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AUDIENCE/PARTICIPANTS
A place to sort it out: We welcome those who are contemplating leaving the Family/Children of God, those who have left, and those with questions about the existence of abuses. We even welcome sincere, intelligent interaction with current members of The Family or pro-Family people. However, do not expect a warm reception if you doubt that Berg was abusive, or if you make standardized Family arguments and generalized statements minimizing/discounting facts re: abuse.
CONTENT
Religion-free board: It is safe to assume that no member can come away from their COG experience without re-examining his/her belief system - there are just so many things to sort out. We recognize that many members once exiting the Family have naturally become hesitant about their faith - if they have any left to salvage. Many want to distance themselves from any talk of religion whatsoever. With this in mind, we wish to offer a place where eXers can discuss their ideas, hopes, despairs and aspirations freely and not feel compelled to relate everything religiously. We realize that for some, this is a very necessary and required space. If you wish to discuss issues of a religious or spiritual nature, please use the Journeys board Politics-free: While we understand that it may be difficult or impossible to make posts completely void of political views and expressions, we no longer allow general political discussions on our boards. Dissecting Berg's political views in his teachings may be allowed if they do not attack a specific legitimate political affiliation. Context is important. Answer to posts in the context of the thread as much as possible. Unintelligible posts or posts which make no sense to the purpose of the site will be deleted. Avoid mindless rhetoric. If you wish to debate, do your homework.
NETIQUETTE
Keep it friendly: We want an environment where you feel safe to talk freely about your ideas, thoughts, problems; a place of intelligent discussion where ideas and debates are encouraged; a board for polite social exchanges. In other words, disagree all you want, but please be courteous to fellow posters. Insensitivity will not be tolerated. We will make provision for inevitable unintentional misunderstandings and marked differences of opinion that can arise from interaction between posters, but deliberate and repeated hurtful or abrasive behavior will result in being banned. No angry debating allowed. Posts are subject to removal if content is vulgar and/or offensive. Lively discussions are encouraged as long as a certain level of civility is maintained. Please don’t make it personal. No personal attacks. If you have a specific problem with a poster, settle it outside of the forum. Threads of that nature will be deleted. No harassment or cyber-stalking. Harassing behavior will result in being banned from all our forums. Cyber-stalking can be defined as (but not limited to) a poster with a vendetta, following another poster around on the boards whenever he/she posts, challenging anything/everything about his/her views over a period of time. No unwelcome familiarity or badgering. While we recognize that in any virtual community, it is both natural and necessary that participants achieve some level of familiarity with each other's views and lifestyles, etc., this familiarity can be misused in the bulletin board medium, as a tool for badgering. In all discussions, where possible, kindly stay in context, address the points in the thread and refrain from introducing random references to another participant's previous stated views/lifestyle/etc in a badgering manner. PRIVACY
Multiple Pen Names (handles). The use of multiple pen names is permitted on our bulletin boards, as long as there is no malicious intent for doing so. Posting under a pen name allows you to express your views and get support for your pain while maintaining control over your privacy, and separating your past cult affiliation from your new life and workplace. In addition, if you have a situation where you could be cut off from your friends or family for speaking out against The Family, it is wise to avoid posting with your legal name or former 'Bible name.' As a bulletin board user you are anonymous to other posters (unless you post identifiable things about yourself or write in an identifiable manner), but we will not allow misuse of this anonymity, such as using multiple anonymous names to:
Posters caught disrespecting these rules regarding pen names, privacy and anonymity will be given a warning. Continued violation of this policy will result in being banned from the board. No purposeless naming of legal names of ex-members, whether carelessly or deliberately: If you're going to cite any legal names, use them in compliance with our guidelines. The Family's policy has been to expose the faces and legal names of their followers, while protecting their leadership who live in hiding under assumed names - we aim to reverse that policy. When an individual has left the group and gone on to make something good out of his/her life, associating them with The Family can sometimes have adverse effects on their recovery. Unless you are reporting firsthand accounts of specific crimes which can hold up in a court of law, we do not need to cause former members unnecessary grief, creating "guilt by association" by connecting them to The Family. MISCELLANEOUS
Initiating Posts must contain subject matter ("message" box must be filled) - not just a subject line with no text - "(NT)".
No advertising or linking for commercial/piracy purposes. No promotion of sites and products, including those which may be understood to be disruptive of the commercial rights of others—such as pirated software, or sites which encourage piracy. No incitement to crime: suggesting that leaders of The Family International should be tried for their crimes is acceptable; suggesting that we deal with them by taking the law into our own hands is not.
Any posts with content which can be construed as incitement to commit crime will be deleted. |
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