Registration Terms
Board Rules
Please read the forum rules. By using our website you are agreeing to these rules and guidelines.
- Be Humble
Post your opinions and your experiences, but remember that other families may have different experiences than yours and may reason their way with impeccable logic to different conclusions. Posts which "lay down the law" may be deleted.
- Be Civil
Don't attack another poster's background, religious convictions, experience, or parenting style. Above all, resist the one-liner subject-header put-down. Nasty cracks will be deleted.
- Think Before You Post
The posts on this forum are available for all the world to see. If you don't want all the world to see what you have to say, don't post it. We are not likely to remove a thread/post because you later regret writing it. If you are all fired up about something, take a walk or have a cup of tea before posting something you will regret.
The forum admins are unable to delete accounts. Users can delete their own content by editing posts.
- Don't Insist on the Last Word
Some disagreements will result in a draw. Be willing to let a thread end on someone ELSE'S opinion. "Last words" which have no purpose other than to assert that, after all, you're REALLY right, will be deleted.
Do not assume that everyone on the boards shares a particular religious conviction
These boards are inclusive. You are welcome to ask theological questions, but don't post as though everyone who frequents the boards shares your ideology. Offending posts may be deleted. Don't use inquiries as an excuse to proselytize for anything. Answer questions that are posted but don't use these questions as an excuse to springboard into criticism. For example: If someone asks, "What are your kids dressing up as for Halloween?" don't launch into an explanation of how evil Halloween is. If someone asks, "Is Halloween evil?" have a ball. (Conversely: if someone posts, "We don't do Halloween; what can we substitute?" don't take this as an opportunity to prove to them that Halloween is really just fine.)
- If You're Joking, Say So
Really. Humor doesn't come across in cyberspace. Honest. Smiles help - try them. 🙂
- No Advertising
If you are the publisher or author of home schooling (or other) materials, or have a financial interest in a particular program, you may answer direct questions about those materials but don't use a general query ("What science/language arts/history materials should I use?") as a chance to promote your product. When these questions are posed, we hope that parents will hear from other parents not from those who may have a vested interest in the use of a particular program.
While advertising of products & services is prohibited, it is permissible to post invitations for people to join free or nonprofit programs or groups. But don't overwhelm the WTM forums with spam: Make your invitation clear, post it once, and direct people to your own site for further information and interaction.
- No Partisan Politics
There are many places on the internet to discuss political positions. This is not one of them. Do not post partisan political positions, links to partisan political sites, conspiracy theories or links to conspiracy theories, or anything else related to the political parties in the United States.
- Respect Medical Science
Vaccines have been preventing unnecessary death since 1796. While we are 100% supportive of a parent's right to choose medical care for their children, we are not open to hosting, on this site, misinformation about the dangers that vaccines may cause to the human race, considering that, for 300 years, they have prevented hordes of people from dying.
- Will We Delete (or close) Posts?
At times, when threads get too intense, we have to delete (or close) them. Even threads that start off civil can quickly devolve into mayhem, and we may choose to preemptively close them. Please don't ask why the thread (or your post) was deleted. It wasn't necessarily something you said. Very likely, somebody before you or after you posted something that had to come down. Sometimes, the only way we can remove the troublesome posts is by removing the whole thread. And a question like "where did my post go?" or "where did the ________ discussion go?" only serves to bring the discussion back to the boards. Posts that ask "where is X post?" will be deleted. We may also delete posts that do not add to the topic at hand.
- Social Groups
Social groups exist so that you can all have additional fun/support. Posts in social groups which attack or mock other social groups or members will be deleted. We expect that you're all mature enough to understand why, so we won't answer messages asking why deletions were made.
- Will We Merge Threads?
Yes. Unlike the old board format, this new format will bring an old thread to the top when a new post is added. Starting a new *update* thread is not helpful for those who did not see the original thread. If admins see a thread that appears to be an update, they will merge it with the original thread. They don't always get it right. Do everyone a favor and add your update to your original thread.
- Don't Announce That You're Leaving and Never Coming Back
Posts along the lines of "I'm not appreciated here, so I'm leaving" really aren't necessary. If you post something like that, know that we'll be deleting it. It's not that we don't appreciate you ... we just don't appreciate those posts.
- No Spouse/Significant-Other Bashing
The Internet (and this site in particular) is not the appropriate place to complain about your husband (or wife) or to ask for marital counseling. Call a friend instead.
