Forum Terms of Service

[Thistle]

This forum is hosted by an outfit called Bluehost. I have to abide by their Terms of Service, which means so does anyone else who wants to be a member of this forum. Their Terms of Service are located at http://www.bluehost.com/cgi/info/terms.html. I recommend that members read them and understand them. If anything in them is unclear, kindly send me a private message about it and I'll do my best to clear things up for you.

If a member posts anything, says anything in chat, or otherwise does anything on this forum that causes the website to violate the Bluehost Terms of Service, there is risk of the site getting shut down. Accordingly, I may be compelled to take certain steps, including but not limited to deleting posts, deleting lines of chat, locking threads, issuing warnings to the member either privately or publicly, suspending a member's account for an appropriate period of time, and closing and/or deleting a member's account permanently. So far nothing more has happened than the occasional deleted post and locked thread, and I'm asking the members here to help me keep it that way.

In addition to that, this forum has certain rules not covered by the Bluehost Terms of Service. A basic, initial set of rules is outlined below. Other rules may be added from time to time and you are required to check the Must Read section periodically for updates. NOT KNOWING THE RULES IS NOT AN EXCUSE. If any member violates any of the forum rules, the steps I might be forced to take are the same as outlined in the previous paragraph. Let's have a clean and safe forum for everyone.

• This site is for the CHRONICALLY suicidal. It is not intended for people in crisis. If someone is in crisis, there are a million better places in the world for them to go to get help. We are all amateurs here and millions of professionals worldwide are trained in assisting those who want to kill themselves but don't really want to die. Please keep that in mind and adjust your expectations of what you can get from this site accordingly.
  
  
• This forum is moderated. While you might be accustomed to an environment such as a usenet newsgroup, where anyone may post absolutely anything without consequences more serious than having someone else killfile them, things are different here. The reason for having a moderated forum at all is to create a safe and friendly environment for all members. (As many of you know, usenet newsgroups are often an unsafe environment.) Keeping this forum safe will always be the guiding principle behind everything I do.
  
  
• This forum is not a democracy. It is an absolute monarchy. I am in charge here and my decisions are final. You are free to disagree with me and state your case, but must do so respectfully and in a constructive manner. Do not call me names or tell me what a bad forum I'm running because it won't get you anywhere. What might get you somewhere is to tell me what you disagree with, why you disagree with it, and how you would do it differently. You might change my mind about something, but be prepared for the possibility that you won't. In almost all cases you should submit complaints about my running of the forum in a PRIVATE MESSAGE to me instead of airing your grievances publicly. If you have suggestions about how the forum may be improved or something like a technical issue you think other members might also be having, however, there is a subforum in the Self-Referential section that you can use to post about it.
  
  
• This forum also has assistant administrators and moderators in both the posting area and chat.  When either are fulfilling their official duties (see #1 above) they are speaking with my voice.  If you have a disagreement or issue with the way they have handled a certain situation, follow the procedures listed in #2 above.  Remember that they are also members who are chronically suicidal -- just like you. Almost all of their posts in forum are in their personal capacity and do not necessarily represent official forum policy or my position. Further, my assistant administrators and moderators are not professional counselors, and it is not their duty to advise members who announce their imminent desire to commit suicide.  There are other resources that imminent members may use should they need to speak with someone.  While my staff sincerely cares about the members of this forum -- they wouldn't be on staff otherwise -- it is damaging to their own mental health to be thrust into the role of crisis counselors simply because their names are in red.  Again, their duties are to help me provide a safe and friendly environment for all members.
  
  
• Some sections are viewable by guests who have not registered for the forum. Forum categories whose names are NOT followed by an asterisk are viewable only by registered members. You are not permitted to copy and paste any text / messages outside the forum. If it is discovered that you have done so, you will be subject to penalties. A deliberate, knowing violation of this rule may result in a permanent ban.
  
