Forum Rules & Guidelines

[Moxie]

Site Mission:

To provide a positive and encouraging environment for former Jehovah's Witnesses, to help with the transition from the organization into normal society, and to promote positive healing and recovery.

Who This Site is Meant For:

This site is primarily intended to help former Jehovah's Witnesses but is inclusive of all people who have been in some way affected by or are interested in the Watchtower Society.

Values & Policy:

The purpose of this site is to promote a healthy recovery from the Watchtower Society. As such, the values which will be upheld and will in a sense govern the site's content and activity are:

1. Respect for diversity
2. Civility in dealings and communications with others
3. Displaying compassion and understanding for the circumstances of others.

Terms of Use:

Members of this site understand that JWR is a Not For Profit community discussion forum comprised of regular, everyday people. We are not professional counselors and are not offering any kind of professional counseling or recovery services. The themes of support and recovery are promoted in a peer-to-peer atmosphere only.

Zero-Tolerance Abuse Policy:

Flaming, Abuse and Harassment will in no way be tolerated on the JWR Discussion Forum Web Site. Site administration will do their best to monitor for such behavior, but will also in good faith depend upon the assistance of its members to notify JWR of any violations of this policy.

If you become aware of a member who's activity you feel is in violation of JWR's Zero-Tolerance Abuse Policy, as a first step you may wish to contact the member regarding your concerns. You may be able to do this through our private messaging feature. Sometimes they aren't even aware that someone feels uncomfortable as a result of their comments. Please give the user time to respond or take action to address your concerns before submitting a formal complaint. It may be that they haven't received your message quite yet. If you're unable to contact the member or they refuse to comply, please continue by sending an "Abuse/Harassment Report" to the site administrator (via private messaging) so that we may further review the situation and take appropriate action.

Any members who are determined to be in violation of this policy may at the discretion of site administration have their forum privileges revoked in whole or in part and/or may be permanently banned from the JWR Discussion Forum.

Legalities

The Jehovah's Witness Recovery Discussion Forum (JRW) is where former Jehovah's Witness, those interested in the Jehovah's Witnesses and those who have in any way been affected by the Watchtower Society of Jehovah's Witnesses can meet, post and discuss their thoughts, experiences, etc. with other users. Any visitor to the JWR website may view all content but must register prior to posting to the JWR Discussion Forum. Participants are expected to be individuals who are able to positively contribute to the community discussion and/or to supporting the healing process and transition from the Watchtower Society, thereby supporting the efforts of JWR. JWR supports the free flow of information and ideas and may or may not actively monitor for appropriate use of the JWR Discussion Forum. JWR may exercise editorial control over the content of the web site forum, posting of attachments or other material created or accessible on the JWR web site. JWR may remove any materials that, in our sole discretion, may be illegal, may constitute abuse or harassment, may subject us to liability, or which may violate the Violations of Acceptable Use listed below. JWR may cooperate with legal authorities and/or third parties in the investigation of any suspected or alleged crime or civil wrong.

Violations of Acceptable Use

The following constitute violations of acceptable use:

a. Illegal use. Using the JWR forum/web site to transmit any material (by email, uploading, posting, or otherwise) that, intentionally or unintentionally, violates any applicable local, state, national or international law, or any rules or regulations promulgated there under.

b. Threats. Using the Services to transmit any material (by email, uploading, posting, or otherwise) that threatens or encourages bodily harm or destruction of property.

c. Harassment. Using the JWR forum/web site to transmit any material (by email, uploading, posting, or otherwise) that harasses another. This is to include unwarranted and unsolicited e-mail from others unless directly associated with JWR efforts.

d. Fraudulent activity. Using the JWR forum/web site to make fraudulent offers to sell or buy products, items, or services or to advance any type of financial scam or falsely solicit information from others participating in the JWR community discussion.

e. Copyright or trademark infringement. Using the JWR forum/web site to transmit any material (by email, uploading, posting, or otherwise) that infringes any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, or other proprietary rights of any third party, including, but not limited to, the unauthorized copying of copyrighted material, the digitization and distribution of photographs from magazines, books, or other copyrighted sources, and the unauthorized transmittal of copyrighted software.

f. Collection of personal data. Using the JWR forum/web site to collect, or attempt to collect, personal information about third parties without their knowledge or consent.

g. Ad hominem attacks against other members of this forum will not be tolerated. Sometimes discussions get heated, but resorting to insults or attacking a member's personal character is not acceptable. If you cannot engage in civil debate or discussions involving various belief systems (whatever they may be) without resorting to emotional outbursts or Ad hominem attacks, then you will be expected to avoid participating in such discussions. Repeated violations of this rule may result in restrictions and/or banning.

h. Proselytizing & Promotion. You may not use this web site to preach, proselytize, advertise, or promote religious organizations, ministries, products, or groups of any kind.

JWR Privacy and Security Notice

1. The JWR Discussion Forum is provided as a public service.

2. Except where otherwise noted, information presented on the JWR Discussion Forum is considered public information and may be distributed or copied. Use of appropriate byline/photo/image credits is requested.

3. For site management purposes, this forum uses software programs to collect data that is used for such purposes as assessing what information is of most and least interest to visitors, determining technical design specifications, and identifying system performance or problem areas.

4. For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this discussion forum employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage.

5. Except for those purposes stated in number 3. above and authorized law enforcement investigations, no other attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits. Raw data logs are used for no other purposes and are scheduled for regular destruction in accordance with government regulations.

6. Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on this web site/forum are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1993.

[Moxie]

Multiple Usernames/Accounts Are Not Allowed

a) JWR reserves the right to ban individuals with multiple usernames/accounts.

b) JWR reserves the right to report abuse of this policy to the violator's Internet Service Provider (ISP).

c) JWR reserves the right to report abuse of this policy to any individual/business/organization who's IP address is being used to access JehovahsWitnessRecovery.com.

d) JWR reserves the right to report abuse of this policy to appropriate law enforcement agencies.

JWR will run [random] database tests to check for multiple accounts with the same IP address. While IP addresses may occasionally be shared, all duplicate IP addresses will be recorded, investigated and monitored.

If you think that you may have signed up for more than one account, please contact one of the site administrators and let them know which accounts are yours and which you'd like to keep. We will be removing duplicate accounts.

If you think you may have been singled out wrongly for having a shared IP address, please contact one of the site administrators. (If you lose access to the forum you can contact us directly using the form on the main JWR site).