Usage Policies for this Web Site
The following policies are set down in order to make Birthlight's Community web site as useful as possible to the members of the Birthlight community. This has a view to helping instructors run their classes and to helping members complete their course work. Please treat these policies seriously.
Please turn off email notifications in your profile page if you wish to leave the discussion forums. Don't make all the forum members sad over your departure by mailing them about it.
Take personal discussions off the discussion forum. If you would like to discuss personal issues not related to Birthlight or the original thread, then please email the poster at their own personal email address. To do this you can click on their username which is at the left side of their post thus taking you to their profile page which gives you the ability to send them an email.
Keep your signature file short. Five lines should be more than enough for anybody, but the fewer the better. One-line signatures automatically get a lot of brownie points from the admin. Feel free to put your personal web site in there. I don't recommend putting your email address in the sig file because you will get spammed if you do by the web bots that crawl the web.
Pleaes don't advertise on the list (eg. other courses or outside events). If we allow this, it could certainly get out of hand with hundreds of users using the forums. And the forums would become an advertising forum rather than an informative forum.
No solicitations of employment or requests for applications. . There are other, better ways of obtaining a job (eg. job boards like monster.com, etc). Check them out.
We encourage discussion and debate, and don't mind if it gets a bit heated. However, this does not mean you can flame other list members (winding them up with inflamatory words). If you think someone's flaming you or being needlessly offensive, take it up with them in private e-mail. If they get abusive, discuss it with the list administrator (support@birthlight.com). Don't take it onto the forum.
If you're asking for help with a problem, then remember this: A good description of your problem is essential.
Try not to offend other site members, or to feel offended by them. See the section below titled "Offensivity" for more on this topic.
If your address starts bouncing, you will be removed from the email list. You will not be notified of this, as we don't keep a list of secondary addresses. It's your responsibility to resubscribe once the problem with your address has been fixed. "Bouncing" can include vacation autoresponders that e-mail either the list or people who post to the list. We will be merciful with this but if we get complaints about it, you'll be unsubscribed right away.
Forum/blog messages may not be republished in any public forum without the explicit written permission of the original author(s) of the reposted message(s), or else the explicit written permission of the list administrators. This policy applies to automated gateways such as SMTP to NNTP gateways.
No matter how potentially embarrassing they may be, posted messages are never, ever deleted from the site's archives. Plan your posts accordingly.
If you suddenly stop receiving forum mail, do not post a "test" message. Either one of two things has happened: your account was disabled for bounces, or the web site itself is down. You can check the first case by logging into your account and looking around - it will say if we had to disable your account. In the second case, you'll do no good by posting.
If it's taking a long time for your post to show up, wait. When traffic flows are heavy and the server gets overtaxed, it can be a few hours before your message gets processed and sent out to everyone. On the other hand, if you can see from the timestamps that people who posted after you have had their messages go out, something else may be wrong. Wait a while longer, and then contact the list administrator (support@birthlight.com). Do not post a "test" message to the list.
If posting a photo(s) anywhere on this site, please do not connect a child's name with the photo in any way. This is for the child's security.
There's an unsubscribe interface available for use when you decide it's time to go. The best way to do this is to go to your personal profile (click on your username) and choose the tab "Email" to turn off email notificaitons. You should stop receiving all emails from the discussion forums (except for the occaisional mass email). This can then be turned on at a later time if you change your mind.
People who violate the goodwill of the list community will be unsubscribed.
Offensensitivity
When posting to the Birthlight Discussion forums, remember that your message will be sent to hundreds of Birthlight members. They have their tastes and you have yours. Try to avoid some of the more obvious things that may upset a person: avoid swearing, cultural insults, blasphemy, proselytizing, and things of that sort.
Also, remember that you are receiving messages from hundreds of people from different parts of the world. Remember that they have their likes and dislikes like you do, so try not to be easily offended. As my grandmother used to say, "take a deep breath and count to ten" (or ten thousand if need be!). If you still feel the need to say something please respond to the poster to their private email address , not to the whole list.
Mostly, let's try to be understanding of each other and give the other person the benefit of the doubt - ie. they didn't really mean to offend me. Thank you.
What to Ask and How to Answer
Any question is fair game no matter how basic it may be. We were all starting out once and one of the main purposes of this list is to help beginners get started quickly and soundly with their classes. Don't be shy. Ask away. If you are wondering about the question you have then I'm sure five other people are too!
The key to answering a question well is one word: respect. If you can't answer with respect for the other person, then it is better not to answer. Respect for one another will take us a long way toward a successful and effective discussion forum.
Thank you for taking the above principles seriously.
Jeff
Birthlight Support