TSF Guidelines
Please read this page prior to registration. When you have read this page and are ready to submit your registration, fill out the registration form on the subsequent pages. Please note that by applying you agree to the stated rules and understand that the Administrators may take action prescribed in this document (or its modified follow-ups) to enforce established rules for the BBS. As such, you should read this file prior to registration. After reading this, if you have any questions, feel free to email Starlight
Document Contents:
1. The Survivor Forum (TSF) Charter
2. Message Posting Advice
3. TSF Message Board Rules
1. The TSF Charter
This WWW BBS is a privately owned and operated web communications area devoted to the discussion of issues regarding healing from childhood sexual abuse, trauma, and dissociation. The goal of the BBS is to provide a safe space for sharing and healing.
The TSF Message Board is designed for use by survivors as described above. Rules for the BBS are clearly established and are provided to the public and to subscribing members.
All communications on this board are copyright to the original authors and to The TSF owners. This is a legal caveat necessary so that if the Moderator or owner chooses to maintain BBS archives, repost certain messages, et al. they may do so.
Overall BBS Operation
The public cannot read the board freely — they must register first, however no formal application and approval process is required. If you wish to post messages, registration is done via online form.
This BBS is " moderated," which is to say that the content of posts are never edited (unless it is agreed upon with the author in lieu of post removal), but they may be moved or deleted according to established rules or while editing is taking place.
2. Message Posting Advice
Certain aspects of your message besides content may affect the quality and readability of both your message and the overall BBS. These are "general guidelines," Moderator-enforceable in drastic or repeating cases, that BBS members are expected to make some effort to help with. These include:
Quotes: You should only include a small portion of the post you may be responding to in your own message. Delete the previous text others have written, except sentences or paragraphs that you are directly responding to. (It is assumed that anybody reading your post has read the posts prior to it, so a complete recap is only redundant.) If you don't do this, readers are forced to wade through the same message over and over again, or scroll for a long time before they even get to what you wanted to say. Be polite — include minimal quoting. (In some cases the Moderator may delete excessive quoting from a post out of courtesy.)
Signatures: Your signature/footer should be reasonable. The limit is set to four lines.
Names: We encourage the use of nicknames/aliases because of the sensitive nature of the issues discussed here. We only request that you sign with SOME sort of name at the bottom of your posts so that others on the board who may wish to respond will know what to address you with. Posts from anonymous 'strangers' feel unsafe.
Copyrights: Keep in mind that most printed news stories and articles are copyrighted to the authors or publishers. While it may or may not be legal to post them in entirety, the Moderator does not moderate this — unless it clearly says, when you post it, that it is not to be reprinted, in which case we are legally required to pull the post off the public board. We suggest you consider "paraphrasing a review" of items more likely to be copyrighted without permission to distribute. You may also include instead URL/News/FTP info if something is posted on the WWW or Usenet or FTP.
Private Email: When exchanging E-Mail with someone privately, it is unacceptable to post their private Email to you to the public list without first obtaining permission. In the case of high personal content, the Moderator may apply moderation to these posts. As a second aspect to private email, if any member should find themselves overtly and repeatedly harrassed privately by another BBS member in relation to BBS participation, the Moderator requests these messages including full internet headers be forwarded to them, and in some cases the offending author may be removed from BBS membership and/or their ISP may be contacted regarding the content. If a member is ill or hospitalized or will be away for any other reason and that member tells you, do not post the information on the forums. Send it to Starlight and she will decide if it should be shared, this is to respect everyone's privacy.
Tsf has 12 rooms in which you may recieve support on your journey.
The Announcement and Question room - area for announcements and questions about TSF
The Castle Garden - Welcome area with light hearted talk
The Castle Tower - Place for potential Triggering material
The Castle Dome - Creative writing
The Littles Playground - Inner children and child alters play here
The Haven - Where littles can speak about their fears and troubles
The Teens Spot - where teens can share their struggles
The Castle Waterfall - Discussions about therapy
The Castle Study - Discussions about therapy
The Fortress - Place for alters to gather
Atrium - Loved ones of survivors seek advice
Library - Stories of survivors here
We ask that if you are posting material that might be upsetting that you post in the tower or the study and mark in the subject line as clearly as possible what the post is about. Then participants can decide if they are in a place to be able to read something potentially triggering. Examples of triggering material would be details of abuse, cursing, or outbursts of emotion and religious post.
