I would like to first say that most of these rules you will see here are not new rules for the group, but have been posted in the thread folder, "About Disabled Support".  I am moving them over to this folder so it will be easier for new members to see just what the rules are for our wonderful group, then the "About Disabled Support" folder can be used more for what we are all about and not include the rules of the group.

Thank you for barring with me while I try and make things easier for everyone, and especailly the new members.

Always remember, these rules are just extra rules that we have for the group, and the Care2 terms of service and Code of Conduct rules also must be followed in the group.

Michael B. Group Owner, Disabled Support.

 [ send green star]

I have decided to put a few rules in place for the group in order to protect everyone, and help make the group a better place.

1.  No posting of your own or anyone elses private information is allowed.  This includes, complete mailing address, phone number, social security number, etc.  Priority number 1 here is to protect everyones right to privacy.  Even if you have someone elses permission to post their private information in groups and etc, it will not be allowed here.  Any posting with this information in it will be deleted soon as it is found.

2.  I know especially in a group like this one people have a lot of financial problems.  Since most of us live on a very limited income.  So I want everyone to feel free to use the Prayer request folder and post a prayer request to meet your basic financial needs if you like, But any post that comes right out and ask members to send you money will be deleted.  If someone reads your prayer request and contacts you privately about sending you money, that is fine as long as it is not done so on the group boards.  If you post something about donating money to an organization or a group, that is fine to post, just not the posting of asking for donations for yourself.  I really hate to put this in the rules, but I think it is only fair since most of us here can barely make it month to month as it is.

I hope that you enjoy being here with us in Disabled Support and remember, I am always open to suggestions and feedback.  You can post your suggestions and feedback on the group board or if you prefer to do it in private, you can email me at MEBrewster@aol.com and put "Disabled Support" in the subject line.

  Michael B.

 [ send green star]

I also see your point as well.  And this is why if someone were to ask that we donate money to any organazation, that before we would actual donate money, we checked things out and made sure that this is really going to a real organazation and not directly to a individual.  As meaning, that If I were to ask that people donate money to the Hurricane Katrina fund, that you sent your money to one of the organizations that are for that, and not send the money to me for me to give to that organazation.   You need to make sure you give the information such as a web site where we can get the information on where to send money for that organization.  If someone were to post information to donate to an organization, but asked that we send the money directly to them to give to that organization, that post would be deleted, because as you stated, we have no way of knowing that the money would really reach its proper destination.  Even at times people do walk a thons where they collect money like 10 cents a mile or whatever, it is things like this that I am sorry to have to say, we won't allow on this group because of how many scams there have been out there on issues like this where the people said they were doing things like that only to collect money from others and they never did the walk a thon.  So because of that, we can not allow such postings on this group, because most of us in this group can't afford to give our money away and take the chance on losing it to a scam.

  Michael B.

 [ send green star]

I have a few other things now to bring to your attention, and would like your assistance on.

When you are posting a post to the group and in the post you are including a link to another group, or some other web site.  I ask that you please do not just type it into the post, or copy and paste it into the post.  Please use the link icon, which is the third icon to your left from the right side of the upper part of the post.  By using this feature, if the link is a long one, it will allow the link to wrap around in the post, where as if you just type it directly to the post or copy and paste it into the post, it will not allow it to wrap around, and this causes the entire thread to change so that it goes super wide making members have to use the scroll bar to read the postings, and it causes people to end up losing their place where they were reading very easily.  So if you would please just click on that little chain link at the upper right side of the post and type in the link there, you even can copy and paste it to there, it will allow it to wrap around and keep your posting so it will not go wide.

The second issue to bring to your attention, is the use of photos in your postings.  I do encourage each one of you to use photos when you like to.  But I also ask that you try not to use a photo that are really wide, as that also will cause the entire folder to be very wide, so try and limit the width of the photo.  You can have it as long as you like, just try not to use ones that are really wide.

Also, some members like to use photos in their postings with links to the photo from places like Photobucket.com.  When ever you use these photos, and the site changes the link to that photo or deletes that photo, it leaves a message saying that the link had been removed.  In some cases it will just leave a small red x.   If you have posted any wording with these messages, then I will copy and paste the words into a new post for you and delete the photo part, but if you just used the photo, and the photo is either replaced with the sign saying the link is no longer active, or just the little red dot, the posting will be deleted, and you will be notified as usual for the reason why the posting was deleted.

The last thing I want to bring to your attention, is now that we have the ability to add our member shares from out sharebook to groups, if you do use the share link so that your share post to the group.  Please make sure you keep track of it and if it is for an event, and the event is over with, you need to edit it and take out the groups tag in order to have it removed from the group.  If it still remains on the group after 30 days after the event, I will notify you to please remove the group tag from it so it will no longer appear on the group page.  But here again, I do encourage you to use this feature on issues but please only use it for matters and issues that concern the disabled.

Michael B.

 [ send green star]

I would like to ask that if you at any time plan on leaving the group for any reason, if you could please send me a short Net Message to let me know that you are leaving, and tell me what you liked about the group and or what you didn't like about it so that we can continue to make changes in which will make this group a much better group for all of us.  As I have said before, I may be the group owner, but this is your group, and I am here to do what ever I can to make everyone happy.

If you have any suggestions, please post them in the Suggestions thread, and we will try and see if we can do them or not.

Michael B.

 [ send green star]