The BabyZone (BZ) community is dedicated to providing a supportive place for members to interact with one another. BZ's chat rooms and message boards are here for anyone who is trying to conceive, pregnant, parenting, or interested in any of those. No matter what your race, marital status, sexual preference, religion, work status, or health status is we are here for you. Members can share experiences and advice with others, thereby creating and participating in our supportive community. In order to make BZ a comfortable and safe place to exchange ideas, we ask that you follow certain guidelines as outlined in our Community Usage Policy (CUP).

The messages posted in our community areas are the opinions, ideas, and stories of other members. Please do not substitute anything you read here for the advice of your doctor, healthcare professional, attorney, or legal professional. BZ is not responsible for the accuracy of the information given, and cannot be held liable for any injury or loss that may result from acting on the information dispensed in these areas.

By participating in BZ's community areas, you acknowledge such communications are public and may be viewed by anyone. Please keep this in mind when posting to our message boards or chat areas. You should never provide any personal information online, especially passwords, telephone numbers, and home addresses. Making your email address public (e.g., posting it on the boards or in chat) gives others implied permission to email you.

Community participation constitutes your agreement to take responsibility for the materials posted by your screen name. Keep your password and/or access to your computer secure. Your screen name and password are yours alone; BZ is not responsible for use of your community identity by third parties, with or without your permission.

Do not reveal personal information about another person online, members and non-members alike. Such information includes, but is not limited to, real names, email addresses, telephone numbers, or home addresses. Do not disclose any information about another person that has not already been made public by that person.

Do not post private messages without the author's permission to make them public. This includes emails, instant messages, letters and photographs that you have received. Posting materials that are not yours without expressed permission from the author constitutes a copyright violation and is subject to possible legal action.

BZ's community boards allow members to share pictures in their posts. However, since our boards are open to anyone on the Internet, we ask that you be cautious about what types of photos you post. Photos that contain nudity, graphic depictions, or sexually explicit material are not allowed and will be removed. Pictures that show the genitals of babies and children are considered nudity and are not allowed. Please blur out these areas or crop the photos before posting them. If the appropriateness of a photo is questionable, we will err on the side of caution and safety and delete the photo.

There are times when members of the BZ community exchange gifts, make plans to meet offline, and gather money or goods for charities. These actions are not affiliated with BZ and you take part in them at your own risk. In addition, be careful responding to solicitations for personal information or interviews.

If you are interested in interviewing others for research, please contact the Community Manager at cmsteph@babyzone.com to gain permission first.

By participating in the BZ Community, you give BZ the right to delete, edit, or publish (both on this site and in affiliated media) any of the communications posted in our community areas. We are not required, however, to delete or edit any material that you may personally find offensive or objectionable. We also reserve the right to ban any member at any time for any reason, including violation of the CUP. Participation in the community is your agreement to act in accordance with the guidelines laid out in this policy.

We ask that you create an appropriate screen name. Do not create a screen name that is obscene, derogatory, or represents you as someone you are not. This includes intentionally creating a screen name that is nearly identical to another known member for the purpose of posing as that member. This also includes impersonating BZ staff and/or pretending to be a host, writer, or expert. In addition, creating an identity for the purpose of attacking other members, causing arguments, misrepresenting yourself, or any other purpose that could be construed as "trolling," will result in your membership being deleted. Do not post or transmit any defamatory, inaccurate, harassing, abusive, obscene, profane, vulgar, sexually explicit, threatening, or illegal material (including computer viruses), material that invades another person's privacy, or any material containing blatant expressions of bigotry, racism, or hate. Any hateful language, including expressions targeting people based on their race, gender, weight, disability, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, or political affiliation are against the CUP and will not be tolerated.

Using misspellings, underscores, asterisks, or other symbols as substitutes for letters in a swear word is not allowed if it is reasonable to assume that most people will still be able to make out what the word is supposed to be. Using a combination of random characters (such as $%#^&) to denote an excited utterance is acceptable. If you are unsure as to which words are acceptable and which are forbidden, contact a host or the Community Manager.

Do not engage in personal attacks of other members of the community. Personal attacks include name-calling, violating another member's privacy, threatening a member or a member's family, and using insults or other inflammatory language. We are open to the free exchange of ideas, including religion, politics, and family issues, however, you may not attack the beliefs, ideals, or choices of other members. Do not tell other members how wrong they are, how they should live, or how they should believe.

Do not try to convert others to your religious faith or spiritual ideology. Do not condemn other members for following a different faith (or non-faith), or for practicing said faith (or non-faith) in a different manner. All such posts will be deleted or edited.

Do not spam BZ message boards or chat rooms. Spam is an unsolicited post or email, often of a commercial nature, sent indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups. Spam can also include multiple posts, either on the same board, or on many different boards at the same time. Please do not post solicitations for things such as baby photo contest voting, work at home opportunities, pyramid schemes, or products you are marketing.

We do not allow spam in signatures either. Do not put your business web address in your signature. Do not link to an address that markets something from which you are profiting. If you do your post may be removed.

Occasional posting for eBay auctions are acceptable provided that the auctions are for resale items and not items that are created and sold for income (e.g., crafts or other handmade items). Frequent or excessive eBay postings will be removed.

Spamming can also be unintentional, such as polls, links, and articles from other competitor sites. Please refrain from posting url links from any site that may be a competitor of this site or fits into the category of spam, as laid out above. If you are unsure whether a link would be against our policy, please contact the host of that board or you may contact the Community Manager at cmsteph@babyzone.com .

