The Parenting Sanctuary Forums
Rules & Guidelines

NEW REGISTRATION/MEMBERSHIPS

• All members must submit a valid email address apon registration.

• All new members are to provide an adequate and reasonable introduction/greeting during the registration process. This will automatically be converted into a public topic for existing members to respond to, once the new account is approved.

• New members are required to agree to these Rules & Guidelines before being allowed to participate thoroughly on the forum itself.

• Account registration information submitted to TPS remains confidential and accessible to Administrators only.

• New accounts with usernames containing advertising (for example, business/website/product name) are not permitted. New members who spam or advertise apon their initial use of the forum will be immediately banned.

GENERAL FORUM USE

• All members are expected to act and participate in an acceptable way on our discussion forum, most of which is covered in the following article on Netiquette.

• Members should post in a way which is consistent with "normal writing". That is users should not post excessive numbers of emoticons, large, small or coloured text, etc. Similarly users should not SHOUT or use excessive punctuation (e.g. ! and ?) in topic titles or posts.

• Repeated or identical content, which appears to be copied/pasted or of little to no effort, is not permitted and will be deleted.

• Please be aware of the date & time of the topic in which you are responding to and make sure that you are not bumping old material that has passed its "use by" date.

• All participants on TPS are expected to show respect towards others at ALL times within our community, regardless of the situation (including difference in opinion). Unneccessary abuse, flaming, name-calling, deliberate insulting, general nastiness or "bitchiness" (malicious or spiteful) will NOT be tolerated. Personal grudges, differences or matters, ongoing feuding or bullying, regardless of the origin (ie. either within, our outside of TPS) are to remain off the board at all times.

• All members are encouraged to step back and "agree to disagree" in situations where a resolution or agreement in opinion are not being reached, to diffuse heated situations.

• Members are asked to not act as "back seat moderators". If members note an issue which contravenes something in our general rules & guidelines, they are welcome to bring it to the attention of a member of the Moderator Team.

• Other website forums related to parenting themes are considered to be competitor sites. Please do not discuss or bring issues related to other sites onto TPS, as we would prefer TPS concerns not to be discussed on other sites.

• Please do not knowingly discuss any events which are related to (or the subject of) legal proceedings where there is any likelihood that a party or witness in those proceedings may be a participant in the forum.

• Defamatory posts are not to be made on this forum. Defamation is any statement that may both identify first hand, and damage, the reputation of a person. Such material reflects negatively on the forum and will be removed without notice.

OUR STAFF TEAM (Moderators/Admin)

• The moderating team reserve the right to edit or remove any post at any time. The determination of what is construed as indecent, vulgar, spam, etc. as noted in these points is up to Team Members and not users.

• If a member feels they are consistently being treated unfairly or unjustly on the board, then they are encouraged to contact a member of the Administration Team privately about the situation. If the matter involves Moderators or Co-Administrators and are therefore not approachable, then the Head Administrator should be contacted so that it can be looked into and dealt with accordingly.

• All team members of TPS hold the right to participate as general members within the community, including being entitled to make their own personal opinions. Staff are, however, encouraged to distinguish publicly when they may be making a particularly personal/strong opinion outside of their designated position, and which may not reflect the views of the website itself or its other staff.

ACCOUNT USE/ACTIVITY

• Please ensure that you are demonstrating your willingness to keep your TPS account - by initiating posting on the forum after registering, and continuing with activity (posting) on a regular basis. Admin regularly prunes inactive accounts from the memberlist to keep it as accurate as possible.

• "Freeloading" (ie. excessive use with little to no community participation) of our forum's features, such as the arcade, casino, chatroom etc. is not permitted, nor appreciated. These features are intended for use by regularly participating and active members of the community.

INAPPROPRIATE CONTENT

• Examples of inappropriate content are the following, and are not permitted on our forum:

• * Posting for the sake of raising postcount
  
• * Excessive off-topic threads
  
• * Nonsensical posts
  
• * "Flooding" the forum with similar or identical topics
  
• * Open promotion or encouragement of fraudulent/illegal activities

ADVERTISING & SPAMMING

• This site is not intended for the purpose of free advertising opportunities for the public. Please be aware that we have a zero tolerance attitude against unauthorised advertising/spamming.

• All material of an advertising nature (including that of websites, fundraisers, home networking, non-TPS organised meets/events/parties, or 'freebies') MUST seek approval of an administrator prior to it being posted/sent to forum members. There are NO EXCEPTIONS for this.

• Participation on the forum for the sole intention of self-promoting other websites/forums/businesses will result in an immediate ban.

• Advertising of any sort in the shoutbox, or any other feature other than the forum itself, is not permitted.

• Any member caught sending ANY forms of unauthorised advertising to any other members of our community via the PM system (including that of home parties, meets, websites, businesses or forums - whether related links, email addresses or information in general) will be immediately banned.

