MAGPIE PUBLISHING/MEDIA INC. FORUM GUIDELINES

Our goal for our FORUM to be is to be the friendliest, safest, most comfortable place on the Web to meet and discuss mental health issues.

Before commencing, it is worth saying that we are a small number of people whose first priority is to help people with mental illness have a place to go without stigma, judgment, or condescension. We also value the family members of people with mental illnesses because we know how hard it can be to watch someone you love turn into someone else.

These guidelines are intended to make users aware of the rules that the forum administrators and moderators will apply when judging whether posts should be deleted or edited.

These are the categories of posts that may be deleted:

1) Advertising: Anyone who tries to profit off of our members will be permanently banned, and all posts will be deleted or edited. If you want to advertise on our forums, contact us inquire about our advertising rates.

2) Spam will not be tolerated; everyone gets too much via e-mail and we won’t have you trying to fill our forums with garbage.

3) Flaming: While putting forth different perspectives is healthy, personal insults, attacks and innuendos aimed at other forum members are not acceptable. We will also edit sexist, racist, or otherwise offensive language.

4) Very offensive or harmful material: Obviously this is a judgment call, but Magpie Publishing/Media Inc.’s mental health FORUM exists to allow people to share their stories. We realize that many, possibly all, cases will be upsetting. We do NOT discourage this. But there are instances where we have to make judgment calls. For example, explicit descriptions of self-harm methods, pro-anorexia posts, and mention of specific suicide methods will be edited or deleted in line with commonly accepted guidelines.

We may also edit posts that convey the impression that the poster's views are a fact rather than an opinion. For example, we may preface a post by a statement such as, “In my view...”

5) Naming of individuals: We have to protect the FORUM against accusations of libel. While it is perfectly acceptable to say that you’ve had a terrible experience with a GP/psychiatrist/CPN etc. (as all too many of us have) we cannot allow the individuals to be named on this FORUM. For your own protection, we will also try to remove names and email addresses that can identify you unless you specifically ask us not to do so prior to posting. When writing about other people (friends, relatives, etc.), please do not use their real names.

6) Irrelevance: If a post appears in a thread, and the post has nothing to do with the general direction of the thread, then it may be deleted. This applies only to serious threads (it does not apply for instance to the Chill Out Cafe). Please remember that it can be upsetting for people who are having a serious discussion to have the thread derailed by irrelevance.


If you come across a post that you feel falls into one of these categories and you want to alert the moderators, please click the triangle button, which is found on the left-hand side of every post.

If you want to seek clarification about anything here, or to clear something in advance, please contact a Moderator or Administrator.
CLICK HERE to contact an administrator.


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DISCLAIMER

The messages on this forum and any links to external websites posted within the forum express the views of the respective authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the administrators or moderators. Any advice posted here is for support purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for advice by a qualified professional.

You remain solely responsible for the content of your messages.

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless this forum.

You agree, through your use of this forum, that you will not post any material which is false, abusive, harassing, obscene, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise in violation of ANY law. You also agree not to post any copyrighted material unless the copyright is owned by you or you have consent from the owner of the copyrighted material.

This site does not align itself to any one political, religious, medical or cultural system or bias. Given the evolving and differing natures of understandings, care and treatment of mental health issues and the wide-ranging benefits of different treatments in individuals, the non-professional nature of this site is such that individual perspectives are purely individual opinions. Medical advice is best sought from medical professionals and it is acknowledged that different people are helped by different practices. Orthodox medical treatment, although helpful to many is not the only or exclusive method of accessing help.