, username, telephone number and maintain a valid email address.
3. It is our intent to protect the real-world identity and privacy of those who wish to maintain online anonymity.
4. We will prominently display guidelines for forum etiquette and violation enforcement procedures.
5. The official language of the main forum is English, in the interest of reaching the widest audience.
6. The Depression Forums provide an essential community for our members. For the good of all, we ask you to adopt our principles and to act within our guidelines.
The Depression Forums Guidelines
1. These forums are the property of the Depression Forums. The Depression Forums reserves the right to revision of guidelines at any time. This forum is provided as a free service to embody a community of members sharing their experiences of depression. This venue is our responsibility. Membership is a privilege, and we reserve the right to reject member posts or to cancel member privileges at any time at our sole discretion.
2. We do not endorse any particulars group name or affiliate our forums with any organization.
3. Though we may substitute certain words and phrases deemed universally offensive, we protect freedom of speech. These forums are regulated and if you find that disturbing, you may wish to reconsider participation. However, with the intention of maintaining civil dialogue in the forum, some violations of conduct, described in the section below, still apply and will be enforced.
4. The forum moderators may reject posts based on their interpretation of these guidelines and specifically the violations listed in the section below. The infringing member may be warned, suspended, subjected to post moderation or have his/her membership permanently revoked, depending on the severity of the violation(s), as deemed by their discretion. Repetitive violation or disregard of our warnings may result in stricter civil and legal actions. Membership will be revoked if private messages from moderators or administrators are ignored.
5. It is our intent to protect the real-world identity and privacy of those who wish to maintain online anonymity.
6. There are laws, both civil and criminal, against certain forms of speech, if so proven in court, such as libel, defamation of character, harassment and threats. We do not assess these matters of law. However, it is the prerogative of any member to pursue legal action. All members should realize there may be serious consequences for illegal behaviour.
7. Any ISP rules apply to all e-mail, chat and instant messaging even if they are in response to posts or discussions on our boards. All members are personally responsible for whatever they say in private communications such as e-mail, chat and instant messaging may find unwanted or offensive material actionable.
8. Members open links or URL's in posts at their own risk. However, links posted that are in violation of any of our rules may also be subject to censor.
9. Ignorance of these guidelines is not an acceptable excuse for violations.
The Depression Forums General Principles
Tolerance: Please respect the rights of others to hold beliefs and perspectives, which differ from yours. Our forum members are of many nationalities, ages, and cultures. Healthy, vigorous debate will further our goals, but only when guided by the tolerance that springs from mutual embrace of mission.
Intellectual Freedom: Embrace diversity of practice. It is impossible to understand an action without first understanding the actor and their environment. Know that varied environments call for varied response. Your way may not be the best way.
Freedom of Speech: We resist censorship in favour of free speech. Within our forums, we support the broadest range of perspectives and expression, for it is the unification of diversity to cause that gives strength to our community. We are committed to equal opportunity. Influence and responsibility here are inseparable, and both spring solely from a demonstrated commitment to furthering the topics discussed in our forums. Bear in mind, however, that some language and conduct is still considered inappropriate.
Responsible Behaviour: Your attendance here carries a responsibility. Ours is a mission of mind and perspective, and consequently, attention is our most precious resource. Do not waste what attention you may attract, nor seek to attract it with wasteful actions. Remember that personal worldview is a most powerful motivator; never treat another's lightly.
The Depression Forums Violations (Don'ts)
1. No Advertising: No advertising or links to advertising or "Spam" is permitted (including signatures, member titles, images). Advertising, defined as the buying, selling or trading of any commercial or personal product or service, or the solicitation of money, such as for investments, charities, or private gatherings.
Do not post links for the purpose of selling, soliciting or promoting by someone that has ownership or other "vested interest" to the web site involved, including efforts to promote other online forums, blogs, or web sites by web site owners. This includes posting messages for the sole purpose of promoting personal agendas that are not appropriate in the opinion of forum moderators. We do not allow links to other blogs or forums in posts anywhere on the forum.
A link to your personal page is allowed in your profile as your homepage. Commercial links are not allowed as your homepage. Links must be appropriate and abide by the forum rules or they will be removed.
Posts and links about fundraising (including non profit fundraisers) are NOT permitted unless permission is granted by Admin. Please do not post casting calls for Radio or TV appearances without the permission of Admin. Please do not post asking for information for research, surveys, or school projects without the permission of Admin.
Links to informational, inspirational, and educational sites not related to products or services are permitted when they are posted by someone without any "vested interest" AND whose purpose is NOT to solicit, advertise, promote, fund raise, etc. This includes links to outside agendas that are outside the scope of our main purpose, which is support for depression of members, friends and family members.
Links, broken links, counters or trackers are not allowed in signatures, member titles, avatar images, profile picture, or any other image. Do not post images with scripts or codes linked from another site (clickable images). All links that violate forum rules will be removed without notice. Permission may be granted by Admin and dependent on what the link is. If it is for a personal blog, for eample, or personal Facebook page etc this will usually be allowed.
2. Outside Agendas: No posts of an overtly political or religious nature OR posts promoting advocacy of particular personal, medical, legal, religious, political, or non-profit causes. The forums are intended for offering mutual personal support, for family and friends. This is our primary purpose. Debating controversial subjects should be taken elsewhere. Limited references are allowed, but the forums should not be used to convert others. Do not post content or links or materials to and from sites that flame someone's person, religious beliefs, race, national background, sexual orientation, or medical support.
