CatBox Forum Policy
The
Administrative Team (AdminTeam) may update this
policy at any time.
Rights
Members have the
right to choose to stay, leave, gather additional
information, vent and/or explore alternatives within
the restraints of board rules. The rules exist to
protect the rights of the membership at large, and
the board's ability to function effectively.
When a thread goes off the subject, the member has a
right to request that the thread go back on track and
that the other items go into a new thread.
Members have the right to considerate, respectful
treatment from other members. there is zero tolerance
for discrimination based on race, ethnicity, national
origin, religion, gender, age, physical disability,
sexual orientation, etc.
Members have the
right to privacy and to their own content. What is
said here, stays here. Material posted on
this site is not to be copied/posted/used elsewhere -
except by the original poster. Posted material
becomes the property of this site for the protection
of the members and for the effective functioning of
the board. In other words, if you write a book, you
own the copyright to that book. When you give a copy
of that book to the forum, you relinquish the right
to have it returned to you. The CatBox will
relinquish its copy of your book or modify it to
render it unidentifyable if there is threat
to your personal safety.
The CatBox has the
right to retain, invisible, delete, or edit posts
that oppose forum policy. The CatBox has no
responsibility to retain or delete posts that have
been made to its forums. Similarly, we are under no
obligation to delete your account in the absence of
personal safety issues.
Members have the
right to a fair process for resolving differences
amongst themselves. This should be done privately via
PMs to individual members and/or to Admins. Public
flaming, contentious, or disruptive posting is not
tolerated.
Members are encouraged to embrace
taking responsibility for their own emotional and
mental health. One of the central values of this
board is the fostering of personal responsibility and
autonomy. We encourage:
Respectful posting in
general.
Respectful posting of differences in
opinion/individuality
Privacy: what is said in this forum *stays* in
this forum
Posting that supports each other
Celebration of the diversity of each member
Good natured levity can disarm the most heated debate
and is encouraged
Responsibilities
LIBEL - No slamming another Catboxer (calling names,
personal attacks, false accusation with the intent to
destroy reputation, etc.). It is okay to disagree with a
person, but it is not okay to personally attack, use
words out of context, etc.. Any
person placing offensive, obscene, abusive or
derogatory posts on the board or sending them to
board members in PM form will be automatically
banned.
Furthermore
Dr. Irene and drirene.com reserve the right to pursue
libelous accusations against Dr. Irene and
drirene.com to the fullest extent of the law.
If you see rude, libelous posts, report them asap to
administration. When you use the "Report this post"
option, it is sent to the AdminTeam.
THREAD ALTERCATIONS - Differences of opinion will
occur from time to time and this is understood.
Threads that generate into fights between posters
will be locked and/or deleted.
TARGETING OTHER MESSAGE BOARDS - Please do not post
your anger at other message boards by naming them.
Admin will delete these posts with no warning. We
have links to websites featuring boards which may be
helpful to some. Take what you need and leave the
rest.
POSTING PUBLIC ADMIN CHALLENGES: When an admin steps
makes a decision, it is after thought and
discussion amongst all available admins, usually a
minimum of three. We make every attempt to
address issues in a timely manner. If a member
disagrees with the ruling and wants to add new
information, they may privately contact admin. Any
reasonable, brief input will be considered.
However, public posts concerning admin decisions will
be deleted, as will posts questioning the integrity
of admin.
PROFANITY - Profanity is strictly prohibited.
IGNORING ADMIN EDITING REQUESTS - If we think a
poster has overstepped a boundary, admin may request
the poster to reword the post. However, if time is of
the essence or the poster refuses, admin may
edit/delete post(s). Upon request, admin will notify
the original poster of the changes and the reason for
the change.
REPOSTING DELETED POSTS - Reposting admin-deleted posts
serves no other purpose than to cause trouble and
will not be tolerated.
We reserve the right to delete disruptive posts without
explanation. You may inquire as to the reasoning,
which you may or may not find satisfactory. An
example might be a post we feel will cause serious
offense to readers or is deliberately provocative.
MULTIPLE PERSONAS - As this website deals with abuse
and its residual effects, trust among the members is
paramount. IT IS PROHIBITED to create more than one
persona. If you want to change your username, THIS IS
PERMITTED. Please notify admin to request the change,
and advise whether or not you will be making the
change public information.
PASSWORDS - Passwords are not to be shared with other
members for any reason. This protocol addresses the
issue of safety - both physical and emotional for our
posters.
COPYRIGHT - Give proper credit to the authors of
original material you post.
Unless you wrote the material, it is a copyright
infringement to take posts to other boards/places.
Taking another person's material is prohibited.
Linking to posts however is permitted.
