A Few Simple Guidelines...
We don't have many hard-and-fast rules at cleftAdvocate's Family-To-Family Connection (FTFC), but everyone will have a better experience if we can stick to a few simple guidelines.
* As a subscribed member, you may read and/or respond to posts from your e-mail program by addressing your posts to cleftadvocate@listserv.galists.org. You can also read/respond from our web interface by logging on through this page. If you are not subscribed, you can still read the posts of subscribed members, but must subscribe to post a new question or reply to previous posts.
* As a new member, please introduce yourself to the cleftAdvocate family. If you don't post, we won't know you're there!
* Ours is a very active active support site! If you find yourself overwhelmed, consider switching from immediate e-mail mode to digest or index mode, or read and respond through the web interface. Either of these options can also help restrict e-mail delivery while you're on vacation or a business trip. Log in to your account to change your e-mail preference.
* 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.
* 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!
* 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!
* 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.
* 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!
* Whether you're new or you've been with us awhile, you may want to search the archives for particular subject matter. Log in to the web interface and use the search feature to find your area of interest.
* Please do not post fundraising solicitations for patients/individuals or for organizations other than cleftAdvocate and its 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. While we appreciate the good works of all, it is our responsibility to look after the fiscal health of cleftAdvocate and its related programs, first and foremost.
* Please don't make this an outlet for advertising your latest on- or off-line business venture. A link or short tagline included with your signature block is fine; however, repeated advertisements within the body of your correspondence will be considered spam and in violation of these guidelines, making your posts subject to removal from the archives and your e-mail address subject to immediate unsubscription.
* 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.
* The only diehard rule we do have here at cleftAdvocate...
Have a great time as you make new friends
from around the country and the world!
Management reserves the right to moderate and/or ban subscribers as necessary to maintain the quality and integrity of the FTFC. 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
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, as this will be considered grounds for immediate and permanent removal from the FTFC subscription base without further notice or explanation.
And just in case you think we're joking...we're not.
We subscribe to the HONcode principles of
The Health On Net Foundation
cleftAdvocate
Welcome to cleftAdvocate's Family-To-Family Connection!