3. Breaching of privacy: Solicitation of names and addresses or other personal information for commercial purposes or, in the case of minors, for any purpose. Revealing personal information, including e-mail addresses, about other members that would identify them in the real world and which they have not otherwise made public online. This includes posting the contents of emails, private messages, private phone conversations, private letters, and/or any other private information that has not been shared on the forums by the member/non-member personally.
Do not post offline personal contact information (ie. your home address, phone numbers, email address etc.) and do not ask for personal information from others. Sections 1 -4 are private to the member and Admin. Use of full names (your first and last name) is allowed but strongly discouraged. This is to protect your security and identity.
4. No Flaming: Posting of any content with the intention of disrupting the forum or inflaming members-be it on someone's person, religious beliefs, race, national background, sexual orientation, or medical program. This includes flaming, flame baiting, registration of multiple accounts or impersonation of another member. Do not Harass, threaten, embarrass or cause distress or discomfort upon another Online Forum participant. This includes flaming on our forums or other public forums.
No posts that attack, insult, "flame", defame, or abuse members or non-members. Respect other members of the community and don’t belittle, make fun of, or insult another member or non-member. Decisions about health and recovery are highly personal, individual choices. "Flaming" and insults, however, will not be tolerated. Agree to disagree.
It is also our policy not to allow threads that are purely to announce that you are unhappy here and "leaving the site'" or to post threads discussing why someone left or was banned. Such posts often detract from our purpose of providing support. Posts of this nature may be removed and continued posting of this nature could jeopardize your membership. If you wish to “leave” or just take a break from the site you are welcome to notify your friends via the Private Message feature.
Ignore bothersome members. If there is someone on the forum that bothers you can put them on your Ignore list via your profile and don't read their posts.
5. Flooding: Any action apparently intended to consume board space or to hamper other member postings, including the posting of essentially identical threads into different forums or identical replies into different threads. This is called cross posting and is not allowed. Duplicate threads and posts will be removed without notice.
6. No Posts encrypted to prevent other members from reading them.
7. No Materials that violate the law such as copyright infringements.
8. No posts seeking to circumvent these guidelines.
9. If it shouldn't be viewed by minors, then it shouldn’t be posted to the forums. This is a public, family-friendly forum. In addition, if something would not be considered “work safe” (to a boss or co-worker), then it shouldn’t be posted.
10. Medical Advice: No Posts giving medical advice, medication advice, or psychiatric advice. Do not use the forum to give or ask for professional medical or psychiatric advice. If you are a medical professional, please remember the forums are for peer support only and not to be used for distributing professional medical advice and/or using the forum to represent your professional services. Medical and Psychiatric advice includes giving a diagnosis, treatment plan, medication advice and dosage suggestions, over the counter and natural home remedies that should be approved by medical professionals. Please consult with your physician.
12. Do not disrespect forum leaders or moderators. Be respectful in the forums and any private communications. These members are volunteers that donate many, many hours of their own time to help in the forums. Violations of this rule will not be tolerated.
If you see a problem report it to us immediately and let us review the problem and take the appropriate actions.
If you feel that a decision has been made arbitrarily you may contact an Administrator privately for clarification. It is against the forum rules to ignore private messages from Forum leaders or Administrators. Publicly denouncing the actions of one of our volunteers can lead to having your membership permanently revoked.
13. ***Please do NOT post suicide notes, or anything which could sound like you might kill or seriously harm yourself!
This can be incredibly damaging to members and guests ... and we are *not* trained in counselling to deal with such things.
If you post such a note it will be deleted from the forum.
If you DO feel suicidal, please, please contact a real life counsellor or support helpline.
Please visit a hospital emergency room for immediate assistance.***
***Please be aware that any posts that contain serious threats of suicide or serious threats to harm another person may be reported to the proper authorities.***
14. Members are responsible for their own actions, what they post and who they share their information with, here and outside of the Depression Forums. They are reminded that anyone can read here, people don't have to join the Depression Forums in order to read what is written. However some boards are private to members only. Only under rare circumstances will Administrators here edit what has been written as it is not fair to other members who have taken the time and thought to respond and for the smooth continuity of running these forums.
General Posting Tips
Make sure you are posting in the correct forum. If you're not sure where to post, please introduce yourself on the newcomers forum and ask for directions..
Please don't write all in UPPERCASE - Please write using uppercase and lowercase letters. Topic titles and whole messages that are all in UPPERCASE are considered to be the written version of SHOUTING, and are harder to read than normally-written text.
Please break up your posts with paragraphs. Typing a 400 word run-on sentence is very difficult to read. Your posts are important and members will likely skip over what you have to say if your posts are hard to read.
Please don't post private information - Use caution when posting your phone number, address, photo and other personal information. These forums are read by tens of thousands of people around the world.
Remember that it's hard to interpret the meaning of posts correctly when all you have is the written word without voice tones and facial expressions. If something offends you it's a good idea to give yourself 30 minutes to calm down before replying.
If you feel your message has been unreasonably deleted, or if you wish to complain about a post that you find offensive then please get in touch with the moderators through a private message. Don't try to handle the situation yourself. It often makes the situation worse.
