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.

What is OPSEC?
Short for Operational Security, its goal is to protect our troops by not stating pieces of information that could identify them and let our enemies know what we're doing.

How do I comply with OPSEC?
It takes a little practice to get used to understanding what is okay to say, and what's not.

• Don't state your last name or the last name of your deployed significant other. Take care when choosing your username that your last name isn't obviously known. Also take care when posting photos that his name isn't readable on his uniform.
• Do not post anything about specific locations. With regard to locations overseas, country names are acceptable, town/base names are not. You may refer to bases state-side, by name.
• Do not post specific dates. This includes the day your soldier is scheduled to leave for overseas, the days he is scheduled to come home for leave, the day he is scheduled to return from overseas, or the day he is scheduled to leave the country. Your best bet- when you are referring to a deployment- is to just not mention specific dates at all.
• Please use care when posting a ticker in your signature. "Count up" tickers are acceptable but "count down" tickers are not- as they refer to a specific date. In an effort to keep moderators from having to guess whether your soldier is deployed or not, NO countdown tickers are allowed, even if they refer to stateside troop movement.
  
• Please understand, if your post/thread is edited or deleted on the grounds of not following OPSEC, it is only for your safety and your soldier's safety

If you are here in the hopes of locating someone you believe may be in the armed services at this time or in finding information about someone you may believe is a soldier, you are in the wrong place. The members here should not be using their affiliation with the military to piece together information about a soldier to be handed off to a third party via the Internet - this is not a safe scenario for anyone involved. Posts of this nature will be deleted and, as per our Rules stated below, your membership will be removed unless you are a military wife, girlfriend or fiancee at the time of registration.

RESPECT
You should always practice the Golden Rule here: treat others the way you would like to be treated.

If you don’t agree with someone, politely state that, if you feel so inclined. Do not start a brawl here.

Name-calling and in any other way belittling another member will result in editing or deletion of your post. In the same respect, gossiping about a member or speaking negatively about a member, past or present, is unacceptable.

One way of being unwittingly disrespectful is to act as though your pain and suffering is greater than anyone else’s. Every member here is entitled to feel upset or hurt by any length deployment, whether they have been dating their soldier for 2 months or married to him for 15 years.

Since all of us are connected to the military in some way or another, criticism and negative comments about the military are ONLY allowed on the Debate Board. You may use the Couch to complain about specific people (outside of the board, of course) but you may not trash the military or the government's handling of military situations there - those kinds of post MUST be contained to the Debate Board.

Discussion of negative generalities about any rank as a group is forbidden.

Negative discussion of other social or forum sites and the members there is forbidden.

Inflammatory speech is unnecessary and will be removed. Please refrain from making statements such as "Are you serious?" or "This is stupid." Inflammatory remarks add nothing to the conversation and are designed to "inflame" others.

Respect extends to our staff here - all of whom are volunteer members of the community who give their time. As a matter of respect for our staff, public discussion of corrective actions that have been taken involving your profile, posts or threads is not allowed. You are welcome to PM the Mod who took the action, disputing it or asking for further clarification. Or to take it to a Super Moderator or the Site Owner, if need be.

Additionally, respect extends to the site, as a whole. If you have an issue or grievance with the site and the way it is run, these matters should be taken directly to a Super Moderator or myself. Constructive criticism is welcome, but in the proper place. Negative comments on the boards about the site in general will be removed promptly.

Members prone to drama, who consistently seem to me in the middle of posts and threads that start and perpetuate drama, will find their posts moderated for the period of one week or until the staff feels they are willing to participate respectfully. This is at the discretion of the staff members.

Vulgar and obscene language will be removed from any posts that contain them. Please do not attempt to go around our forum's censorship functions by placing asterisks or spaces to complete a word that is censored.

Discussion of the discussion is not necessary. For example, there is no place here for posts that start off with "Everyone here is always unhappy," or "It seems like everyone is always negative." If you wish to start a thread that is opposite of the traits and trends you are seeing, you are welcome to. But commenting, en masse even, about the tone of other's threads is not necessary.

ONLINE SECURITY
While public sharing of personal, identifying information (including our real names, addresses and phone numbers) is against the rules, it is up to your discretion to share these details amongst yourselves. As friendships are forged, it is inevitable that you will probably share these things.

However, please keep in mind that it is virtually impossible to determine the true nature of any individual online. Please practice extreme caution in giving out any of your personal information and make absolutely sure you are comfortable with that person knowing those things.

OPSEC and practicing extreme caution will protect you from tangible dangers. As you all should know well, there are other dangers lurking on the Internet: impostors!

We are incapable of protecting you from these dangers. It is a responsibility you must take upon yourself.

Please remember that this is the Internet. You should make the basic assumption that some of what you read here is from people who are lying or presenting themselves inaccurately. It is sad, but it is the truth and your only defense is to acknowledge that fact.

You may find that you have given well thought out advice and genuine support to someone who you later suspect has been lying to you. This is going to happen and it’s best that you prepare yourself for the possibility now.

As a staff, we will not be devoting any energy or time to trying to discern whether a member is lying or telling the truth about details of their life. It is up to you to decide for yourself and, if you feel they are lying, to ignore that member and no longer let them take up your time and energy.

