Charter *UPDATED 17/04/13* YOU MUST READ THIS BEFORE POSTING!!!

January

This forum is for those who are currently expecting a baby and is not limited to expectant parents.

ALWAYS READ THE CHARTER!
The charter contains all the rules and guidelines. The charter may be updated at any time. Make sure you are up to date.
This is a requirement, and ignorance is not an excuse. There are different charters for every forum on Boards.ie, and reading them will prevent any problems.

THIS IS NOT A MEDICAL FORUM.
Do not look for medical advice here, always always check with your medical care provider as for what is best for you and your unborn child.


There is no free speech!
Boards is a privately owned website. You do not have the right to say whatever you want on here.Using common sense is a must.

Advertising
Topics/posts that contain this will be both edited and locked. Spammers/Shills will be site banned.

Flaming
- Posts containing personal attacks on another user will lead to warnings/infractions and being banned from this forum.

Off Topic and Unhelpful posts
Posts that stray off topic will be edited/deleted, depending on their relevance to the topic at hand.

Soap-boxing
v. To wax philosophical to promote your own agenda
All input in Parenting and sub-forums is valued. However we consider it to be a community where participation on various topics is encouraged.
Posting solely to promote a single agenda or viewpoint in a variety of threads without adding anything further to the community will not be entertained.

Posting in "TxtSpk"
Please don't do this, enough said.
This includes forum abbreviations such as DD, DS, OH etc. They make reading the forums difficult for those new to them. The parenting forum has been set up to be as inclusive as possible for anyone who is involved with rearing children and we hope to keep it that way. These acronyms are both cliquey and pointless.

Cliquey in that if you're part of the crowd you'll know them and if you don't get them you'll feel like an outsider. This forum is inclusive and these acronyms are not - so don't use them.

Pointless: As J.M. Dodd, Chief Internet Officer of Offbeat Empire said, "Acronyming saves you seconds, and costs readers minutes as they try to translate." - so don't use them. E.g "Son" is three characters, DS is two. Take the time to write the word that everyone understands.

Personal Abuse
Posters who abuse others on here will be banned. Permanent bans will be handed out on a first offense if a moderator feels it is warranted. There is no argument on this one. Abuse someone and you will be banned. Calling someone an idiot is abuse. Don't attack the poster, attack the post. Posting PM's publicly without consent could be met with harsh consequences, especially if they do not have any place in the discussion.

Arguing with a moderator
Do not argue with a moderator in a thread after they have given a warning or a ban etc. If you have an issue with a moderator's action then PM the mod in question. They will discuss it with you. You can then, if unsatisfied with the PM route, take things to the Dispute Resolution Forum.

Reporting Posts
Any thread or post that contravenes the charter or needs to be brought to the attention of a forum moderator should be reported. Please say briefly why you reported this post, and the relevant moderators will consider if the post warrants any further action. All reported posts are recorded, reviewed and considered. Further information on Reporting posts can be found here:
How to Report a Post


Anonymous Posting
It is now possible just like in the personal issues forum to post unregistered or anon on this forum.

You have to log out of the site and then either start a new thread while logged out or click on the reply to a thread.

You will be take to a screen like this one:


It is a good idea to alter the username from unregistered to something else especially as there could be a few people in the thread posting this way and it can get confusing.

Please remember all unregistered or anon threads and post have to be manually approved by the forum moderators so it may take some time for them to appear. Any unregistered threads or posts which breach the charter of the forum will not be approved.

Trolls
What is a troll?
A troll is a poster who posts in away to try get your goat.

How will a troll do this?
By being annoying confrontational and antagonistic and saying it's just that my opinion differs.

What does a troll want?
To disrupt a forum and upset the posters who post there.

Why does a troll do this?
For kicks, the more worked up you get the more fun a troll thinks it is.
A successful troll will post something which is not enough to get them banned but the reactions of posters to it will get the poster banned and have posters turn on each other.

How do we deal with trolls and neutralise their behaviour?
By not reacting in the way they want, they are like the bold child acting out.

First thing you can do is take a deep breath.

Second things you can do is report the posts.
While one or two trollish posts may not be enough to have the troll booted from the forum if they persist and there is a clear pattern of such behaviour they will be banned permanently from the forum. Yes this has been done before and will be done again if needed.

Third if you do reply to posts don't let the troll drag you down to it's level
stay on topic and be civil as per the rules of the forum.

What happens to Trolls?
They cop on and learn to behave.
They find people not playing their game or not feeding them posts to work of to be booooring and they go away.
They out themselves as being trolls beyond redemption and get banished with the ban stick, some times even site banned.

Mentioning Other Parenting Sites

Please only mention other parenting sites if it is relevant to the discussion. Users come to boards.ie Parenting forum to ask advice and they usually get all they need and more here so there is no need to link to other sites.

Example:

“There was a thread on xxxx.com about that recently, here’s the link” or “the buggy you are looking for is for sale on xxxx.com” are OK.

BUT

“You’d get better advice at xxxx.com” or “try xxxx.com they have a great forum for that” are not OK.

People who are found to be mentioning other sites out of context will receive an infraction and/or ban.


Any further questions why not try the boards faq. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/faq.php

Orion

There's been quite a few posts recently breaching the txtspk part of the charter so a reminder is in order.

Posting in "TxtSpk"
Please don't do this, enough said.
This includes forum abbreviations such as DD, DS, OH etc.

I'm going to add - especially abbreviations such as DD, DS, DH, OH etc etc.

These acronyms are both cliquey and pointless.

Cliquey in that if you're part of the crowd you'll know them and if you don't get them you'll feel like an outsider. This forum is inclusive and these acronyms are not - so don't use them.

Pointless: As J.M. Dodd, Chief Internet Officer of Offbeat Empire said, "Acronyming saves you seconds, and costs readers minutes as they try to translate." - so don't use them. E.g "Son" is three characters, DS is two. Take the time to write the word that everyone understands.

Repeated offenses will result in warning/infractions.

Orion

A new section has been added to the charter relating to soapboxing. Please have a read of it.

January

A new section has been added to the charter relating to mentioning other parenting sites. Please have a read of it.