**'THE OFF SEASON' CHARTER. READ BEFORE POSTING**

Tokyo

CHARTER

Welcome to the Safety and Off-Season Sub-Forum.

While most people here wouldn't trade farming or rural life for any other, it can often come with its own unique set of setbacks and issues, ranging from the everyday problems of losing livestock or financial difficulties, to the more serious issues such as stress, depression, bereavement, loneliness or relationship problems and much more.

Unique to farming is the environment in which families’ work. Often it is a setting where the use of big machinery is commonplace yet there is a lack of the sort of training or supervision that would be common in a comparable industrial work place. It’s a setting where unpredictable, potentially dangerous, animals can be encountered by the very young or old. All just outside the back door.

This forum is here to discuss these problems and experiences with others who can relate to them. It extends the purpose of the original ‘Off Season’ forum to include matters of farm safety, both accident prevention and personal health. ‘Best Practice’ guidelines, practical advice and personal experience (both good and bad) are welcome here.

So that discussion of sensitive and serious subject matters can take place without diversion, all threads will be subject to stricter moderation than the main forum.

Threads will be marked as either ‘Off Season’ or ‘Safety’ topics. There are specific guidelines for the ‘Off-Season’ topics and this is detailed below. These are in addition to normal site rules and the Main forum charter.

Your ‘Safety and Off-Season’ Moderators are: blue5000, Albert Johnson, Genghis Cant, greysides, emaherx, K.G.



GUIDELINES FOR POSTING ON 'OFF-SEASON' TOPICS:

Below you will find some guidelines for posting in the 'Off Season' forum.

• Does your thread belong here or will you get a more suitable reply in another forum? If you are looking for a broader audience, then you may consider posting in one of the following forums:
  
  Personal Issues
  Relationship Issues
  Bereavement

• You only need to start one thread - starting numerous threads over a short period of time is not necessary.

• If the topic in question isn't impacting you personally, and you are looking more for a general discussion, there are more suitable forums for this available.

REPLYING TO THREADS IN THE 'OFF SEASON' FORUM

While the 'official' rules for the forum are listed in the box below, they can pretty much be summed up as follows:

People here are quite often posting on something that can be very close to their hearts. Treat them, and what they have to say, with respect.

Moderation in this section will be more stringent than the main forum and that you as posters need to be aware of this. Please appreciate the reasons why. However, if you post taking the above into consideration, you can't go very far wrong.

'The Off Season' is an advice forum. We ask that posters offer advice to the OP when posting.

Reply to threads in a civil and well phrased manner, remember that the nature of the forum, the contents of some threads may be very close to people's hearts. Any advice given should be mature, constructive and non-abusive. Opinions are welcome. Ridicule and nastiness are not.

Think carefully about what you're posting, remember the internet is not as anonymous as you think.'

Do NOT link to / refer to threads here anywhere else on the forums. What gets posted here, stays here.

Petty differences with other boards members will not be tolerated. Using somebody's hardship as an opportunity to get a boot in will not be treated lightly.

Trolling will not be tolerated.

Please do not ask for updates/to be kept updated - this prevents threads turning into blogs or soap operas for others' amusement and avoids putting pressure on the original poster to say more than they might want to. If the poster wants to update everybody, let them do it on their own terms.

The posting of or linking to embedded videos will be moderated quite strictly. This facility will be removed if abused.

Polls are not allowed as they are useless to a personal issue.

Suggesting violence as a problem solver is just not on in this forum and will result in an instant banning. Advising posters on breaking the law will not be tolerated either.

Dragging up old threads is a no no and we will close them. Remember that some people just want their problems left in the past.




Most of all, if you have nothing relevant to add to the topic, please refrain from posting anything at all.

Posting Unregistered

If you have an issue that you'd prefer not to post about under your username, then feel free to use the "Guest" option to post. You can do this by logging out and then posting. A more detailed explanation as to how to post anonymously can be found here.

Please note that your post/thread will NOT appear straight away in the forum. All anonymous posts have to be approved by a moderator, and depending on the time of the day, this may take anything from a few minutes to a few hours.

Abuse of anon posting will not be tolerated.


Private Messages

It is not the done thing on personal issue type forums such as this to ask an OP to pm/msn/skype/email you. This is done for two reasons:

1. To protect the OP from trolls and other possible unsavoury people on the internet when they may be in a vulnerable state.

2. To protect posters from trolls and unsavory people posting on the internet who pose as a person needing help and advice and so that posters do not end up locked in to a pm exchange with someone they can not help.

Any posts requesting/offering a PM will be summarily deleted and action taken against the poster. Repeat offenders will be notified to the Admin team, with a possible siteban as punishment.

Should you receive a PM requesting or offering more information/services/private help, please report the PM (click on the icon on the top right hand side of the PM) to bring it to our attention.

Medical or Professional advice

As per the site rules, requesting or offering medical advice or diagnosis is not permitted in this forum. The same applies to professional advice.


Missing posts

If you log in and see that some posts are missing from a thread and/or edited, this generally means the posts were:
a) Abusive
b) Trolling/Flaming
c) Off-topic

Trolls will be warned and banned (without warning if necessary). Check the recycle bin for the waffle that we remove.


Help by Reporting Posts

Reporting Post which break the rules of the forum means that the mods will see them sooner and take action on them. This is very helpful as we may not necessarily spot such posts in time.

So please feel free to use the "Report this post to moderators" option. To do this click on the icon to the bottom-left of the post - this alerts all the mods of the forum.


Recommendations:

Sometimes we get requests for recommendations for GP's, therapists and the like in particular geographical areas.
We cannot allow recommendations - you should choose a professional based on how well YOU get on with them not how well someone else does, any thread asking for recommendations will be closed.