SURVEYS/STUDIES/ASSIGNMENTS/RESEARCH

• Permission must be sought from Admin PRIOR to material of a research/study/survey/assignment purpose being made public on the forum. This includes the collection of stories/material for media presentation or report purposes (Television, Radio, Newspaper etc). Admin can be reached by members or guests via the Contact Us Failure to do so may result in automatic refusal, or an immediate ban.

• Our members are not "guinea pigs". Please do not sign up to our private forum for the sole purpose of posting such content listed above, and no intention of participating otherwise. This may result in an immediate ban.

FORUM/ACCOUNT SECURITY ISSUES

• Only one account (membership) per user is allowed. If you have forgotten your password, username, email address etc. or account login details have changed, please contact admin via the form link provided at the foot of the forum. Do NOT sign up for a multiple account.

• Accessing, or attempting to access another member's account is not permitted.

• Ban evading, faking one's identity or personal details, trolling, excessive lurking, deliberate flaming, causing mishap or other dubious reasons other than genuine use of the forum, is an instantly bannable offence.

• TPS is considered a privately active community, with content of a personal nature being provided by its members. Therefore it is not considered a reading library or resource for the public. All participants are expected to balance their regular logins/visits with regular posting efforts. Excessive logging in with little to no activity will result in account deactivation.

FORUM PRIVACY ISSUES

• Whilst we take all measures necessary to make this a private, protected and virtually safe forum for our community, members are ultimately the judge of how much personal/private information they wish to share - including photographs. Please reserve such content for more secure forum areas (postcount protected) to ensure the most security possible within a privately owned website.

• Please do not post contact information such as email addresses, home addresses, phone numbers etc. publicly on the forum. Such content will be immediately edited/removed. Only share this information with other members via the PM system if it is necessary to do so, and is of a non-advertising manner. Alternatively there is a designated section for sharing such information in a more open manner, protected by a 500 post minimum limit.

DISCLAIMER - PERSONAL MESSAGE SCREENING

• We encourage all members to use the Personal Message system for general one-on-one communication only - not to exchange/discuss personal, private or sensitive matters, which should be done outside the forum (via email or other communication methods) to ensure complete privacy of their material.

• Whilst personal messages sent within this website are mostly kept confidential between the sender and the receiver, please be aware that the Webmaster does have the ability to screen PM content, and reserves the right to do so at any time, at their own discretion, for genuine purposes related to forum security. If a member does not agree with the screening of PMs for any reason, then it is requested that they simply refrain from using the PM system altogether.

PHOTOGRAPH PRIVACY

• As a parenting forum, we encourage members to share photographs of their children to their own discretion. However we politely request that images containing nudity, or nude/naked subjects, please be kept off the forum at all times.

CANCELLATION OF MEMBERSHIP

• All participants are to acknowledge that TPS staff hold the right to refuse deletion of a member's account, or their ENTIRE post/topic history, apon their request. Following through with such a request is at their own personal discretion.

• Members have the opportunity to edit/alter their own posts up to 24 hours after they are submitted to the forum. After this time, a TPS staff member can be contacted for editing/deletion of a specific topic or post.

SIGNATURES/AVATARS/PROFILE IMAGE CONTENT

• Please keep all avatars with a maximum of 150x150px, banner sizes with 150x400px max. There is no restriction on file size however we appreciate it if they are kept to a minimum size as to not slow down members who are using dialup internet connections.

• Banners containing links to other forums/websites are considered to be advertising, and MUST be approved in advance by Admin.
  
• Please no more than 2 ticker/banner objects at a time in your signature.

• All images are expected to contain material that is appropriate for a parenting forum and not include anything vulgar ie: anything that is (or implies something) rude, nasty, offending, contains bad language etc.

CASH DONATIONS TO TPS

• By making a donation to this not-for-profit website, you understand that it is competely voluntary, and non-refundable in any circumstance.

COMPETITION CONDITIONS

• All prizes must be claimed within 30 days (ie. contact details provided to staff) otherwise they will be automatically forfeited and re-used in future competitions. Admin reserves the right to cancel a competition at any time within reason (ie. lack of interest/participation) and at their own discretion.

GENERAL DISCLAIMER

Although we may attempt to notify you when major changes are made to these Rules & Guidelines, you should periodically review the most up-to-date version (http://www.theparentingsanctuary.com.au/forums/misc.php?do=cfrules). The Parenting Sanctuary may, in its sole discretion, modify or revise these Guidelines at any time, and you agree to be bound by such modifications or revisions. If you do not accept and abide by these guidelines, you may not use our service.

Although the administrators and moderators of Australian Parenting Community - The Parenting Sanctuary will attempt to keep all objectionable messages off this forum, it is impossible for us to review all messages. All messages express the views of the author, and neither the owners of Australian Parenting Community - The Parenting Sanctuary, nor Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. (developers of vBulletin) will be held responsible for the content of any message.

By agreeing to these rules, you warrant that you will not post any messages that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-oriented, hateful, threatening, or otherwise violative of any laws.

The owners of Australian Parenting Community - The Parenting Sanctuary reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason.