Welcome to the LoveShack.org Community Forums! LoveShack.org sponsors
a global peer-to-peer support resource bridging people from many different
cultures and over 200 countries to interact, share, and discuss interpersonal
relationships with partners, children, parents, co-workers, friends,
and neighbors.
As an open, friendly, and diverse community, it is important that
each participant conduct themselves in accordance with the guidelines
and standards we have developed to maintain an environment where
all are comfortable contributing to the discussion. These guidelines
are based on standards we have refined over the past seven years as
our community has grown and evolved. We have published them here to
help you better understand what is considered appropriate and what
we expect from all our community participants.
For your convenience, you may use the outline below to go directly to a specific section:
This is a moderated forum, and submissions which violate these guidelines
will be edited or deleted, as deemed appropriate by the site administration.
Forum moderators make educated
judgments based on these guidelines and enforce them judiciously and
justly. Participants who neglect to adhere to these guidelines risk
losing access to the site on a temporary or permanent basis. Our intention
is to provide coherent threads of discussion and as such we will also
modify or remove any submissions which refer to submissions which have
been modified or removed.
Terms of use and
privacy practices
By using this web site, you are bound by the conditions stated in
our Terms of Use.
This list of guidelines has been published with the intention of clarifying
the criteria we use to determine whether or not a submission is appropriate
and does not supercede or override the terms and conditions which
you are bound to by using LoveShack.org. We reserve the
right to modify
these guidelines at any time without prior
notification and we intend to revise these guidelines as needed to
ensure they accurately reflect our operational policies.
LoveShack.org has a firm commitment to protecting your personal privacy.
Please be sure to review our privacy statement to see how we use your
personal information and to read the section below regarding anonymity
and disclosure.
Primary directive
The LoveShack.org Community Forums provide an on-line resource to
confront personal conflicts, promote participation in self-discovery
and responsibility,
and encourage collaboration between community participants on romantic
and platonic interpersonal relationship issues. Submissions to
the forum which fall under this directive are considered "on-topic" while
all others are considered "off-topic."
We recognize that regular community participants may want to engage
in conversations that are considered off-topic and unrelated to the
primary directive of the service. In order to ensure that off-topic
threads do not take attention away from on-topic threads, we have created
a special area for these threads and expect that all off-topic conversations
take place within that area. Precedence is given to on-topic discussions
and responses to on-topic threads should at all times stay on-topic.
Off-topic threads may occasionally be subject to time-limits before
being closed to further posting, and in some cases may be deleted at
the moderators' discretion. Such decisions are never arbitrary, and
reflect the moderators' sense that an off-topic thread is dominating
the forum discussions, and/or is a source of divisiveness between participants.
It is important that all participants recognize that tangents started
within threads of discussion should be avoided at all times. All replies
to any thread should relate directly to the first post in that thread.
Character and conduct
Civility and respect
We expect that all community participants interact in a manner conducive
to free-flowing, collaborative participation from all visitors, fostering
an environment free of harassment, character attacks, and other forms
of individual and group berating. We realize that all members may not
share the same definitions on issues surrounding personal morality,
appropriate behavior, and other sensitive topics of discussion that
often appear on the site; we encourage all to voice their own
opinions while refraining from criticizing other
participants for the perspective they hold. Each person that posts
on the forum is to be treated with the utmost respect and civility
regardless of how absurd
or ridiculous
the opinion expressed might seem to you from your perspective.
Personal attacks against other participants will not be tolerated
under any circumstances. We define personal attacks as posted comments
which are intended to provoke, demean, or ridicule another participant.
It is inevitable that members will sometimes disagree in their responses
to any given problem, and LoveShack.org encourages healthy debate comprised
of constructive questions and criticisms, so long as they pertain to
the post and thread at hand. Personal dislike of another member has
no place in any post, on any thread.
We expect that all participants will respond to posts in their specific
context, not to the person who has posted. While opinions may be formed
of various members based on what they have posted in the past, any
response to any particular submission should be grounded in what has
been posted in that thread. Past disagreements should not be resurrected
in new threads. It is important that criticism be directed at what
is stated in a post ("I don't like your idea") rather
than at the individual making the statement ("I don't like
you").
Submissions containing threats to leave the community or other forms
of "emotional extortion" intended to incite a reaction
from fellow participants are viewed as inconsiderate and disrespectful
to the community as a whole and will result in immediate loss of access
to the site.
Language and decency
As a global community, it is important to recognize that not all participants
are native speakers of English, nor are they all acquainted with colloquialisms
popular in your particular area of the world. We expect that our community
participants use language that not only reflects proper terminology,
but that is in no way vulgar, profane, obscene, pornographic, demeaning,
or pejorative to the subject being described or those contributing
to the discussion. This is especially important to remember when dealing
with sexual health issues.
Community participation and inclusion
We remind all participants of the value of collaborative exchange.
