Community Rules & Guidelines

Essentially, our policy is to trust members to govern themselves, in terms of acceptable behavior online. To that end, we strive to keep out-and-out rules to a minimum. As in any community, though, a few regulations are necessary, and this document will let you know what ours are. Your presence and participation here indicate that you understand and are willing to abide by these guidelines.

What is good "netiquette" here? Basically, it is nothing more than good manners, and the understanding that "the freedom to swing your arms ends where someone else's nose begins." In a friendly, public gathering of young teens, your peers and the elderly, would you: scream at others present ... insult or abuse them ... curse at them, or use "gutter" language ... act out your sexual fantasies ... display "dirty" pictures ... or monopolize the event, never allowing anyone else to talk? Of course you wouldn't--so please don't do that here, either.

"Screaming." In cyberspace, typing in all caps (LIKE THIS) is considered screaming. Most people are annoyed by it--mainly because it dominates the screen, and also because it has come to be associated with out-of-control anger and self-centeredness. If you type messages in all caps, our hosts (and probably other participants) will ask you to stop.

Profanity. The definition of what's acceptable and unacceptable varies from person to person and from locale to locale. We acknowledge that, and have no desire to be "propriety police." At the same time, however, our pledge is to make our rooms safe, comfortable places to share program fellowship. Therefore, the standard we enforce is one comparable to a rating of "PG-17." There is a list of words for which our hosts (or bots) will warn, and then kick if the word is repeated--and for which a post will be deleted from newsgroups. This includes the use of asterisks (***) to insinuate the word without actually typing it. The words on this list would be considered unacceptable by most people. Mild profanity is allowed--but we ask you to please remember that "talking trash" is unnecessary and, as a general rule, to limit your use of profanity to words which would not embarrass you if your children, parents or grandparents were to hear them.

Insults/abuse. It is not acceptable to taunt, ridicule, insult or abuse other members of our community (including hosts). This includes, but is not limited to, racial epithets ... slurs of sexual orientation or ethnicity ... ridicule about addictions ... belittling others' points of view ... mean-spirited sarcasm ... slams about age/looks/intelligence/etc.

Sexuality. There are many places online where one is invited and even encouraged to act on (and out) his/her sexual fantasies. Our community is not one of those places, and overt sexual interaction is not allowed here. Our space is designed to support people in their recovery--not as a place to indulge in "cybersex."

Waves, macros and scrolling. Please curtail your use of waves and macros in our chats, and never send one to the screen if it's obscene, overtly sexual, violent, or offensive (see above). In the case of waves, this also includes the title. While only people who have the wave can hear it, its title is right out there for everyone to read. Wave and/or macro "wars" (i.e., sending one after another) are not allowed, because they dominate the screen and make it impossible for other participants to chat. While we understand the popularity of waves and macros with some, our rooms exist for people in recovery to have conversations with each other. It is easy to create your own chat room for the purpose of playing waves and macros; so please conduct wave/macro wars somewhere else, showing consideration for the majority of our members, who wish to chat. "Scrolling" means sending anything to the screen, repeatedly, in rapid succession. It dominates the screen, and is therefore not allowed.

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Reporting an incident. If you believe that you have been treated inappropriately in a recovery chat room, save the chat transcript and send an edited version of it to Sue Moran, Exec. Asst. of Bipolar Community. Include in the transcript: date, time (and time zone) and name of the chat room, HealthyPlace.com (or other) ID of the person you're reporting (not just the nickname), all comments (including whispers) of the person you're reporting, and comments in reaction, made by you and others present (including whispers). All other chat should be deleted from the transcript, both for purposes of anonymity, and because full transcripts are too unwieldy to investigate. In your email, describe the incident briefly, and give the ID and nickname of the person you are reporting.

Hosts. Some of our hosts are members of various recovery programs, and they do service for you, here, by volunteering their time to help keep this community thriving. When they enforce our rules and those of HealthyPlace.com, they are doing so in order to insure that we continue to be available to all who seek recovery and program fellowship online. They are not taking anyone's inventory, and they are not on a "power trip." Hosts most often warn about behavior by whispering to the person and referring him/her to this document. If the behavior persists, the host will kick him/her out of the chat, so that the rest of our participants can continue chatting without interference.

Sue Moran, Bipolar Community Manager.

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