Originally Posted by aculady
I guess if I had to suggest rules or guidelines for the forum that had to be read before being able to post, I'd suggest ones that looked something like this:

1. You are posting in a public forum, not a diary or private journal. Other actual people are reading what you write. The person you are replying to could be a family member or a friend. They are almost certainly someone's family member or friend. Please try to remember this when composing your posts. Give enough context so that people reading your posts can give you helpful replies, and please be aware that different families and friends have different thresholds for what constitutes courteous verbal interaction, and that other posters are not necessarily trying to be rude just because they don't talk to you like you would talk to them.

2. The other people reading your posts don't have the benefit of hearing your voice or seeing your body language. They can only use the actual words you wrote to get at your meaning. Forgetting this is one of the most common reasons for misunderstandings and disagreements on the internet. Use emoticons or rephrase before posting if you think there is even a chance that someone could read what you wrote in a way you didn't intend it.

3. When reading posts, remember that human beings wrote them, human beings are reading them, and human being are flawed. If you feel like you are being attacked, take a deep breath, calm down, and re-read to try to see if there was any way that the person could have meant what they said in a way that was not a personal attack. If there was, then that was probably what the person meant.

4. You are not required to rise to bait.

4. Everyone else doesn't have to agree with you, and you don't have to agree with everyone else.

5. You always have the right to stop reading or posting in a thread that has ceased to interest you or that has ceased to be productive.

6. If you want to talk about something in particular, start a new thread. Don't hijack other people's posts.

Nicely done! I like 4 best smile

DeHe