[Donna]

SOS is for helping and encouraging one another. Please keep these rules in mind.

1. Please be respectful, tolerate and support each other. Stages of Strength’s goal is to help others. Do not initiate arguments or tension. This will only cause the triggering of other members and make this site less professional.

2. Please do not use racist slurs, or prejudiced comments. This includes religious beliefs, geographical location, and political beliefs.

3. Keep all replies to a message on topic; ANY off topic messages will be deleted. (This includes witticisms, and smart remarks.) Feel free to create witty topics in the correct area. Make your posts count…. not one or two word comments. This does not add to the quality of a discussion. Posts should be informational in content.

4. Please "Preview Post" before submitting a thread. You may be surprised by how many errors you catch, improving readability for all of us.

5. Spamming is off-limits. Spamming is either advertising for something (like a get rich quick scheme) or anything that looks like a chain mail. (i.e. Here's an angel to brighten your day, forward this to five people or bad things will happen). Almost all virus warnings, cookie recipes, and stories about children with cancer that you receive on the net are not true and qualify as spam. Don't post them here and please don’t send them to other SOS Members.

• Regarding Spam - Spamming forums, mass PMing or emailing multiple members of this forum unsolicited and with the same message is considered abuse of the site and can result in posting rights being removed.

• Spidering, or gathering email addresses from our systems, or using our site's email system, for the purposes of sending unsolicited or promotional email (SPAM, etc.) is a violation.

6. Sexual innuendo and profanity. Keep the site PG-13, kids may visit this site. Anyone may visit this site, I visit the site, good Christian people visit the site, etc. If it’s questionable, don't do it.

7. Peoples names: Don’t use them, they may lead to lawsuits. Some names are already censored because of this. Don’t use names in stories or messages that could in any way be taken wrong.


8. DON'T TYPE IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, IT IS THE ELECTRONIC VERSION OF SHOUTING AT PEOPLE.

9. Do not repost news articles in their entirety on stagesofstrength.org, as it is illegal to do so on a public system such as ours. Instead, we recommend that you summarize, quote, discuss and link to the original article.

10. Do not argue with the forum staff in the open forum, those messages should be sent via PM (personnel message) to any person you are having trouble with, and the forum administrator.

Continued violation of these rules will get you deleted/banned. There is a one strike and you're out policy in regard to anything obscene or totally offensive. In most cases you will be warned (put on ‘probation’) and given a chance to play by the rules. Please use a little common sense and you'll be just fine.