Greetings. I am new to this site. Is there a protocal for how to engage in the forum? Is there "chat" from one to another, and is there messaging for public? Thank you. <><

Hi Diane

Welcome to HDLF. You are officially started. :

Steve

Welcome, Diane! If you have a question, start a new thread and post it. If you want to respond to someone then do so in the existing thread. Sometimes people want to speak to each other privately and then you use private messaging in the upper right corner. If you type in their user name (such as Marsha) then the message will go into that person's inbox.

There aren't too many rules here. We want people to use just one ID, not create more than one to play out different identities. We also don't want people to misrepresent who they are. For example, if someone is a 45 year old man, they shouldn't post as a 19 year old girl. Of course, most people want to keep their identity private. So if you don't want someone to know your age or where you live (as examples), just don't provide those details, rather than post the wrong ones. We also try to be non-judgmental here. HD provides a lot of difficult topics, for example feeding tubes, having children, nursing home placements, etc. Many of us have strong opinions but it is a good idea to be gentle in stating them if people are asking for them and avoid stating them when people are not asking.

I hope that we can be informative and supportive for you and I know we will learn from you as well.