Forum Rules

Registration to this forum is free! We do insist that you abide by the rules and policies detailed below. If you agree to the terms, please check the 'I agree' checkbox and press the 'Register' button below. If you would like to cancel the registration, click here to return to the forums index.

Birthtalk Rules

Using Birthtalks is FREE and users are required to register by providing a username and valid email address to allow Birth.com.au/Kidspot Pty Ltd to send you a password and administer and moderate the forums effectively. You may change your password after you login.

PLEASE CHECK YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS AS YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE YOUR LOGIN DETAILS IF THIS IS INCORRECT.

Your email address will not be used to send unsolicited emails and will not be given to any third party. You can read more in our Privacy Policy. NOTE: Birthtalk registration is separate from subscribing to the online classes. However, you may have the same username (if available) and password if you wish. Passkey details for our monthly newsletters and week-by-week pregnancy emails are also separate again and can only be used here.

Participation in Birth.com.au and the Birthtalks forums constitutes agreement to the following guidelines, which apply to posts, profile information, avatars, signatures, any other content on this site and participation in general. This includes private messages.

Kidspot Pty Ltd provides Birthtalks for visitors, members and subscribers to read and share information with others. Disclosing personally identifiable information online through forums and message boards makes this information public. Please be careful, and use discretion when disclosing any personal information. We do not vouch for or warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any message, and are not responsible for the contents of any message. The messages express the views of the author of the message, not necessarily the views of Kidspot or any entity associated with the Birth.com.au website.

By posting comments on Birthtalks, you grant Kidspot Pty Ltd the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such any materials (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed.

Please remember that because of the live nature of the discussions on this community, we do not and cannot actively monitor all posted messages and are not responsible for their content. Therefore you agree not to post any material which is false, defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually explicit, threatening or invasive of a person's privacy or a violation of any law. Any user who finds material posted by another user that she or he believes violates our User Guidelines, or you have spotted content that may otherwise require attention, please send a private message to the Community Manager, ‘AndreaR’ with a link to the content and a brief description of what you believe is wrong. Notification is voluntary and anonymous, but in no case should a user respond to a situation personally, thereby aggravating the situation further. Responding to a violation in an inflammatory manner is a violation in itself and will result in appropriate action.

Permission for approval must be sought from us at arotondi@kidspot.com.au before Birthtalks is used for research, recruitment, journal articles, marketing, photos or promotions. This includes journalist solicitations.

We are able to remove or modify any data submitted by you for any reason we feel constitutes a violation of our policies, whether stated, implied or not. This will be done within a reasonable time frame (considering the real-time nature of the bulletin board), if we determine that removal is necessary. However, because this is a manual process, please realise that we may not be able to remove or edit particular messages immediately.

Birthtalks may also contain links to other web sites and files. We have no control over their content and cannot ensure that it will not be offensive or objectionable. We will, however, remove links to material that we feel is inappropriate as we become aware of them.

If a member posts objectionable messages, they will be contacted by their registered email address requesting this to be stopped. Kidspot reserves the right to ban a member from participating in these forums if they continue to post objectionable material.

DISCLAIMER: All information provided to you by email, or included on Birth.com.au and Birthtalks, is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for legal, medical, counselling or other professional advice or services for you, your partner or your baby. You should consult your professional caregiver or practitioner before relying on any information provided by this Site or Kidspot Pty Ltd, its employees, directors or agents.

Additionally, the following rules apply: 1. Cross-posting is not allowed and will result in the removal of one or more posts. Cross-posting is defined as posting the same information in two or more locations. When posting your topic, please try to post it in the most appropriate place within the organizational structure of our community. Identical topics posted in the same or different forums will be removed.

2. While member post count has meaning, it should not be taken too seriously. Attempts to artificially increase your post count are prohibited. This includes the mass creation of short or meaningless posts.

3. Advertising commercial or personal businesses through posts, signatures, avatars or private messaging (PM's) is strictly forbidden. Generally speaking, posts made specifically for the promotion of a website, product or service are considered advertising or, at least, posts made that unnecessarily send people to a website that you are in some way affiliated with. It does not matter if it is a commercial website, a personal website, a non profit website, etc. We do sell advertisements on a case-by-case basis. If you are interested in utilising this option, please contact us.

All signature links must be kept in your signature in your profile. Anyone found to be posting links to their websites or suspected of using "sneaky" advertising methods is in violation of this guideline. You may only post a link to your site/a site that you are in some way affiliated with if the link specifically answers the question that is being asked and the answer cannot be simply posted without the link. Even then, link directly to the page where the information can be found. General and unnecessary links will be tagged as advertising. If you are found to be excessively posting links to your site (or you appear to be seeking out threads where your link may be relevant, so that you can post it), you may lose the ability to post links to your site.

4. You are not allowed to post an affiliate URL that leads to you earning cash, banner impressions, credits, points, etc.

5. Do not post personal, real-life information such as home addresses and home phone numbers. This is for your safety.

6. As this is an English-speaking community, we require that posted content be in the English language, so that it can be well received and properly monitored.

7. Vulgar language and inappropriate material is not allowed and will be removed. Abbreviations, self censoring, and attempts to circumvent the word censoring feature of the community software also violate this guideline. If your post contains a word that is censored by the software, you must remove that word or the post will be removed. If you feel that the censor is acting in error, please contact us.

We try to maintain a family friendly atmosphere whenever it is possible within the main subject matter of this community. Please keep this in mind when participating.

