The Lotsofkids.com forums are open messageboards (not to be confused with public messageboards which often have few restrictions and may not be heavily monitored). We respect the rights of our members to feel they can post freely, without censorship. Whether we are laughing, crying, or just sharing the joys and pitfalls of life, we encourage free speech and enjoy healthy debate between our members. However, for the general good of the site and the community, there are some rules which we feel must be followed: ADVERTISEMENT OF BUSINESSES AND/OR SERVICES: In order to help promote family businesses and ventures operated by our members, we have created the Marketplace board, and advertisements should be posted exclusively on that forum. We will make every attempt to be nice and work with people who unintentionally violate this term; however repeat offenses will be removed without notice. This restriction applies to linking your business site in every post you make. While you may be posting legitimately, the fact that you continually push your site may cause people to question if you are sincerely joining the group as a member or are simply using it as a means to promote your business. If someone is looking for a product and you happen to carry it, there is no problem mentioning the site and posting a one-time link. But repeated posting is considered bad message board etiquette. While we have no formal requirements for posting on the Marketplace, we do ask that subject lines be discreet (i.e. no all-cap postings, all bold, etc.), and the bulk of the message, including any URL, should be posted inside the actual message. To help safeguard our members, we request a real name (or username) be used. It is unacceptable to simply put a contact email address in the name section. In order to keep this site family-friendly, we request that all businesses referenced be suitable for all ages. Spam solicitations, ads for products and merchants that are generally not frequented by our members, or solicitations that our members find unacceptable, such as adult sites and other questionable services, are a violation and will be removed immediately, without further notice. LINKING TO OUTSIDE BUSINESS SITES: There are instances where a poster is seeking a product or a service, or a member may discover a product/site that they feel would be of great benefit to the commutiy. As a helpful gesture, members often link to a business or site offering the product or service. This is not considered spamming, particularly when it is a one-time posting and is purely for public service rather than promotion. We have no problem with this practice and actually encourage our visitors to notify the community of sites, services, and items that may help our families. We simply ask that the rules of discretion stated above be used. LINKING AND/OR PROMOTION OF OTHER MESSAGE BOARDS, FORUMS, AND SITES: At Lotsofkids.com, we want to help promote other LOK/TOK sites, since we believe that the large family community as a whole benefits when there is a wide variety of resources. However, due to abuses, we now require that all promotional posts for other boards and sites be posted on the Marketplace forum. This is actually beneficial to you, since most of the forums are archived on a regular basis, and thus links roll off rather quickly. Generally, postings on the Marketplace remain active for a period of several months, and will thus provide you with the greatest exposure for your site. Again, remember that links to objectionable sites and those which would be considered non family-friendly, will be removed at the discretion of the webmaster, without notice. Note that this restriction does not apply to personal webpages, blogs, family sites, online picture books, or other links of that nature. We encourage our visitors to share these personal links with the community in their regular posts. NAME/USERNAME REQUIREMENT IN POSTS: In order to make our visitors feel comfortable on the forums, we encourage all posters to register. The registration process at Lotsofkids.com is very easy and does not require any personal information other than a valid email address. We understand that some people do not feel comfortable or cannot register. We want as many people as possible to benefit from and utilize these forums, so we do allow non-registered "guest" posting. For protection of the community and to avoid confusion, visitors posting as a guest will have their usernames highlighted in orange to indicated they are a non-member. In addition, our system will not allow you to post as a guest using a name that is already taken by a member. Note that while posting as a guest is completely acceptable, due to the nature of the internet and the existence of message board trolls, anonymous postings may be viewed with some skepticism by our members. We hope that all visitors understand that while it may not really mean much for a person to register (since there is no way to really verify a person is legitimate), that the simple act of doing so helps our members feel more at ease. MULTIPLE USERNAMES/IDENTITIES: We respectfully ask that all users create and post under one username. We recognize that sometimes it is impossible to log-in to post, especially if you are not at your own computer, and therefore we do allow registered users to post as guests. In those instances, we recommend using a variation of your username so that your identity is clear to the viewers. In addition, it is okay to post as a guest when participating in forum games like "who am I?" and such; however, these are rare instances, and an exception rather than the rule. While we do not like to limit our posters, we have experienced abuses in this area. Posting under multiple names, especially without stating that fact, can cause undo confusion and apprehension among members. As a result, if we determine that a visitor is posting under multiple names, be it registered or anonymously (as a guest), particularly in a manner which is disruptive to the community, the person will be asked to refrain from posting in the future. If the abuse continues, we reserve the right to ban the person permanently from the messageboards and/or the Lotsofkids.com site. PROFANITY AND OBJECTIONABLE LANGUAGE: We pride ourselves on being a family-friendly site. Because of that, we do not allow excessive profanity, sexually offensive conversations, vulgarity, and/or posting of pictures which are of an inappropriate nature. We understand that sometimes a member finds a need to vent, and therefore may use off-colored language, which is why we use the term excessive profanity. We will be tolerant of the occasional infraction of this term, but any language of this nature which is continual, or purely to offend or attack, will be removed immediately. AGGRESSIVE POSTS: There are times that certain individual's ideas or beliefs conflict. We are hopeful in these instances that members keep the feelings and personal rights of others in mind when responding to such. We encourage debate, and even when heated, we respect the rights of others to voice their opinions. However, personal attacks (of an individual, their beliefs, parenting style, etc.) will not be tolerated. This could be categorized as "flames," directed hate comments, racial slurs, and even generalized derogatory statements. Any posts of this nature will be removed without notice to the poster. This community has proven time and time again how respectful, supportive, and tolerant the members are, and thankfully we have not had many violations of these terms. However, for the protection of the community, we feel it important and our obligation to enforce these rules. Since many of the above rules are subjective in nature, it is at the sole discretion of the webmaster to determine and remove posts which violate these terms. In addition, we reserve the right to remove any posts which do not fall under the restrictions outlined above if we feel they are detrimental to our members and/or the community as a whole. If a member feels a post is in violation of these terms, please email the webmaster and/or staff to report it. ***These rules may be added to or amended at a future time and without notice.*** Close this window to return to the forum.