11: AGE - You
must be 18 and over to participate.
Banning/Restrictions
We reserve the right to ban any member who violates
our policy or disrupts our community in any way. Free
speech is not an excuse for irresponsible
posting behavior.
If you get a pm from admin to modify your post, take
it seriously.
Failure to heed a pm will result in
an official warning that has been reviewed by a
minimum of 3 Admins. You will receive one warning by
Private Message (PM) or email or in-board post.
Expulsion is subsequently at the
discretion of the Admin Team. Failure to comply will
result in a ban or suspension.
Official warnings will remain for six months and then
expire.
Suspensions range from one month to a year depending
on the severity of the infraction and whether or not
a previous suspension has been implemented. Severe
infraction will result in permanent banning from the
board.
We reserve the
right to ban without explanation.
Banned users who create new usernames
or personalities and return will be banned and WILL
be reported to their ISP provider and/or employer (if
ISP address routes back to employer). Note that we do
not take contacting one's employer lightly. This
measure is reserved for those who do not respect
being banned.
Any poster deemed to be here purely to create
disruption, or post spurious posts will be banned
immediately. This includes all "fake" posters. Again,
if action taken is mistaken, the poster concerned can
contact the admins and Dr. Irene at
catbox@drirene.com.
Additional measures, such as pm
monitoring, may be taken by
the owner without warning to prevent behavior that
may undermine the integrity of the board.
Immediate, automatic bans without warning may be
incurred by:
Posting
offensive, obscene, abusive or derogatory comments on
the board or sending them to board members in PM or
email form will be automatically banned.
Racial, ethnic, gender based insults or other
discriminatory posts.
Spamming.
Posting or linking to pornography, warez, any other
illegal or illicit content
Advertising, commercial-related or competing products
are all forbidden in any relation to your account.
You will not advertise or link to other forums,
products, or materials without the express permission
of the admin team.
Impersonation of a user, in any mode of
communication, is strictly prohibited.
Good Communications Tips
If you need to send a tough message and you are
worried about how it may be perceived - Write it,
then read it carefully. Look at the content, watch
for particularly emotional words that may trigger. If
necessary, get someone else to read it as well.
Respond in much the same manner. If you're on the
receiving end of what you consider a personally
offensive or triggering post, be careful about any
immediate reaction that will only inflame matters.
Carefully compose a response in a
word processor or on a sheet of paper to
avoid impulsively posting a reply. Give it 24 hours;
look over what you wrote. Is what you're saying
useful, or is it an angry rant that may violate policy?
To paraphrase Soren Kierkegaard: "People
demand freedom of speech as compensation for the
freedom of thought which they should have used in the
first place."
You don't have to respond. Just
because you got a nasty message doesn't mean you must
respond in kind. If you feel comfortable, privately
contact the person via email or PM. If the post is
particularly obnoxious, don't respond, but report it
to admin. Let us handle it. Disengaging is a
wonderful tool to learn to choose when and how to do
it, ton a message board or
in our every day lives.
If you have knowingly
or unknowingly irritated someone, say you're sorry.
As well-intentioned as we are, we're Human. We can
mess up. We hate hurtful posts, but even the best of
us will send them out from time to time. Apologize!
Remember: you can go to the person you hurt
and say, "I'm sorry". It often isn't an easy thing to
do, but can be critical in restoring peace and
healing among members - and within yourself.
General Interest
Posts and threads
will be regularly
pruned to reduce size and clutter without
warning.
You are
responsible to regularly download material you may
wish to keep.
Help Files -
Before you contact a moderator, check the
Help files and the
information found in your "My Controls" section near the
top of each CatBox page. In most cases your questions
will be addressed.
If you are linking to external content, link directly
to that content. It is unacceptable to use link-thru
systems to mask the originating URL.
We reserve the right to consider circumstance in
any individual case. The decisions of Dr Irene and
the AdminTeam are final. If you feel you have been
unfairly treated, please contact the admins and Dr
Irene at
CatBox@Drirene.com.
"Oh no! I'm Locked Out and Can't Log In!"
If you find yourself locked, please do not automatically
assume you are banned. The board can do funny things
at times and it may be admin just need to discuss a
particular post. Email Administration if you are
locked out and unsure as to why.
Pictures may be posted as long as they are not
explicit or offensive. If you plan to post more than
one image, or the topic is based on graphics, please
link the images rather than screening.
Signatures may contain images, but may not be larger
than 300x100; 468x60 banners are also permitted
(within reason). If your signature is larger than the
allotted size, you will be asked to resize/ change
your image. Tyr tp keep text signatures under 5 lines
as well. Failing to comply with a moderator's request
will result in the removal of your signature.