  
• Chat is not logged for member safety and privacy. You are not allowed to copy and paste chunks of chat anywhere, including in forum messages, either here or outside the forum. Anyone found to have done so may be permanently banned. There is one exception to this rule. If neither myself nor one of my moderators are present in chat and another member says or does something you find objectionable, you may copy the chunk of offending chat and paste it ONLY into a private message to me along with a statement of your complaint. This is necessary so that I can have first-hand evidence of what you're complaining about and can take appropriate action.
  
  
• Do Not Spam the Forum. If you have been permitted to register, then you have undergone certain screening procedures to determine that you are not a chronic spammer. Nevertheless, you are still not allowed to spam the forum. Do not post the same post or a similar version of it in more than one subforum without checking with me first and getting my express permission. Do not post advertisements or links without checking with me first and getting my express permission. You MAY post appropriate links in the Helpful References and Suicide in Media sections. Links posted must refer to publicly available materials, such as online news articles and YouTube videos. Do not copy and paste large chunks of copyrighted text unless you own the copyright; use a link instead. You may, however, copy and paste brief excerpts no longer than a single paragraph as long as you give proper attribution the way you should have been taught in school. If you have questions on how to properly cite references to quoted material, please ask.
  
  
• This is a support forum. This means that your behavior on here must be supportive. Do not call another member names. Do not insult another member or personally attack them. You are free to disagree with something they say as long as you stick narrowly to the subject you are disagreeing with and don't start an argument or flame war. Flame wars will be nipped in the bud through post deletion, thread locking, private or public warnings to members, and possible suspension of accounts or permanent banning. If a thread has been locked and you feel that you have not been given a chance to respond, don't start another thread to post your response. Send me your concerns in a private message and I'll advise you on what you can do.  Remember this guiding principle in personal interactions and you will be fine:  "Challenge the issue and not the person."
  
  
• Do not troll this forum. Trolls will be first warned, then suspended, and finally banned if they don't improve their behavior.
  
  
• You may not have more than one active member account on this forum. If you need to open a new account, private message me about it so that I can consider your request. If I permit you to open a new account I shall close your old one. Please note that you do NOT need to open a new account to change your display name. The name you log into the account with can be different from the name your posts show up under. You can't change the name you originally chose by yourself, but I can change it for you. If you wish to have this done private message me about it.
  
  
• Photos in the gallery cannot be copyrighted unless you own copyright. You may upload photos of yourself, any non-humans, and any inanimate objects, but in order to upload photos of other people you must first obtain their permission. No pornographic or obscene photos are permitted.
  
  
• Nothing you do on this forum is allowed to be inflammatory or to slur or discriminate against anyone on the basis of their race, color, creed, sexual preference, gender identity, profession, or any other personal category. To be safe, avoid making personal comments at all. If you have a potentially offensive joke you want to post in Happy Halls, or a link to potentially offensive material, check with me first in a private message.
  
  
• The Bluehost Terms of Service prohibit profanity. Because I do not screen members on the basis of their age, I am technically supposed to prohibit profanity as well in order to avoid running afoul of U.S. broadcast regulations. In practice, however, I am pretty easy-going about profanity and almost every other member on this forum has been as well. These days you can find profanity in a prime-time television drama, so the standards of acceptable language in general society are much more loose than the official standards of the American government. If a member complains about explicit profanity, however, I have no choice but to edit your post and asterisk out part or all of the offending word. For sexual discussion, however, there is a Sexuality subforum, and all such discussion should be restricted to that subforum.
  
  
• Do not tell another member to go kill himself, advise him on how to kill himself, or tell him where he can find information on how to kill himself. Do not use this forum to solicit or form suicide pacts. Do not discuss suicide methods on this forum except to explain to another member why a particular suicide method is a bad idea, and even then do not explain it in such a way that you help improve their suicide method.
  
  
• If another member does something objectionable, send me a private message about it or use the Report Post function within the message box. Do not call the other member out publicly.
  
  
• As a catch-all, any time any of the above refers to the forum, that is to be taken to include both posted messages and chat.
  
  

Written by Thistle
Modified by Dragon