Well Spouse™ Association Online Community User Agreement

Spring 2011 Update:

Note: Once you have registered, changes to your account details are now made using My Profile, on the WSA home page, http://wellspouse.org . All fields with an asterisk (starred) must be filled in, then click on Save at the bottom of the page.

For maximum privacy, remember always to log in through the home page, and click on Forums, to go there; then  click on "logout [YourUsername]" to leave the Forum, and log out from the home page -- so that  both the Forum and any access you have to the website is not available to anyone else who might use your computer.

WELCOME!

This forum is brought to you by The Well Spouse™ Association (WSA), an international organization with 501(c)3 non-profit status in the United States.

Well Spouse offers peer emotional support to spousal caregivers -- husbands, wives or partners of people with any chronic illness and/or disability.

For Non-Supporting Members, registration and participation in the WSA forum is free for one year. After that time you will be invited to join the organization as a Supporting (paid) Member.  If you are not already a Supporting Member of the WSA, we ask that you explore the Website to learn more about the WSA and consider joining our organization. Annual Supporting Membership includes full member access to the WSA Website; a subscription to Mainstay, our quarterly newsletter with stories by members; all WSA mailings; participation in regional support groups (where available); access to an individual mentor; and reduced fees for workshops, respite weekends, and the annual national conference -- as well as continued access to the WSA Online Forum. All spousal caregivers are welcome to join and dues go directly to support operation of this forum. We truly need your support as much as you need ours!

The following are terms of use that you agree to uphold as a member of the Well Spouse™ Online Community:

The Well Spouse discussion boards serve an online community of caregivers of chronically ill or disabled spouses or partners. Our discussions on the boards are, first and foremost, for support and information. By registering, you agree to respect and uphold the integrity of this community. Through your direct or indirect participation here you agree to make a personal effort to maintain a comfortable and respectful atmosphere for our guests and members. We have formed specific discussion guidelines and rules for maintaining a reciprocal and welcoming atmosphere for all discussion board participants. You are expected to avoid the following when you post:

1. Posting in a disrespectful, defamatory, adversarial, baiting, harassing, offensive, insultingly sarcastic or otherwise improper manner, toward a member or other individual, including casting of suspicion upon a person, invasion of privacy, humiliation, demeaning criticism, namecalling, personal attack, or in any way which violates the law.
2. Posting of profane or sexually explicit text.
3. Posting of copyrighted material without permission. Details of copyright guidelines are available here, in the Forum Guidelines and Rules board.
4. Posting to advertise your product or business.
5. Posting to discuss the behavior of a member or members on the board, or to criticize another discussion on the boards. Such issues should be directed to the moderator or administrator privately and not made a subject of discussion in a thread.

Any violation will result in your post being removed. You also may receive an administrative warning, temporary suspension, or complete ban from this community at the sole discretion of the Administrator/ Moderator.

While the administrators and moderators of this forum will attempt to remove or edit any generally objectionable material as quickly as possible, it is impossible to review every message. Therefore you acknowledge that all posts made to these forums express the views and opinions of the author and not the administrators, moderators or webmaster (except for posts by these people) and hence will not be held liable.

The Well Spouse™ Online Community and the Wellspouse.org website are property of the Well Spouse™ Association, a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization. The Well Spouse™ Association reserves all rights, privileges and sole administrative authority.

Appendix: Politics and Religion

First, if you feel strongly about politics or religion there are plenty of other forums or boards on the Internet that you can go to and engage in full-throated discussion of what other people should be doing.

In keeping with encouraging freedom of speech, and within the bounds of the above 5 rules, expression of political or religious beliefs on the Forum is allowed. Common practice is for the poster to add a phrase in the Subject of the post: "Warning: political / religious content." This allows those who do not wish to, to avoid reading a post in a potentially controversial area.

We also ask that people confine discussion of politics or religion in respect to their own personal situation, or the situation of spousal caregivers in general.

In making political or religious comments please bear in mind:

1. You have no right to criticize anyone else's actions.
2. You have no right to tell someone what they need or don't need in a harassing way.
3. You have no right to imply that your religion is the only way -- if you do you are arrogant and self-important and we do not want such closed minded people here. You may think what you like privately to yourself.

Finally, please be mindful of what you write and respectful of others.