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Rules of the Adoption.com Professional Forums

These rules apply to the Adoption.com Professional Forums, operated by Adoption Media, LLC. ("Adoption.com").

Registration Requirements: The Adoption.com Professional Forums are private forums available free of charge to professionals who currently obtain some level of paid advertising services from Adoption.com through Family Ads. When registering, you are required to use a business email address that contains the domain name of the organization currently paying for advertising services.

Private Forums: The Adoption.com Professional Forums are private and unavailable for public view. As such, you are prohibited from uploading, posting, emailing, copying or otherwise making available any information contained within these forums.

Respectful Participation Required: While we encourage participants to share from their experiences, we do ask that you do so in a manner that is both kind and respectful to the person you are responding to. We ask that all users not use the forums as a platform to promote an agenda which is not supportive of other adoption professionals.

No personal attacks: Personal attacks of any kind, public or private, will not be tolerated. Adoption.com chat rooms, message boards and journals are intended to be a positive, safe place for everyone. You are welcome to disagree with a member, but calling them names or flaming their character is not allowed. If you have a personal issue to discuss with a member, please take it off the boards and discuss it via PM.

No profanity: Vulgarities, obscenities, name-calling, character assassinations or mockery are not allowed on any of the Adoption.com community of websites. While there are appropriate topics of a mature nature, the vocabulary used needs to remain family friendly.

Account Security: You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account. Sharing login details with others is not permitted. Failure to secure your login information could result in the termination of your forums account.

Account Maintenance & Management: Because it is possible for multiple employees within the same organization to obtain accounts on the professional forums, it is imperative that account maintenance and management be kept up to date. If a staff member leaves the organization which sponsored their ability to obtain an account, the change must be reported so that the account can be disabled. Account sponsors are responsible for ensuring that account information is kept up to date and that staff members are following the Forum Rules. Failure to do so could result in the loss of access to the forums for the entire organization.

Staff Member Accounts: Staff members are routinely given access to the Professional Forums on behalf of their employer and are only allowed access to the forums while employed by the organization that sponsored their account.

Legal Resources: Laws regarding adoption, advertising, and the Internet vary depending upon the state. Therefore, all legal resources or other resources that are predicated by state law are provided for information purposes only. It is recommended that you consult with a local attorney before using or relying upon any of the legal resources provided at these sites.

Moderation, Editing and Banning: Forum Moderators regularly check the forums for inappropriate messages and material. Messages containing such material will be deleted or edited without warning or explanation and the member could be banned. We reserve the right to edit, delete or otherwise moderate any postings made to its community of sites without warning or explanation. Members who require excessive moderation or whose participation results in excessive moderation may be banned.

Treatment of Moderators & Administrators: Any form of moderator or administrator harassment, including insults, personal attacks and character assassination done either in public or via private message can result in a ban of your account. If you disagree with actions taken by the moderating team, the proper procedure for voicing that disagreement is via Private Message or Email. For privacy reasons we can not and will not discuss the reason someone else's account was banned, either in public or in private. Moderating decisions are made based on a number of factors, and the action that resulted in the moderating decision is often no longer available for public view. It is inappropriate for users to create threads denouncing the actions of the moderating team and doing so will result in further moderator action, up to and including account banning.

Advertising Does Not Guarantee Access: Access to the Adoption.com Professional Forums is a privilege available to Adoption.com Advertisers and is subject to adherence to the Forum Rules. Violation of the Rules can result in the banning of your forums account.

Reporting Violations: To report violations of any of the above rules, please click on the red and white triangle in the top right corner of the post and explain what you’re seeing. This will automatically dispatch a message to the moderators. You can also send an email to professionalforums@adoption.com