Forum Rules and Guidelines

Welcome to our Shanghai Family forum. To help you gain the most from our online community please familiarize yourself with the rules and guidelines below for participating in the message forums.

These rules and guidelines are designed to help give a better understanding of what behavior is expected and make your experience with us more enjoyable and safe.


Rules (DON'Ts):

1. No discussion of any illegal activity or threats of violence.

2. No use of explicit, obscene or vulgar language or images and/or messages, including racist remarks.

3. No posts that attack, insult, "flame", defame, or abuse members or non-members.   Respect other members of the community and don’t belittle, make fun off, or insult another member or non-member.  Decisions about health and well-being are highly personal, individual choices.  "Flaming" and insults, however, will not be tolerated. Agree to disagree. This applies to both the forums and chat.

4. No advertising or links to advertising or "Spam" is permitted (including signatures).
•    Advertising or Spam is defined as posting a link for the purpose of selling, soliciting or promoting by someone that has ownership or other "vested interest" to the web site involved, including efforts to promote other online forums or web sites by web site owners. 
•    If you are a web site owner and have a link that fits into this category that you want to share, please email to editor@shfamily.com and we will review your submission. 
•    Only links to personal home pages are allowed in signatures and member profiles. Links must be appropriate and abide by rules #1-4 or they will be removed. 
•    Links to helpful web sites (commercial or otherwise) are allowed when they are posted by someone without any "vested interest" AND whose purpose is NOT to solicit, advertise, promote, fundraise, etc.
5. No links to any web site or use of any username that fits into rules # 1-4 above.

6. No use of multiple usernames. Please register and use only one username for the forums.  Posting under multiple user accounts will result in administrative action (ie. banning).

7. No posts of copyrighted material.  Information copyrighted or owned by any individual or entity other than the person posting should not be posted on the message boards without the consent of the owner.

8. No posts of lengthy articles.  Sharing information is allowed, but the forums are not to be used to publish articles. It is an improper use of critical forum resources.
 
9. No cryptic posts.  Using cryptic messages to "skirt" the rules is not permitted.

10. If it shouldn’t be viewed by minors, then it shouldn’t be posted to the forums or chat rooms.  This is a public, family-friendly forum. In addition, if something would not be considered safe, then it shouldn’t be posted.

11. Do not disrespect moderators.  Be respectful in both the forums and any private communications with moderators.  Moderators are volunteers that donate many hours of their own time to help in the forums. Violations of this rule will not be tolerated.

12. No SHOUTING.  Remember, using ALL CAPITAL LETTERS in posts is considered yelling and rude, plus it is difficult to read.

13. Do not post offline personal contact information (ie. your home address, phone numbers etc.) and do not ask for personal information from others. 
 
14. No irrelevant or off-topic posts. Posts which are not relevant to the forum topic may be deleted at the moderator's discretion.
 

Guidelines (DO's):

 
1. Report posts that violate the rules and guidelines by sending email to editor@shfamily.com. We will act on the report as quickly as we can.  Do not reply to the offending post as that typically only encourages the poster.
 
2. Lend a helping hand. A bit of compassion can go a long way toward helping people with life's challenges and reaching out can help alleviate feelings of loneliness and frustration. At times, we all need or want help or simply someone with whom we can share our questions, burdens, and successes.

3.  Use descriptive titles for new posts. Avoid "generic" post subjects like "Help" or "Question".  You will receive a better response to your posts by being more descriptive about the content of your post.

Know Your Moderators:

Shfamily.com Community forums are moderated by volunteers that have a special interest in the topic.  While they may not have answers to all your questions, moderators are here to help in any way they can.  Moderators have the right to edit or delete posts without prior notice that violate of the rules above.  They are also responsible for keeping and promoting participation in the forums.  You can spot a moderator because their posts indicate that they are moderators. We are always looking for new moderators.  If you would like to moderate a forum, email editor@shfamily.com

Moderators promise to base their decision making on the content of posts rather than personal feelings about the person posting in them.

If you have a question for a moderator on a decision, you can email them and discuss it privately. They may not see things the same way you do, but they are open and approachable.


Please Remember:
Users that do not abide by the rules may be subject to having their posts edited or deleted, their member account permanently banned from further access and/or deleted without notice. Rules and guidelines may change at any time.

Kate Lilienthal, Managing Editor
Shanghai Family
www.shfamily.com