Welcome to the HDlighthouse Forum - Please read.

In order to avoid message board spam we require that all participants register before contributing.

To register, go to the Log In page and click the Register Now link. An email will be sent to the email address that you provide. When you receive the email click on the link that will be in the email in order to complete the registration.

IF FOR SOME REASON YOU NEVER RECEIVE A CONFIRMATION EMAIL PLEASE LET ME KNOW BY SENDING AN EMAIL TO stevei@hdac.org AND I WILL COMPLETE YOUR REGISTRATION MANUALLY!

DO NOT POST UNDER MULTIPLE IDENTITIES. You can make up whatever name you'd like to post under, but please just choose one.

DO NOT CREATE A FALSE PERSONA. You may reveal as little or as much about yourself as you'd like but be truthful in what you reveal. If you are a 62 year old male caregiver, do not post as a 13 year old boy with JHD.

Posting Etiquette

* Initiating a thread: Venting is okay, but questions are preferable because it invites others to participate in your thread.

* There will be responses with opinions that differ from your own either due to experiences, geographical location, politics, life philosophy or religion. Please feel free to disagree if you are so led, but be respectful of the right of others to have opinions that differ from yours.

* If you start a sentence with "Please do not be offended but ..." then you know you will most certainly offend them. Try a different approach. Maybe "I apologize for offending but..." or even better - just don't be offensive. Don't put the burden of not being offended on the other person. Keep the burden of not offending on yourself.

* Do not waste your time trying to judge the intent of other posters. This forum is not for counseling. You do not have sufficient information to render judgement of any type.

* When responding it is ALWAYS better to respond with "I would ..." instead of "You should ...". Most people are asking for what others would do and really aren't asking to be told what they should do. If if they do ask to be told what to do then you should re-read the above paragraph.

* Private messages should be treated with the same consideration that you would public messages. If you wouldn't post it to the public board then you probably should not post it as a private message. However, "private" implies that the sender expects it to remain private - so reposting private messages to the public board without the permission of the original poster is not acceptable.

* If you're receiving abusive private messages please let me know. I will address the issue immediately. Abusive PMs will result in the abuser being unable to post further until we reach an agreement on what constitutes acceptable posts.

* We encourage you to share your thoughts on a topic, but don't try to beat us into submission. Our message board is NOT your personal soapbox, it is for an exchange of ideas and thoughts. If you feel you need to clarify your thoughts then that's encouraged too. You may share a different thought about the topic on the same thread. However, if you repeat the same thought multiple times then I'm going to assume you have a problem with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and will disable your profile so that you will be unable to post until we reach an agreement on what's acceptable.

* In the same vein, machine gun posts are a red flag for us. Please don't spread your response over multiple posts - one right after the other. Post, and then allow others to share their thoughts before adding your additional thoughts. Although a few of us are monitoring the board 24 hours a day (it seems), others are able to respond only once every day or two. Please allow a thread to develop and grow using the synergy of others. One person dominating a thread discourages participation.

* For posts that do not conform to the these guidelines we reserve the right to either remove the offensive text or delete the entire post. If the tone of a thread is inappropriate for this board then we may delete the entire thread. Repeated violations will result permanently disabling the right of the violator to post on this board.

I apologize for the length of this guide. Thanks for taking the time to read it. It used to be a simple "play well with others" statement, but over the years I've learned that some people actually don't know what "play well with others" means and they insist that I put it in writing.


About Your Privacy (or lack thereof)

One last thing I need to make sure is clearly understood. This is a public message board. Although myself and many others make it very clear who we are and what our relationship with Huntington's disease is, you may not want to do the same. In that case you are invited to register with an alias. You should not assume that your posts are private. Your posts will certainly become part of the Internet public record and search engines will find them, so take that into consideration when you post. If you register and then post, your posts are part of the permanent record on this message board. Deleting your posts could possibly make the thread meaningless, so I will not be deleting your posts unless they violate the rules of engagement here.

So relax and enjoy. I hope your experience here is a great one.

Steve