Code of conduct for the forums and comments
This forum is your forum. It is your place to meet other adopters, to discuss adoption issues, to enquire about the process and to make comments and give opinions. It is not in the public domain, to ensure your confidentiality, and is only visible to paid up members of International Adoption Guide, all who are in the process of adoption or seriously considering adoption. The blog is public, and should be treated as such.
We are fully aware that adoptive parents are never given a voice and the intention of this forum is to give you a safe environment for you to talk and express yourself. So please feel free to communicate and do not feel that ‘it is not important enough’, it is often the minutiae that is the most important.
You are free to use your real name or a pen name, whichever you feel more comfortable with.
In order to make your experience as pleasant and constructive as possible please take your time to read through this document, as it will help you navigate the forum and avoid pitfalls. These rules can be changed without notice, although we normally we announce changes via an announcement in all the forums.
- Read up before asking: Although this Forum is new there is lots of information on the website, in newsletters and on audio downloads. Use the search function before posting to see if your question has already been answered. Each forum has a dedicated Q&A thread with additional info and you may be able to find what you are looking for there.
- Respect the netiquette: Spend time getting familiar with the forum before you post.
- Keep the focus: Although sometimes it is difficult to decided exactly where to post try to keep discussions inside the scope of a particular forum. Do not cross-post. Post your message once and iff is obvious to the moderator that it should be somewhere else it will be moved or a new thread will be set up.
- Be respectful to each other and to the moderators and experts. Poor language and insults will not be tolerated although we value the opportunity to allow you to vent and to let off steam if you are feeling frustrated, but just keep it profanity free.
- If you are facing problems with another member please turn to the respective moderator and if the moderator can't help you send a private message to International Adoption Guide.
- Do not spam or blatantly advertise any goods or service, although we value recommendations as long as they pertain to adoption.
- Please do not place any illegally obtained copyrighted content or link to third-party content of a questionable nature.
- Please keep the size of personal images to a respectful minimum.
- Use an appropriate title that best describes the content of your post. Don't use all caps or special characters to draw attention.
- Please refrain from posting for the sake of posting. *** just to increase your number of posts. If you have nothing to say on a certain matter then don't post. The number of posts on this board has no direct relation to the experience of a member.
- Allow a period of time to pass after your initial posting to get an answer. The moderator will endeavour to answer your questions if it is not forthcoming from other members.
- Multiple registrations are prohibited and are grounds for immediate account deletion.
- Political discussion not directly related to international adoption is prohibited, as is any discussion on religion and religious matters that is not relevant to international adoption.
- You may not add an attachment unless it has been validated by a moderator to ensure that no unwanted content is being posted. Thus your attachments won't be visible immediately after you upload, but only after a moderator has checked them which can take some time.
- Instructions by the moderator team are to be followed.
The interpretation of these rules is solely up to the owner of this forum and can change at any time without prior notice. If you're unsure about what constitutes a breach of a rule, ask the moderator.
From time to time the gist of a recent posting will be loaded onto the home page to illustrate current discussions and it will be kept anonymous.