Do not try to sell, give away, or solicit any prescription drugs on any message board or chat - it is illegal and such posts will be deleted.

Do not post messages in all CAPS. This is considered screaming or yelling. It is difficult to read and could cause other members to misinterpret your message as hostile.

Do not flood. Flooding includes disrupting a chat session by repetitively entering the same word, phrase, or key.

Do not Hit and Run. This is defined as going to a board where you do not normally post in order to harass another member or group of members, point out their faults or mistakes, or criticize their actions, beliefs, or comments.

We encourage members to post freely post and reply, however we ask that you post your replies in the thread where the topic originated. Please do not start a new thread to post your reply to, or opinion about, a topic that is still active. This can be problematic because it transfers the discussion from one thread to another and makes it confusing for members who have to reference the original thread (or who are unaware of the original thread.) In addition, it clutters the boards and pushes still active topics farther down the page. It is also considered rude because it implies that your pictures, poll responses, or ideas are more important than those of another member. Members who post a reply as a new thread may have it moved to the original thread. Some exceptions to this are when the original post has been pushed to the next page, a topic has been locked because of an excessive amount of replies making it hard for users and hosts alike to keep up, or when a new topic with a new idea emerges from an existing topic. In these instances, creating a new thread is acceptable.

Do not "drag" issues and/or disagreements from one message board or chat session to another. Dragging includes copying and/or transparently paraphrasing a post from one board and posting it on another board. Members are allowed to post the same post on multiple boards (e.g., a birth story on boards where the member is a regular poster), however please avoid "gossiping" about posts across the boards. Problems or debates from a particular board or chat should be dealt with on that board or chat. In addition, do not direct other members to problem threads on other boards. Try to avoid engaging in problem threads on boards that you do not frequent as this could be construed as a Hit and Run.

Do not engage in conversations about other members as though they are not there. Do not post negative unsubstantiated things about other members. If the only reason for your post is to express that you do not like a particular poster or have a low opinion of that poster, then please do not post.

If you encounter a troll in chat or on the message boards, we ask that you not add to the disruption. Trolls are often looking for attention, so the best way to handle them is to ignore them. Do not post replies to them, accuse them of trolling, or try to publicly "out" them. This only detracts from normal board/chat functions and encourages the troll to continue posting. Posts that do any of the above may be removed. In chat, members are encouraged to use the "ignore" function, which allows them to ignore a specific member. If you have questions or concerns regarding a member or troll-like behavior, please contact a host or community manager so they can officially deal with the situation.

Please remember that although we are typing on a computer, there are real people behind the screens and that the goal of this community is to support one another.

Many members on our Loss board and Trying to Conceive board face hardships that could make hearing about pregnancy painful or disheartening. For this reason, many of the members on these boards will include "pg ment" (pregnancy mentioned) in the subject line to signal when they mention their pregnancies. This way, it is easy for members who do not want to read about these issues to detect posts and skip them if desired. Although this is not a requirement, we ask that our members perform this courtesy out of respect for other members feelings.

Some of our members have dial up Internet access or medical conditions that make excessive blinkies or signatures problematic. For this reason, we ask that, as a courtesy, members limit the number of blinkies or tickers to three total in any combination and limit the size of signatures to 200x200. We do realize that some of you may have more than 3 children and in these cases your ticker count can be higher to accommodate that but please try to keep in mind the other users who have dial-up or health problems that make the tickers and blinkes hard for them to enjoy our boards.

For those who wish to test their blinkies, tickers or signatures, we ask that you use the Signature Tests board which is located under our main listing of boards.

The purpose of this board is to debate provocative, controversial, and political topics. This section of the board may contain issues that are adult in nature and suited to mature audiences. Unlike other community boards, on Hot Topics it is acceptable to question or challenge the beliefs and ideals of others members. You may post that another member's viewpoint is inaccurate, misguided, or uninformed without violating the CUP. However, it is never acceptable to attack another member personally. Debates and challenges should address the issue or topic and not the specific poster. For example, it is acceptable to say "The social security policy you propose is ridiculous," however, using such language to describe the poster is not acceptable (i.e., "You are ridiculous!"). In addition, when quoting a website or using information obtained online please provide the url of the site(s) from which the information was gathered.

Violations of the CUP will be handled on a case by case basis at the discretion of the hosts and Community Managers. Consequences are dependent on the severity of the violation. Recurrent violations will trigger progressive discipline and may result in termination of your membership. We reserve the right to terminate your membership at any time for any reason.

A troll, in Internet terms, refers to a member who posts messages for the purpose of instigating trouble. Trolls will often post inflammatory or hostile comments that entice members to engage in arguments or insults, thereby disrupting the normal functioning of a board or chat. Trolls also make up stories in order to get attention or replies. Often, the stories start out small yet provocative and then grow into larger and often unbelievable melodramas. Creating a member account to impersonate another member or to hide the established community identity is also considered trolling.

A blinkie is an animated GIF, usually in the form of a rectangular block that blinks or flashes, and conveys a witty message or describes a person's hobbies or personality. A well placed blinkie can be quite effective in conveying a message, but adding too many can cause the messages to be overlooked or ignored. Moderation is the key. Here is an example of what a blinkie looks like:

A ticker is a graphic that displays a countdown to an important date. Some examples would be tickers that tell how many days until a child's birthday or until a due date.

A signature is a graphic or photo that some people use to sign their posts. Sometimes they are just the person's name, but sometimes they also contain a visual representation of the person either with an actual photo or with a "doll" (cartoon style person) that they feel represents them. Signatures can also be animated.