Spoiling - many people chose to spoil their words here meaning that they take the vowels out of triggering words such as abuse would be *b*s* and perps would be p*rps etc. Some people chose not to spoil but will mark their posts as unspoiled.
All other common "netiquette" guidelines would apply here also.
3. TSF Message Board Rules
The Cardinal Rule - No suicidal posts or threats of Self Injury are allowed. We all know how difficult this healing process is, but it is unsafe for others (and makes them feel helpless) if anyone posts a suicidal or self injury note . Talking of feelings is OK.. i.e. talking of feeling desperate or despondent.. Talking about ACTIONS is NOT OK. i.e. talking about suicide plans etc. These posts will be removed for the safety of all. If you are suicidal, call a support person. There are also lists of Suicide Prevention Hotlines to call.
Behavior - Discussion is expected to be "in the spirit" that encourages further discussion. All discussion is expected to be in an uplifting, encouraging, supportive, and caring manner, which does not personally (directly or deliberately inferredly) insult other individual participants. It is okay to express feelings you experience in regards to relationships, but it is NOT OKAY to directly or indirectly attack another person, whether that person is part of this forum or not. These kind of statements take away from the feeling of safety.
Registration Applicants - are expected to provide the requested information in a legitimate fashion. Registrations which are harrassing to the Moderator in some manner will be posted publicly on the "Moderator Activities" page, and the registrant may have access denied and/or terminated. Registrations from the same IP suspected to be an individual previously banned from access may be denied. Email addresses must be included in registration, though may be hidden, in which case only the administrator can see them and they will be kept private. Anyone who does not provide a true email address will be asked to reregister.
Flaming - is not tolerated on this BBS. It only annoys readers, insults posters, and creates further flames as part of obligatory response. Please do not attack other participants. Flaming can be presented in various and creative manners and the Moderator retains the right to arbitrarily decide what constitutes this. Participants may petition the Moderator for recognition of this.
Rules Violations The board has a list of "behavior" rules (above), and others, which are provided to all members before and/or at the point of registration. Violation of these rules may get posts removed and violating members removed from registration access. Nearly all of these rules pertain to the goal of keeping this a safe and healing environment.
Advertising - If you have a website, you may place the reference to that website in your signature. Generally speaking, open advertising is not allowed in posts and will be removed. If you have a website you wish to promote, or have seen one you wish to announce, or are soliciting help or input for a project, PLEASE contact the moderator, who will review the information. If the proposed advertisement fits within the guidelines and spirit of the board, provisions for this will be made.
Surveys - No surveys are allowed to be taken at TSF. If you are doing papers on abise for school we ask that you use the web for information gathering NOT TSF.
Images - TSF allows the sharing of images (avatars and images posted within messages). The posting of images must not break any of the other TSF Rules and Guidelines, and must be copyright-free. The moderators at TSF reserve the right to remove pictures that 1) do not meet this criteria; and 2) may be too graphic for the overall safety of the TSF community.
Moderator Participation - The TSF Message Board was set up with the intention that much of the communication that takes place on the Message Board gets seen by the Moderator(s) to keep the environment safe for all. The Moderator(s) are also survivors in the process of healing. For those reasons, the Moderator(s) may participate in both posting and conversation. The Moderator(s) are subject to participant rules when doing so.
Member Removal - For any member who is removed from registration access, reason and/or example will be provided by the Moderator as needed.
Arbitrary Decisions - There is always some degree of Moderator decision (particularly in the case of "flaming") that is arbitrary; what consistutes a violation of behavior rules in particular can be many shades of grey. There are a number of considerations that may influence Moderator decision in these cases. Those include but are not limited to: Previous behavior of the poster; quantity and quality of BBS participation by the poster otherwise; relevance to the stated charter of the BBS; and multi-post harrassment or deliberately obtuse behavior (which is a form of harrassment). (e.g., Asking the same question over and over without bothering to acknowledge the answer; responding with argument without addressing fair issues presented; discussing a specific topic or author's content without reading the references provided; etc.)
--Starlight, Moderator