The only exception to this rule is regarding the death of a member of the armed services. That will be investigated and verified as quickly as possible by staff members and any fraudulent claims of death will be deleted and the member who concocted them banned.

Until casualties are verified, any post about them will be temporarily removed until it is verified.

ILLEGAL ACTIVITY
Discussion of illegal activity is prohibited.

DISCUSSION OF SUICIDE/SUICIDAL THOUGHTS
Because of legal liability issues, any discussion of your own suicidal thoughts or tendencies will be removed. If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, we encourage you to call your doctor immediately. Additionally, there is a national suicide hotline at 1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433) and more information can be found at this site: http://suicidehotlines.com/national.html.

Please seek help as soon as possible! Your health and well-being is so important to us!

BOARD SPECIFIC TOPICS
All discussions that are sexually explicit in nature must go on the Sex (Or Lack Thereof) board.

Debates and news items are only allowed on the News and Debate board. A thread or post not on the News and Debate board that appears to be initiating or participating in debate is a violation of this Regulation and will be removed. If you see a topic on the main forums which could possibly be debatable, instead of replying with your argument, go ahead and create a thread on the Debate Board about it so it can be discussed in a Debate setting.


WHO IS ALLOWED TO JOIN HERE?

• Wives of armed service members or government contractors
• Girlfriends of armed service members or government contractors
• Fiancees of armed service members or government contractors
• Former Wives, Girlfriends or Fiancees of armed service members or government contractors (if they were a member here while involved with the armed service member or government contractor)

SOLICITATION
Solicitation, in general, is not allowed. However, if you are a long-standing member here and wish to place a single advertisement for your business or other venture, please PM Carly and we will see what can be done.

BUMPING THREADS

Bumping a thread is a way members can move an thread that's important to them back up to the top of the New Posts list to get attention for it. Mostly, members simply reply to the thread with the word "bump." In the interest of being a polite and respectful member of the boards, please only "bump" a thread if it hasn't received a response in 24 hours or longer.

ONE ACCOUNT PER USER
You may have one account at Army Wives Forums. Creation of a second account will result in the banning of that account. If you wish to have your name changed, please send a PM to a Super Moderator or Carly.


IMAGES
Please make sure all images posted on the main boards and in your signature are family friendly. No obscenities, obscene gestures, provocative pictures or nudity are allowed.

All political images and images that depict debatable topics should not be displayed in your signature.

DELETED/ALTERED CONTENT
These Rules and Regulations apply to all content that is posted on the forums including threads, posts, private messages, signatures, avatars, visitor messages, chat room messages and Reputation comments. Your content may be deleted or altered by a member of the staff.

Threads may be closed when the question they ask has been answered or they have otherwise met their natural end. You may request for your own thread to be closed and the determination of whether it should be closed will be at the Board Moderators or SuperMod's discretion.

If you aren't comfortable with the action that has been taken by a member of the staff, please contact Carly via PM and explain the circumstances (including links if applicable) or you can contact a Super Moderator.

Please do not post publicly referencing a Moderation action that has taken place against you or someone else. This matter should be handled by PM only.


HOW YOU CAN HELP OR WHAT RECOURSES YOU HAVE
All posts that are not within the guidelines above should be reported to the staff. This can be done very easily on any post by clicking the button under the thread-poster’s name that is an exclamation mark inside of a red triangle. After a brief description of why you think this is against the rules or what concerns you – it is sent to the staff to be investigated. This is and always should be your first action to draw attention to a post that you feel does not comply with our guidelines here.

If you still feel the need to discuss this with a staff member, or if there isn’t a specific post, please send a Private Message to one of the following members:
Carly (Admin/Site Owner)
Supermods:
Joy
Val
Kara
Steph
Cami
Sherry

If you don’t feel a member is breaking any guidelines, but just drives you plain crazy – please put that member on your Ignore List. (UserCP, Buddy / Ignore Lists)

HOW TO DEAL WITH HARRASSING/ANNOYING PRIVATE MESSAGES
If a member is PMing you that you don’t want to hear from, please reply to them and politely state that you do not wish to hear from them via PM again. Likewise, if you are asked not to PM someone, please respect that member’s wishes and stop PMing them. If you’ve asked someone not to PM you, and they continue to do so, please forward the PM to a Super Moderator (listed above) who will take appropriate action.

If a PM you receive is outright nasty and rude and a definite violation of the rules here, instead of replying, you may immediately forward that PM to a Moderator.

LEAVING THE BOARD
This board can’t be for everyone, we as humans are all too different and we respect that. We don’t want ANYONE to leave, but if you decide that this board is no longer for you, we ask that you PM your friends and let them know and post a simple thread on the In & Out board. Please do not state the specific reason you are leaving. Just say you are leaving and leave it at that.

If you choose to post about leaving the site, your account will be retired. If you request for your account to be deleted, your account will be retired. This is to prevent anyone else from signing up with your username in the future.

** These Rules and Regulations belong to this site and are the original work of the owner and contributors specifically for armywivesforums.com. They are not available for use, in their entirety or portions, at any other place without specific written consent from the owner of this site.