- Use Your Inside Voice
Posting a message in all caps is the cyber-equivalent of yelling please don't do it. It's rude. Really.
Don't use board space to talk about the boards
You can always email the moderators with suggestions, but we've been doing this a long time and probably have heard it all before. (In other words, don't expect an answer.) Threads about how the boards should be run differently, laments about how much more/less welcoming the board is/was now/in the past, and criticisms of the moderators should be posted on...someone else's board.
- Don't Create Duplicate Accounts
As stated in the Admin thread, don't create more than 1 account. You will be banned.
If you have established two (or more!) accounts, please send email to support@welltrainedmind.com so we can merge the duplicates into one account. This will preserve the posts in both accounts.
- Sale/Swap Board
In an effort to make your Sale & Swap purchases safer, we have instituted a 50 Post Minimum policy. We want people who post items for sale to have a track record in our community. Although you may have been active on our "old" board, we cannot move posts for the old board to the new board. Please don't ask if you can be an exception to the new rules. Everyone starts fresh here. Registered users with fewer than 50 posts will still be able to respond to a FS thread and will be able to post in the WTB forum.
No dealer posts. Please don't post more than 10 items per month. We understand that you want to sell all your used curricula, but it makes it hard to tell whether you are a parent with lots of books or a dealer. If you post a single item, it's a good idea to just use the resource name in the Subject Line. You might also consider putting the cost, the condition of the materials, or the grade level in the Subject Line as well. If you have multiple items, please group them by type of resource. Buyers will be able to look into a thread that applies to what they are looking for, and those who aren't looking for that type of resource can scan on.
All transactions on the sale boards are buyer/seller beware. The forum owners provide this space as a service to parents, but are unable to mediate disputes involving buying and selling. Please take reasonable precautions when dealing with unknown buyers and sellers, and use the buyer/seller feedback tools if you have had an unsatisfactory experience.
- Finally
The owners of this forum reserve the right to change these rules at any time in order to better serve the community.
TERMS OF USE
- You are solely responsible for all User Content that you post on the Site. As we will say more than once in these Terms of Use, we are not responsible for keeping an eye on the User Content and asking you (or anyone else) about it.
- You may not post any Inappropriate User Content, which is defined below. You will be liable for any damages and costs that we may incur, including attorneys™ fees, as a result of your posting any Inappropriate User Content, whether or not anyone actually sues us. This may sound harsh, but we can't possibly check all the User Content that gets posted, and we actually don't want to, because then we may be legally responsible for that User Content.
- Site administrators DO NOT SCREEN OR REVIEW ANY USER CONTENT BEFORE IT IS POSTED. They review User Content only if another User reports or complains about it.
- If someone does complain about User Content, PHP, acting directly or through an administrator, has the right, but not the obligation, to remove that User Content and to take other action (described in the Termination section) if we determine that it is Inappropriate User Content.
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Inappropriate User Content includes material, or links to material, that:
- Comprises or includes content that you do not have the right to post. We know that we said this already but we can't say it often enough. Content that you do not have the right to post includes most if not all celebrity photos, no matter where you found them. There are law firms that do nothing but scour the Internet for websites where unauthorized celebrity photos appear and threaten to sue the owners and operators of those websites for copyright infringement. Posting a music video or just a soundtrack also violates the owner of the copyright in that video or soundtrack and also puts us at risk of an infringement suit. We are a family-run business and we cannot afford to defend against copyright infringement suits.
- Defames another person who is identifiable from your Post. Very generally speaking, to defame someone is to say something that is not true about that person, in a way that enables the listener or reader to identify that person, to someone else, that causes harm to the person's reputation. (To libel someone is to defame someone in writing.) Certain kinds of statements are defamation per se according to the applicable law, which means that if you say one of these things about someone and it is not true, the person does not even have to prove that the person suffered financial damages: he or she will be presumed to have suffered financial damage. So, even if your child had a teacher that abused or molested your child or someone else, or you think that a particular teacher or school administrator is incompetent, inside or outside of the school setting, be very, very careful about how you identify him in your posting. Even if you don't give his name, he may still be identifiable from your description of him, of you, your family, your children, your neighborhood, your church or synagogue, or your job, or just from your user name, if it is your real name or an identifiable version of your real name. If the person sues PHP, you will be liable for any money that PHP has to pay to defend against the claim, even if what you said was true. This is not legal advice. If you have any doubt about what you can and cannot say, you should consult a lawyer who specializes in defamation.
