Official Posting Guidelines

[Joan]

Official Posting Guidelines:

1. WHY THIS BOARD IS HERE: There are several Internet forums for people having flyers. This message board is archived. New posters can look at topics and threads that have been designed to stay, and that way they get up to speed pretty fast. Because these posts have been designed to stay, please compose your message carefully. Make sure it is worth reading six months from now. Please do your best to keep topics on track and to not hijack threads. Messages are moderated, but only to ensure the following guidelines. In the event that a thread is hijacked, an attempt will be made to redirect the thread back to it's original topic. If this attempt is unsuccessful, the thread will then be locked and no further posting will be allowed.

2. TOPICS OF DISCUSSION: Topics must relate to flyers in some way. The board has been divided up into sub-boards. Do your best to place your post into the appropriate category. Off topic posts, on the main boards, are distracting. The "All the rest" section has been established for your off-topic discussion needs. Feel free to discuss most anything there. Also, there is a section for paid NFSA members only. Members can discuss any off topic subjects (or on topic subjects, for that matter) there that you are uncomfortable with discussing on the more public “All the rest” board.

3. CONFIDENTIALITY: Confidentiality is important to everyone. There is a strong sense of caring and trust here. You, though, are responsible for what you say here. Reveal only those things you feel safe about revealing. We cannot promise that the things you say here are unconditionally confidential, because we get hundreds of visitors.

4. GIVING ADVICE: Please feel free to share your experiences, opinions, thoughts, and feelings, how you cope/have coped with various things—that’s the purpose of this forum! However, please be cautious about making blanket statements like “You *should* do this or that,” especially when you don’t know the person well. Although it may not seem so on the surface, the person’s situation may be different from yours, or the other person may need to come to his/her own conclusion in his or her own time frame. This is especially true in the Emergency Help Needed section. An Emerencey Response Team is notified when emergencies are posted. The Team is composed of rehabbers, vets and members with expertise in working with ill & injured flyers. If you disagree with the Teams advice, please contact the team member about your concern. Conflicting advice is unsettling for a HOF in an emergency situation.

5. FLAMING: Flaming is a hostile and insulting post by Internet users. Flaming usually occurs in the social context of a discussion board or even through e-mail. An Internet Flamer typically generates a flame response to other's posts or users posting on a site, and such a response is usually not constructive, does not clarify a discussion, and does not persuade others. A flamer is simply an individual who believes he or she carries the only valid opinion. This leads him or her to personally attack those who disagree. Flames are angry or insulting messages transmitted by people who have strong feelings about a subject.

Our group has a warm and caring atmosphere, one which we enthusiastically support and care about maintaining. Flames (nasty or sarcastic responses), while certainly a part of Internet culture, are contrary to what we want to preserve and encourage on this board, so flames are not allowed. If someone breaks this rule, please do not flame them back. This will only make the situation worse. Instead, please send the entire post to the moderator or administrator, and we will take care of it. On the other hand, disagree all you want with the person's ideas, but if you disagree with something someone says, disagree about the issue; please don't be disagreeable to the person. Remember, your posts may be read by hundreds of people. Please be cautious about people's feelings and they will be about yours.

Flaming will not be tolerated on the NFSA MessageBoard and will be immediately deleted and if it contimues, the individual will be banned from the Board. Our goal is to provide information in a flame free enviroment. If you disagree with someone's post, do so respectfully.

6. BEING JUDGMENTAL: We are all at different stages in flyer care; we all have different situations, and we all have different considerations, life experiences, and backgrounds. Please do not be judgmental about how another person presents their issues; if you do, you will make it harder for others to post for fear of being judged. It takes some people a lot of courage to speak up, so be gentle, and people will be gentle with you. Pouncing on someone who is ignorant of some things that are second nature to you, will not help them to learn. Ignorance can be cured with education, but if the learner feels attacked, they will become reactive to the attack or just shut down.

7. ACCURACY OF ADVICE: Please remember that each person has his or her own opinions. Some people may not have the expertise to answer questions or give feedback. The members of these boards are not professionals, and if they are, they are not acting here in a professional capacity. Please take the source into consideration, and remember that you are always responsible for your own flyer's life! If innacutate information is posted, the moderators will attempt to correct it. There is a lot of conflicting data on the Internet about flyers and their care. We do not want to leave innacurate information unchallenged as it is reflective upon the NFSA.

8. SWEARING: Since we have no control over who views these boards, please be sensible about what you post. This is a family friendly board. We are counting on your own good judgment and will intervene only if we have to.

9. OFF BOARD MAIL TO MODERATORS: The staff here gets a lot of private messages, from a lot of different people, due simply to the fact that we are staff members. We get asked many questions, many good questions, and we have no problem answering those questions. However, when a conversation like that gets started, via private message, the rest of the community is missing out on some really good dialog and some really useful information. Not to mention the fact that someone else in the community may have a different, more efficient, or better point of view than the staff member who was asked the original private question. Sometimes it deprives the community of what should be useful public knowledge/discussion. Everyone is encouraged to post their questions, problems, issues, successes and failures publicly.