8. When linking to outside websites, you must ensure that the content of the link is appropriate for our community, in line with the guidelines laid out here. This includes mentioning or referencing a site, even if the mention is not hyperlinked. If you post a link and that link is automatically censored, it is considered to be an inappropriate link and you should remove it from your post immediately. If left, all posts that feature inappropriate links will be removed.

9. Posts that discuss illegal activities, transactions, or websites will be removed. This includes the posting of information that you have obtained illegally.

10. You must not post any copyrighted material (articles, videos, audio, etc.) unless the copyright is owned by you or you have consent from the owner of the copyrighted material to reproduce or distribute that material specifically. For text articles, most of the time you may quote a small portion of the article (usually no more than 1/5 or 1/6) and you must link to the source (if online) or provide the source (if offline). Posting the entire article, even with the source, constitutes copyright infringement. This is not the place to illegally trade or distribute copyrighted (or those with questionable copyright status) video or audio clips.

Spam, flooding, advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations are also inappropriate to Birthtalks.

Be aware that Kidspot reserves the right to reveal your identity (or any information we have about you) in the event of a complaint or legal action arising from any information posted by you.

12. When posting and linking to images, videos, files, etc., please refrain from hotlinking. This is the direct linking to images (.jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .png, etc.), video (.avi, .mov, .mpg, .mpeg, .wmv, etc.), audio (.mp3, .wav, etc.), archives (.zip, .rar, etc.) or otherwise downloadable or streamable files, on servers that you do not have permission to link to, instead of linking to the page where the item can be found. This includes providing a direct link to the file, even if that file is not embedded into your post. This practice costs the server owner money and resources.

13. Birthtalks is provided for participants to share information and experiences as well as facilitate support and networking. In the spirit of this purpose, we ask that members maintain a healthy respect for the diversity of others’ opinions that make us all unique and interesting. This is done by always communicating in a respectful, polite and courteous manner.

It is important to remember that just because you do not share another person’s opinion about a topic, this is not grounds for a personal attack on that person or their beliefs (religious, cultural or moral). Differences of opinion should be seen as a positive element of healthy discussion, enabling each person to explain their own reasoning for their opinion. You, yourself should feel free to express your own opinion and have others respect this and in doing so, afford this freedom to others.

We acknowledge that the written word is not always the best way to express your thoughts and opinions and for many people this medium of communication does not come easy. Misunderstandings often arise when members do not think carefully about what they are saying or about the tone they are using in their posts, particularly when they disagree with the opinions of others, or take them personally. On the whole, we understand that most people do not intend to offend others when they submit a post, but personality conflicts do result when a person interprets another’s comments in their own unique way.

If a thread is closed by a moderator, then it will remain closed until administration makes a decision on it. Threads are closed for a reason, so we ask that members do not start spin-off threads after a thread is closed ie. another thread that is aimed at continuing the point of view or line of argument. Members who continue to start spin-off threads, after a thread is closed, will risk having their membership suspended for 48 hours.

If you have second thoughts about what you have posted you can always use the edit facility at the top of your post to change or delete what you have written (or delete your post entirely). This will save us the trouble of doing so ourselves!

14. Signatures are limited to 10 lines of text. This includes blank lines. It is recommended that you stick with readable fonts and colors and that the size is not too large. You may not include images, tickers or business advertising in your signature.

15. Each user is allowed to create one account. If you would like to change your username, please contact us and, most likely, we can do it for you while you can keep all of your profile data, posts, and other content.

16. Automated account creation, participation, and content scraping is not permitted.

17. We know that people will have to leave our community (of their own free will or otherwise) from time to time and to that end, we do not delete accounts, posts, or other content posted on our community. All content is granted to us with perpetual electronic publishing rights because any content posted on this community becomes a part of the community, even if you no longer are. You may request an item to be removed at any time, but we will decide when and if to remove content from our community. If you wish to no longer be identified with our community, we will be glad to close your account and alter your profile information to remove all identifying characteristics. After account closure, you will no longer be able to participate in this community and this action is not reversible.

18. The Community Manager has the final say on anything. If you have a problem, you may make a complaint to her directly and not publicly on the website. Creating threads or posts that question or reference administrative decisions or potential administrative decisions, such as post removals and thread closures, is not permitted. We are not perfect and if you feel that we have made a mistake, please privately contact a staff member and we will review the situation. If you would like a copy of your removed post so that you can adjust it and repost, please contact us. As long as we wouldn't prefer you to simply start over, we'll be glad to send you a copy.

19. Whenever you are participating in this community, please keep in mind that we strive to create a fun, friendly and inviting atmosphere. So, please have fun and enjoy the forums!

Freedom of speech rights do not extend to privately owned websites, such as this one. These guidelines detail the types of behaviour and activities that are allowed here.

If a user violates our guidelines and shows a disregard for them, our staff and our community, they run the risk of losing their account. We reserve the right to deactivate any account and to edit or remove any content without warning. These guidelines are subject to change at any time without notice.

Do you have a question about our User Guidelines or anything else? Do you have a suggestion? Do you want to offer some feedback? Or are you experiencing some trouble with the site? No matter what it is, please do not hesitate to PM ‘AndreaR’ and we will be glad to help in any way that we can.

Thank you all for your good intentions and your participation in Birthtalks.

If you agree to these terms, please check the 'I agree' checkbox and press the 'Register' button below. If you would like to cancel the registration, click here to return to the forums index.