** Forum Rules and Guidelines **

With every great community, there are the rules and laws that ensure people coexist peacefully. This message board is no different. There are boundaries to what is and what is not allowed. These rules are in place so that this message board continues to be a friendly place where members can learn and share information on a variety of running and non-running topics.

To help you gain the most from our message board, please familiarize yourself with the following rules and guidelines. If you have any questions or problems, please feel free to contact one of the administrators.


Rules (DON'Ts):

1. No discussion of any threats of violence, or illegal activities such as software and music piracy and other intellectual property violations, are not allowed.

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

3. While debating and discussion is fine, we will not tolerate rudeness, insulting posts, personal attacks or purposeless inflammatory posts. Respect other members of the community and don’t belittle, make fun off, or insult another member.

4. No advertising or links to advertising or "Spam" is permited (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.

5. 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 of the duplicate name(s)).

6. 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. You can, however, post a link to the material.

7. 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. Again, post a link to the material.

8. No posts of an overtly political or religious nature OR posts promoting advocacy of particular personal, medical, legal, religious, political, or non-profit causes. Limited religious references are allowed (ie. "my prayers are with you" or a brief quote as part of a larger post), but the forums should not be used to convert others.

9. No cryptic posts. Using cryptic messages to "skirt" the rules is not permitted.

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

11. Do not post offline personal contact information (ie. your home address, phone numbers etc.) and do not ask for personal information from others. Use of full names (your first and last name) is allowed but strongly discouraged. This is to protect your security and identity.

12. No lengthy signatures. Limit signatures to 10 lines or less. Moderators will edit and/or remove signatures that are too long.

15. You will not violate a person's privacy by publishing information against another member's will, information that is private and personal.

16. Sexual harassment will not be tolerated.


Guidelines (DO's):

1. Check for open topics. Before posting a new topic, please check to see if there is already a topic open on the subject.

2. Always be civil and courteous. This forum is visited by people from all over the world of different ages, genders, and races. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Agree to disagree.

3. Ignore bothersome members. If there is someone on the forum that bothers you, change your personal settings to ignore posts by that person.

4. Report posts that violate the rules and guidelines. 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.

5. Use good judgement. NEVER rely on information or opinions exchanged via the forums to replace necessary, personal consultation(s) with qualified health or medical professionals to meet your individual health or medical needs. Remember that what's right or has worked for one person may not be what's right for you.

6. 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. We're all different, but we're really all the same. At sometime or another, we all need or want help or simply someone with whom we can share our burdens or successes.

7. Welcome new members. When newcomers arrive, say "hi" and welcome them. Help new folks "learn the ropes" about how to find information and resources, save time, and how to get involved. You will also find a lot of help using the forums themselves.

8. 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.


Please Remember:

Rules and guidelines may change at any time, please re-read them regularly.


What happens if I break the rules?

At best your post will be edited by one of the moderators and you will be issued a warning. If the offense is more serious your post will be deleted.

Should you have already been issued warnings and continue to break the rules, you will be issued a temporary ban - your posting privileges will be disabled for seven days, but you will still be able to view the forums as a guest.

For persistent and or deliberate rule-breakers your account will be banned permanently. That means you are no longer welcome on these forums and your account will no longer function. If you re-register under different name, your new account will also be banned.