A Few Simple Guidelines...
We don't have many hard-and-fast rules at cleftAdvocate's Family-To-Family Connection (FTFC) and our other on-line forums, groups and pages, but everyone will have a better experience if we can stick to a few simple guidelines.
As a new member in any of our on-line forums, please introduce yourself...if you don't post, we won't know you're there!
Ours is a very active patient/family support organization! At the FTFC on Facebook and Twitter and our similar on-line forums, you are solely responsible for adjusting your e-mail notifications.
Be respectful! There are many courses of treatment, many personal decisions that are made on this journey...and every one of us feels that our decisions are the very best for our family. Keep in mind that we are a very diverse community from all over the country and beyond, representing all levels of education, income and the like. Whatever our decisions for treatment and surgery, we make those decisions with the resources we have available. Please do not criticize the decisions of other Family-to-Family members; we're here to support each other!
Express your opinions and share your experiences...without the use of foul language! Ours is not a moderated list (in other words, we do not read your material first and decide whether or not we'll let it post to the list); however, violations are taken very seriously and will be handled accordingly.
Listservs - Reduce the size of e-mails to include only pertinent parts of the post you are answering. Delete the rest so that we don't keep sending the same stuff back and forth. There is no sense in sending the same information or photos back and forth to each other on the listserv, and it wastes valuable server resources and disk space!
Listservs - Do not post or respond in all capital letters, and please break up long posts into paragraphs. It is extremely difficult to read a "run-on" post!
Listservs - Change the e-mail subject line if you find the conversation drifting to a different topic. This will make it easier to pinpoint areas of interest, and will assist newcomers and visitors searching the archives.
Listservs - Label off-topic discussions as OT. As with any family, clefts are not our only topic of discussion, but we want to make sure that folks aren't inundated with too much off-topic e-mail, and at least are alerted to the content.
Remember that this is a public forum! Do not post personal information like your address and phone number if you don't want that information floating around in cyberspace for eternity!
Please do not post fundraising solicitations for patients/individuals or for organizations other than AmeriFace, cleftAdvocate and related programs, including fundraising programs and events for other craniofacial-related charities. We are a very successful non-profit organization in that we help the absolute maximum number of families we can on a very limited budget with a 100% volunteer staff. While we appreciate the good works of all, it is our responsibility to look after the fiscal health of AmeriFace, cleftAdvocate and related programs, first and foremost. When in doubt, contact our Executive Director at debbie@ameriface.org for approval. Existing and potential Pathfinder Partner Organizations should contact debbie@ameriface.org to request event posting privileges.
If you and/or your on- or off-line business are hosting a fundraiser for the benefit of AmeriFace, cleftAdvocate and/or other AmeriFace-related programs, you may post the fundraising opportunity only ONCE each day in any of our on-line forums, groups or pages.
Please don't make our on-line forums, pages and groups an outlet for advertising your latest on- or off-line business venture. A link or short tagline included with your signature block in our listservs is fine; however, repeated advertisements within the body of your correspondence, and/or repeated posts in any of our on-line forums, groups or pages, including and especially posts made after management has warned against such practices, will be considered spam and in violation of these guidelines, making your posts subject to removal from the archives and your e-mail address/on-line identity subject to immediate unsubscription/non-participation.
Please don't make our on-line forums, pages and groups an outlet to solicit votes for cute baby contests, unrelated fundraising for schools, sports teams, clubs, etc. You may post these types of opportunities only ONCE each day in any of our on-line forums, groups or pages. Repeated posts will be considered spam and in violation of these guidelines, making your posts subject to removal from the archives and your e-mail address/on-line identity subject to immediate unsubscription/non-participation.
Posts, shares, retweets, etc. promoting individual attorneys and/or attorney firms regarding information, case review and/or possible lawsuits are not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to, references to drug-related lawsuits. Our organization will not become involved in the promotion of these types of cases, nor will it become involved in the investigation and/or litigation of these types of cases, as it is a direct conflict of interest.
Listservs - Do not enroll with an autoresponder e-mail address! This creates an infinite loop of messages that can cause havoc to the entire membership. This includes *out-of-the-office* and *vacation* messages. If you'll be unavailable, consider changing your delivery preference to *no mail* and returning to immediate e-mail mode once you settle back into your normal routine.
Regarding Violations
Management reserves the right to moderate and/or ban subscribers as necessary to maintain the quality and integrity of the FTFC and our other on-line forums, groups and pages. Report any on- and/or off-list inflammatory, derogatory and/or threatening correspondence to management immediately, forwarding the entire e-mail including headers.
Offending subscribers are subject to future moderation of posts and/or immediate and permanent removal from the FTFC subscription base and our other on-line forums, groups and pages without further notice or explanation.
Should the violation in question occur off-list, the incident should not and will not be made public by any party through this listserv or any of our other on-line forums, groups and pages, as this will be considered grounds for immediate and permanent removal from the FTFC subscription base and our other on-line forums, grouops and pages without further notice or explanation.
And just in case you think we're joking...we're not.
The only diehard rule we DO have here is...
Have a great time as you make new friends
from around the country and the world!
We subscribe to the HONcode principles of
The Health On Net Foundation
cleftAdvocate
Welcome to cleftAdvocate's Family-To-Family Connection!
a program of ameriface
All AmeriFace programs, on-line interactions and forums (including Facebook and Twitter) are subject to the provisions outlined on this page, as well as our Privacy Policy and Disclaimer documents.
FOLLOW!