- Violates the right of privacy of someone who is identifiable from your Post, which, very generally speaking, means publishing private or intimate facts about someone who is identifiable from your posting, that cause that person embarrassment, such as publicizing the fact that a child is illegitimate or that someone has AIDS. Another way to violate someone's right to privacy is to present facts in a false light or to show a photo of a person along with a story about someone else in a way that makes it look like the person in the photo was the subject of the story. If the person sues PHP, you will be liable for any money that PHP has to pay to defend against the claim, even if what you said was true. This is not legal advice. If you have any doubt about what you can and cannot say, you should consult a lawyer who specializes in privacy law.
- Is patently offensive to our online community in some other way, such as content that promotes racism, bigotry, hatred or physical harm of any kind against any group or individual; harasses or advocates harassment of another person; involves the transmission of "junk mail", "chain letters," or unsolicited mass mailing or "spamming"; is false, misleading or promotes illegal activities or conduct that is abusive; is threatening, or obscene; contains restricted or password only access pages, or hidden pages or images (those not linked to or from another accessible page); exploits people under the age of 18 in a sexual or violent manner, solicits personal information from anyone under 18; provides instructional information about illegal activities such as making or buying illegal weapons, or providing or creating computer viruses; solicits passwords or personal identifying information for commercial or unlawful purposes from other users; or facilitates or constitutes part of commercial activities and/or sales such as contests, sweepstakes, barter, advertising, and pyramid schemes.
- Attacks another User personally. This would include, for example, such Posts as You are clearly a racist, You are too stupid to educate your children, You are a neo-Nazi, or You are a bedwetting liberal, and other personal insults that have nothing to do with the topic under discussion, such as, Obviously you have nothing better to do than eat Cheetos and think of ways to insult me.
- Discusses politics. This refers to Posts that discuss the policies and politicians of the Democratic, Republican, libertarian, Tea Party, or other political parties. There are plenty of places on the Internet to discuss politics. This is not one of them.
- You may not use any information obtained through the Site (a) to harass, abuse, stalk, or otherwise harm another person; (b) to contact, advertise to, solicit, or sell to any User without that User's express prior written consent or engage in any other commercial activity; or © for any other purpose other than engaging in business and social networking with other Users. If that starts to happen, no one will feel comfortable or secure using the Site.
- You are solely responsible for your communication and interaction with any other User, online or offline. Use your common sense. When you are online, think about the community in which you are participating and also remember that the Forums are public. If there is a dispute between you and any other User, even though our administrators may step in, PHP is under no obligation to become involved.
- You hereby release PHP, its parent, subsidiaries and affiliates, and their officers, employees, agents, and successors in interest from claims, demands, and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind or nature, including death, known or unknown, suspected and unsuspected, disclosed and undisclosed, arising out of or in any way related to such disputes and/or the Site. If you are a California resident, you waive California Civil Code Section 1542, which says: "A general release does not extend to claims which the creditor does not know or suspect to exist in his favor at the time of executing the release, which, if known by him must have materially affected his settlement with the debtor."
- Repost or distribute copies of any of any Site Content for any commercial purpose.
- Circumvent, disable or otherwise interfere with security-related features of the Site or features that prevent or restrict use or copying of any Site Content or enforce limitations on use of the Site.
- With respect to any User Content that you post to the Site, you represent and warrant that you own or have the necessary license, right, and/or permission to (i) reproduce, display, perform, distribute copies of, create derivative works (adaptations) of, or otherwise use that User Content in the way that the Site contemplates. This means that with respect to any User Content that you post, (i) you created that User Content yourself; (ii) if that User Content contains any content created or owned by anyone else, you have permission from that person or company to post, show, play, and distribute copies of that User Content on the Site; and (iii) if that User Content includes any name or photo, voice, or footage of any person, you have permission to post, show, play and distribute copies of that name, photo, voice or footage as part of that User Content on the Site.
- You also represent and warrant that you have the right, authority, and capacity to enter into and abide by these Terms of Use; all information in any User Content that you post will be accurate and complete; you will not post any User Content that you do not have the legal right to post; no posting by you of any User Content will violate the rights of any person under any statutory or common-law right of privacy; and no User Content that you post on the Site will defame any person, violate any person's right of publicity, or infringe or violate any other right of any other person or entity.
These Terms of Use were last updated on November 12, 2014.