The NEWPROSE WRITERS' FORUM

[Carol]

THE RULES AND GUIDE LINES OF THE NEWPROSE WRITERS' FORUM


The NEWPROSE WRITERS' FORUM was created to give writers and readers a place to meet, interact, and share ideas with each other, favorable or unfavorable, about their artistic endeavors within the literary community.

As within any community, you may have opinions that differ with those of other NEWPROSE members. Keepng this in mind, we feel that the NEWPROSE WRITER'S FORUM experience is best when people remember a few rules. For your continued enjoyment and that of others who choose to regularly visit and see the resources of the NEWPROSE WRITERS' FORUM, some of the key things to remember are:

LEGAL

1. You may not harass, abuse, threaten, or advocate violence against other members or individuals or groups.

2. You may not post content that is harmful to minors.

3. You may not post content that is obscene, otherwise objectionable, or in violation of federal or state law.

4. Stay on topic. Although all groups are different, most groups appreciate it when you stay on topic. If you constantly stray from the topic you may be moderated or removed from the group altogether. (We are sure you realize that, in our case, although the "topic" is TV, now that so many of us have met one another, “topic” can sometimes be a relative term. But please, if you are posting to a thread that is discussing, critiquing, editing, or otherwise discussing a certain individual essay, feature, story, book or other body of work, or collection of work in a series, stick to that topic and do not have a personal conversation on that thread. It disrupts the contributory momentum of the interested parties when the conversation becomes esoteric. Quite often a thread cannot be maneuvered back to the topic once that has happened. Be courteous to your fellow posters. These forums are for the enjoyment of all members, not just a few.)

**If you have an announcement to make or information to share that has nothing to do with NEWPROSE or any of the members of this board, I strongly recommend that you precede the title of your post with the Internet standard, “OT” label. (Off Topic)

5. You may not duplicate and share elsewhere, including in email, any posts from the NEWPROSE WRITERS' FORUM without obtaining permission. Aditionally, you may not use the NEWPROSE Photos, Links, Files or Comment Sections for commercial or advertising purposes without permissison.

6. You may not post content which infringes the intellectual property, privacy or other rights of third parties.

7. At no time is any Member, Visitor, or Poster to this group to use the Members Section of this group to make contact with any other Member in order to solicit buying or selling illegal merchandise. Nor is any member of the NEWPROSE WRITERS' FORUM to use the profile section to solicit membership for other forums especially those in direct conflict or competition with these forums. Members are invited and encouraged to share their website and forum URL's (especially those pertaining to writing, editing, critiquing or beta reading) in the links section.

**ILLEGAL MERCHANDISE is defined as any videos, DVDs, or photographs that are not legally available according to the laws of Public Domain.

8. Please refrain from posting off color or crude remarks about your fellow posters.

9. Please refrain from posting off color or crude remarks about celebrities, specifically Authors, Actors, Actresses or Musicians or their personal staff members or colleagues.


10. Ownership of Posts, Photographs, Files, and Links posted on this Site are protected under U.S. and International Copyright Law. Before you make any mistakes that you will clearly regret, ask for my permission as well as that of the owner of whatever work or photograph in which you may have an interest.

NETIQUETTE:

Netiquette Guidelines For Posting on the NEWPROSE WRITERS' FORUM

In order to make the posting experience a good one for all, please observe these few simple guidelines.

SPACE SAVERS

Some posters choose to re-copy a post to which they are responding, if posts stay on topic, there will be less of a need to do this. If you are responding to a post that is directly above you, there is no need to do this. If the post to which you are responding is several posts up and you want to copy it to clarify your answer, by all means, do so. Please copy only that part to which you are responding.

Posting in caps or bold print is, netiquettely speaking, considered to be yelling or shouting. Additionally, it is difficult to read. Please do not do it. (I realize that accidents do happen – especially with the caps lock, but if this should be the case, it would be most appreciated if you would retype your post properly before sending it to the message board.)


ConTENT with CONtent

It is preferable that we refrain from remarks about perceived drunkenness, or other forms of indulgence by celebrities – especially since these types of remarks can serve no positive purpose and can be no more than a poster’s individual opinion -- When posting about anyone, but most especially celebrities, who are so frequently scrutinized unjustly, a good rule of thumb to follow would be: If you would not want it printed in a newspaper about you, please do not print it on a public forum about anyone else… There is no reason to presume that a celebrity would not value his or her reputation or the good will of their fans.

If you wish to post a story about how you have met a celebrity, we would love to read it, but if it includes any of your or the celebrity’s private business, I will censor it and quite possibly delete it from the forum.

Just want to make sure this is understood. Before posting anything about an actor/actress or his/her spouse or their family and/or friends, colleagues, crewmembers and costars, I ask that you be mindful of your facts and whether or not it serves any positive purpose to make such information public.


**** TO derail the possibility of ANY MISUNDERSTANDING:

If I determine that any poster to this group has attempted to post something insulting, rude or degrading about authors, actors or their families, friends, costars or colleagues – in any way or at any level – I shall delete said post before it gets to the message board or email area and I shall ban that member from this club immediately and without explanation or apology.

Additionally, posting any celebrity's address, phone number or email information is expressly forbidden. Family photographs of celebrities – unless with permission – is also forbidden.

Again, I remind you that while we all wish to get to know one another a little better, and we sure do love to joke and tease, the topic of this group is Writing.

If you have a business or website you wish to promote, be it connected in relevance to writing or not, please do not use the message board to do it. Email me the particulars and I will be more than happy to add this information to the files and/or links sections. This courtesy is for members only.

RIGHTS and LEFTS

Lastly, please remember that the NEWPROSE WRITERS' FORUM is a private club. We have member-only access to our message boards, files and photographs sections as well as our members’ lists and email addresses. It is a violation of our rules of membership and International Copyright Law to reproduce, resend or share our posts or PM's with any person or entity not entered into membership. Our club information is better left here. Conversely, please do not print material and/or posts from other boards onto NEWPROSE unless you have extended the courtesy of asking permission from the other board owner. Obviously if the post is your own, you may copy it here.


OUR RIGHT TO TERMINATE:

The NEWPROSE WRITERS' FORUM, in its sole discretion, may terminate or remove any content and or your Membership and ID immediately and without notice if (a) Moderators believe that you have acted inconsistently with the spirit or the letter of your NEWPROSE membership Agreement or the NEWPROSE WRITERS' FORUM Guidelines, or (b) If we believe you have violated or tried to violate the rights of others. Please help us keep NEWPROSE an enjoyable and positive experience.

Thank you for being faithful to read and observe our rules and guidelines.

It has always been our intention to connect fans of the written word to one another because we value their contribution to the media arts and our personal life stories. In that light, we believe we are successful and wish to continue to be so.

*If you see or are otherwise made aware of a poster’s online behavior or of posted content that violates our rules, please let me know by contacting me using the link in the top of the page.