Discussions occurring on the public forum are to be inclusive of all
participants and should not be of a private nature between a small,
select group of people. Questions, comments or other exchanges directed
to any particular individual outside of the context of on-topic threads
should be made privately and do not belong on the public community
forums.
LoveShack.org features a private messaging function which is available
to all registered members. Private two-way conversations are possible
using private messaging and we expect that all personal exchanges be
conducted over private messaging.
Anonymity and disclosure
Community participants may from time to time share private conversations
and information with each other via private messaging. We expect that
all community participants will observe the privacy rights of others
and refrain from posting any information about another participant,
including repeating the content of any private message in a public
forum without the consent of both parties.
Participants are reminded to use extreme caution when posting personally
identifiable information on the site or when sending private messages.
We recommend that you not disclose information that can be later used
by others to identify you.
For your own protection and the privacy and security of all of our
guests, personal or personally identifiable information such as the
following may not be included within submissions to the forum:
- E-mail addresses
- Instant message contact information (screen names, usernames, etc.)
- Telephone numbers
- Mailing addresses
- Bank account numbers
- Passwords, usernames, or access codes
Please post judiciously about your personal matters. In most cases,
once a post has received replies, we will not be able to comply with
later requests for the thread's removal, as it would be unfair to those
participants who took the time to respond thoughtfully to the topic
at hand. Your post should be considered a permanent addition to the
LoveShack.org forum, accessible by anyone on the Internet. For this
reason we discourage members from providing details that would make
them easily identifiable to friends, family members, etc. LoveShack.org
is committed to protecting your privacy, and it is something that you
should take care to protect as well. We also recommend that carefully
weigh these considerations before using a picture which can personally
identify you as an avatar.
Format and protocol
Cross-posting and duplicate
submissions
Community members are able to see all new posts in all of the forums.
Therefore, we expect that you post an item only once, in the most appropriate
forum. New posts or threads with the same content or general message
are considered identical.
Thread titles
It is important that threads are easily identifiable and as such
we expect that posters will use descriptive thread titles which refrain
from making general comments requesting assistance. We assume that
all threads posted on the forum are seeking assistance and consider
any requests for assistance within the thread title to be redundant.
Paragraphs and formatting code
We ask that community participants separate long posts into paragraphs,
leaving a blank line between each block of text similar to the style
used in this document. We have found that posters who follow this suggestion
not only improve the readability of the post, but also tend to receive
a greater number of responses.
Our forum allows special codes to be inserted into messages that allow
basic formatting of text. We expect that participants will use these
codes sparingly and refrain from using excessive amounts of color,
bolding, size, or font definitions that will make reading the text
difficult for the visually impaired. These codes are reserved for highlighting
text and are not intended as decorative embellishments to the majority
or entirety of a submission.
External links and fair
use
During the course of discussion, participants may wish to share relevant
external sites to support an argument. External links must be non-commercial,
provide empirical data relevant to the thread of discussion, be sponsored
by an accredited educational institution, or link to a peer-reviewed
publication. Commercial sites are those which stand to benefit financially
either directly or indirectly from traffic directed to them from our
site, including those designed to acquire user connection-specific
data. All external links must point to text-based (HTML, ASCII) or
graphical material (JPEG, GIF, PDF) viewable within the context of
a standard web browser. Direct links to file archives,
executable programs, screen savers, and other binary files are generally
prohibited.
Should it be necessary to quote directly from any source, electronic
or otherwise, a proper, full citation must be included. If the resource
is located on the web, a direct link should appear with the content.
Quotes may not be longer than 250 words.
You may include your personal homepage in the "homepage" field
of your profile, however the other fields of your personal profile,
including your signature, may not link to or contain a commercial web
site as defined above, regardless
of whether
or
not you are the owner.
Contacting LoveShack.org
LoveShack.org has provided a number of methods to contact us should
an issue arise that you feel needs to be brought to our attention.
We expect that community participants will use the "Contact Us" form
or the "Report this post to a moderator" form to get in touch
with us with any questions pertaining to the site, its operation, or
materials posted on the community forums.
Visitors are strongly encouraged to report posts which may violate
these Community Guidelines by using the "Report this post to a
moderator" function on the bottom right side of the post. Posts
or threads that challenge moderators' decisions will be deleted. Such
challenges shall be made via the "Contact Us" page located
at the bottom of each page.
Participants who have had their access to the community forums revoked
are expected to contact the site administration via the Contact Us
form. With very few exceptions, to ensure your privacy, we do not contact
participants before revoking access to the site. It is the responsibility
of the individual affected to get in touch with us for further information
and to have the access restored if possible.
Participants which have
had their access to the site revoked are expected to cease use of
the site until access is restored. Persons who attempt
to circumvent revocation shall be permanently banned from the site.
Should you have any questions, comments, or suggestions regarding
these guidelines or any other aspect of our community, please feel
free to get in touch with us.
