Wherever there is a community, there’ll be certain expectations of acceptable behavior among its participants. These Terms outline that responsibility on the part of our users. The term *Interactive* covers all interactive areas of our site. By using any of our interactive areas, you are stating that you agree to follow the stated Terms of Service and all guidelines stated therein.
TruthMedia sites encourage online communities characterized by grace and truth. We desire to foster discussion of significant spiritual questions. While we ask that each participant extend respect and understanding toward those who hold other views, we reserve the right to limit content or involvement which is inconsistent with our Statement of Faith.
In order to make our interactive areas a safe and stimulating place:
1. It will be assumed that Interactive users have read and agreed to these Terms of Service and, by occasional rereading of them, be aware of changes and updates to the text.
2. Interactive users understand the commitment to provide a safe and sensitive chat environment. However, Interacting is done at one’s own risk. While we are committed to maintaining respect and good manners, our interactive areas are designed for adults and we cannot be responsible for the safety of children, and youth.
3. Our site is not to be used for any unlawful purpose, any posting of foul, vulgar, obscene, or sexually explicit language, racial epithets or hateful words, or variations on such words spelled so as to suggest such words.
4. Nicknames that are inappropriate will either be banned, or be asked to change the nick, according to the discretion of the interactive administrators. (This includes any names that include sexual words or sexual connotations.)
5..Our Interactive areas are public, and may or may not require registraition. All Interactive areas are monitored by a team of moderators/administrators
6. Consistent disruption of the focused flow of dialogue in any of our interactive areas, or acting in a manner that negatively affects other members will not be permitted. **Note: Our chat rooms will include a time of moderated and topic-oriented discussions. Time restraints will result in maintaining focus and depth. We ask that all comments and questions pertain to the discussion at hand.
7. We reserve the right to respond to the violation of any of the above Terms of Service.
8. We reserve the right to edit or delete any interactive material that in violation of our Terms of Service.
9. The opinions expressed are **not necessarily** those of the host site or administrators.
ADMINISTRATORS:
The administrators are a team of people hand selected by our Directors, to serve as administrators and leaders. They direct and lead in our interactive areas.
THE MONITOR:
Occasionally, there is a monitor in the chat room. The Monitor is there for your protection, as well as to deal with various situations that come up in chat, according to the stated purpose of the room. Please respect requests the Monitor makes of you.
ADVERTISEMENT AND PROMOTION:
Please refrain from advertisements or promotions of personal websites, business or asking for money for any purpose. Users who persist in advertisement/promotion/asking for money will be banned.
SPECIFIC BEHAVIOR:
Any one of the following activities will be viewed as slander/gossip/dissention, and will result in banning.
1) Emailing or discussion with other users, in a negative combaitive way, the decisions of the administrators
2) Discussing other users in any negative or unkind way. (ie gossip)
3) Sharing news about others, positive or negative. (Allow people to share their own stories. If another user has asked you to share a message for them, please be sure to let the room know that you are sharing at their request, and that the content of the message is in keeping with the purposes of the room.)
4) “Attacking� another user in any way, whether it be under your normal user name, or with a different user name.
5) Issues you have with other users are to be addressed to chat feedback. When you have an issue with another user, please try to resolve it between you and the person, and if that is not possible, then please take it to the leadership of thelife.com.
6) Coming in any interactive area as multiple users at the same time, will result in immediate expelling.
The following attitudes are also required, as they make our interactive areas a safe place for all visitors. Violation in these matters will result in a letter of reprimand if an email address is available, but continued activity in any of these areas will result in banning.
1) Be culturally sensitive. We have visitors from all over the world.
2) Enjoy learning from others, and apply grace. Many different people participate from various perspectives and cultures. Please apply grace to each.
3) The purpose of any interactive area is not for debate.
4) Don’t flood any interactive area with lots of messages, (5 or more in a row, or very long messages) preventing others from participating in the conversation. Be careful with the use of humor, so that it doesn’t distract from users who wish to share more serious concerns.
5) Do not develop or include users on email lists, without their express permission. Emails are considered private information. Sign up for an information newsletter are available on each site.
6) Do not press your point of view regarding someone’s problem to the point that it is argumentative. People are free to make their own decisions. Opinions are welcome, but to make negative comments when the person chooses not to agree is not acceptable, even if it is an important decision.
7) Private Chat: For safety purposes the private chat feature is disabled.
AVOID USING ALL CAPS. Using all caps is the virtual equivalent of shouting and should be done sparingly. If you need to emphasize a word, use asterisks, like *this.*
Further Links
iamnext.com: where university students are going
powertochange.com: real people, real change
secrets of success: successful business people share their secrets