Community Announcements

[Sarah]

Welcome to the TodaysParent.com community, where parents gather to swap advice and ideas, share their experiences and build friendships. Grab a coffee and join in!

To post in our forums, you’ll need to register with TodaysParent.com.

Please note: By using these board you agree to the Terms of Service.

Profile information

To identify yourself in the forums, you'll need to register a screen name and password.  It's a very quick and easy process! Please note that you can read posts without registering, but you will not be able to post questions.

If you are new to the forums an introduction message makes for a great way to become part of the community. Something like, "Hi everyone, I'm so-and-so and I'm new to the forums. Glad to be here." (This is just a suggested first post!)

Please follow these guidelines when creating your message board profile:

• Screen name and/or email address used must not impersonate someone else, be offensive or violate intellectual property.
• Profile information including email address must be accurate.
• Members may not register multiple profiles.

Posting etiquette

• Always try to post in the message board best suited to your message under the appropriate topic. If the moderator feels you have posted in an inappropriate topic she may move your post to a more appropriate board.

• As with many online message boards, users tend to use abbreviations for frequently-used words. If you are new and want to know what someone means when they refer to their "SO" or "DD," consult our list of abbreviations [http://www.todaysparent.com/article.jsp?content=5214].

• You can view our Trying to Conceive list of abbreviations here: http://www.todaysparent.com/pregnancy/getting-pregnant/getting-pregnant-message-board-glossary

• In “message board-speak” ALL CAPS means you are yelling (and is difficult to read).  Please use discretion when using uppercase words in your posts. (We understand that you may want to use them infrequently to indicate that you are excited about something!)

Protecting your privacy

• Avoid posting private information such as your full name, phone number or address. If you wish for someone to contact you, send a private message.

Reporting inappropriate posts

• If you come across a post that you find inappropriate or offensive, please do not respond to it. If you would like to flag an inappropriate post, use the "report inappropriate content" link in the bottom left-hand corner of the post, which will take you to a reporting screen. Log your comment, and a moderator will be notified to review the post. All message board users help build a strong community by helping to flag problems.

User conduct

To avoid having your account banned, please be respectful of others on this board. We are all for debates and heated conversations, but we do not allow personal attacks, insults or obscenities. Remember to stick to the topic on hand and debate the topic's merits or flaws – not those of the poster.

The following message board behaviours could result in having your account banned:

• Attacks based on someone’s race, religion, ethnic origin, gender and/or sexual orientation or political affiliation
• Vulgar, obscene or hateful language

• Legal threats against a board user
• Legal threats against properties of Rogers Communications Inc.
• Sharing another poster’s personal information (phone number, address, et cetera)
• Posting anything libelous or otherwise illegal
• Advertising, promotion or solicitation, including chain letters, class action lawsuits or appeals for donation
• Content or links to content that contains pornography or viruses that may damage someone else's computer
• Duplicate or excessively repeated submissions in one or more areas
• Content designed to evade profanity or other filters
• Hyperlinks to sites that violate the terms of service
• Impersonating another person
• Content or behaviour that violates any applicable laws
• Content or behaviour that interferes with the operation of the site or with another member's ability to use the site
• Evading site controls such as bans, or otherwise disregarding the directions of the site moderators or administrators

Enforcement

Our objective at Todaysparent.com is to foster a community of parents sharing advice and support in a friendly, inclusive environment. Unfortunately, in some very rare cases, we come across an individual or situation that we feel takes away from the goals of the community. To protect the interests of the community, we reserve the right to:

• Delete/edit messages
• Ban/suspend users at our discretion
• Restrict or limit accounts
• Ban accounts

Taking away posting privileges is not taken lightly and only done after the moderator and community requests for change are ignored. As well, we reserve the right to contact a poster's Internet Service Provider if the poster is deliberately and maliciously posting falsehoods, obscenities, insults or attacks and has chosen to ignore the moderator's warnings.