The LGLPCI Forum is not a substitute for professional assistance. We offer peer-to-peer support only. We encourage survivors and their supporters to work with a trained counselor or psychiatrist, and if you are in crisis you will be referred to resources that can provide you the help you need and deserve.

The Let Go… Let Peace Come In Foundation LGLPCI Forum Community Guidelines
Created: May 3, 2011

General Community Rules
1. You must be 18 years of age or older to utilize this online support community.

2. All decisions regarding editing/locking/deleting threads, member accounts, and the suspension/banning of members will be made by the moderators and administrators of this forum. Such decisions are unified, final, and not open to discussion.

3. Each person is allowed only one active user account. If you wish to have a name change, please email the moderators or administrators who can easily do this for you. Opening more than one account, especially for the purpose of deceiving other members, may result in being banned.

4. Only one person may use each account. Do not allow others to read the board or post using your account.

5. Members with DID can have only one account, and only the host can post.

6. Using the forum for mass solicitation or to spam, harass, or threaten another member is prohibited.

7. Treat forum moderators and administrators with respect. Staff members may be survivors as well. Direct or indirect mistreatment of moderators or administrators is not permitted.

8. Be responsible for your own safety. Personal information such as address, phone number, and full name should not be shared via this message board.

9. Use of this board is limited to participation in peer support. Survivors are expected to participate in forum discussions on a regular basis to promote health and healing.

10. Leaving the community? Please email a moderator or administrator to let them know you are leaving the community.

11. Protected areas: There are several areas in the forum where member posts are not permitted (i.e. rules, guidelines). Additionally only registered users can post comments, attachments, or topics to a forum.

Posting Rules

1. Be respectful of different ways of healing and care about each other. We are all survivors of something. Some things might anger you and you might want to disagree. Please remember that everyone who posts here is a person and deserves to be treated as such. If a post has you angry or triggered, please take a moment to relax before replying, instead of lashing out. Not everyone heals in the same way.

2. Post new threads in the correct forum. Moderators may move posts to the proper forum.

3. If your post may trigger others please let them know in advance. We all need to keep in mind that much of what you see on this board will be triggering. Please keep safe and take responsibility for your own safety.

Do not post:

• Harassing posts, flames, or threats.
• Discriminatory posts. Posts that are of direct or general insult to any particular person, gender, gender identity, sexuality, religion, race, or nationality will be edited, locked or deleted.
• Threads saying "you weren't there for me/the board isn't doing enough for me." If a post implies that the members of this board have not done enough, that post will be closed or deleted. LGLPCI stresses personal responsibility.
• Suicide notes or good-bye letters (because of suicide).
• Negative posts about this or other message boards/survivor communities. If you have concerns with the operation of the LGLPCI Forum, please email a moderator or administrator. You can discuss issues from other forums without using names, URLs, or other identifying information.
• Problems with other members.
• Threads for another person or hugs/dedication threads.
• Inappropriate photographs, images, or videos.
• Any identifying information, including photos or the full name of your perpetrator or abuser, unless he or she has been convicted of the crime you are accusing. If your perpetrator has been convicted, you must provide the staff with proof of the conviction before posting his or her full name or any identifying information. Contact the board moderators or administrators for more information.
• Discussion about illegal activities. You may not use the board, including the email, to discuss illegal activities you or anyone else are contemplating or have committed, whether past, present, or future.
• Intentions to undertake risky activities.
• Seeking medical advice. The board and its members are not in a position to respond to medical queries - please always seek advice from a qualified professional about any medical issues you may have.
• If your ability to post coherently is affected by drugs / alcohol, then please refrain from stating in posts that you are under the influence of drugs / alcohol.

Avoid the following:

• Swearing in post titles and status updates.
• Colored text in forum posts, writing in all caps or in alternating upper and lower case. These can be hard on the eyes and make it difficult for those with vision impairment to read.
• Signature graphics. Signatures should not be larger than two inches, and one image is permitted only if it is standard "emoticon"-sized or smaller. No tickers, countdowns, etc. Contact a moderator or administrator if you are unsure if your signature complies with this rule.
• Copyrighted material: Include a link to the source when posting copyrighted text. This includes text from other websites, newspapers, or online articles. Either use the quote code or make it obvious that you are quoting material not your own.
• Erased posts will be deleted. You can edit the texts of your post.
• Specific descriptions of self injury or eating disorder behaviors will be edited.
• Moderators may use discretion in dealing with other posts that are questionable.

Staff Responses

To insure the safety of this board and its members, there may be consequences to not following board rules. We will typically respond in the following manner:

1) For rules affecting board organization, the moderators will simply correct the problem. For instance, we may move a thread or add a trigger warning. You may or may not be notified of the change.

2) For guidelines that do not affect board safety, you will be contacted and reminded of the guideline. For instance, if you have a large signature picture, you'll be asked to remove it. If you post something that might be construed as an intention to attempt suicide, a moderator will remove that portion of your post and contact you to check in.

3) For guidelines that affect board safety, we will proceed in the following manner: First, you will be warned. Second, your account may be temporarily suspended or your posting privileges reduced. For a third offense, you will unfortunately be banned. In rare circumstances where board safety is compromised and a warning is not appropriate or possible, a ban may be put under place immediately. This is highly unusual and typically affects only "trolls" who come here to cause trouble or do damage.

If you have come here only to hurt others, you will be banned and reported. IP addresses are logged and viewable by moderators, so you may be reported to your ISP if we feel it is necessary.

These rules are subject to change; when possible, notice of changes will be made in an announcements forum.

***This board is not to be used in place of professional counseling or therapy. We are not professionals; we are survivors and individuals who can support one another through the healing process.***

Additional Clarification 

DID policy:
Members diagnosed with DID are very welcome in this community. However, we do not permit alters to post openly on the board as separate individuals or to even identify themselves as alters. Members with DID are welcome to post under one username and all alters using that name will not distinguish themselves from the 'host' personality. Furthermore, all alters posting under the username must be alters over the age of 18. Moderators reserve the right to edit and delete posts in order to preserve the overall safety of our membership. Please contact a board moderator or administrator if you do not understand the guidelines laid out or think you will have difficulty adhering to them.

Safety/sharing info:

We strongly discourage you from sharing any personal information via this online community. The Let Go… Let Peace Come In Foundation (LGLPCI) assumes no liability if you choose to divulge this information. It is not acceptable to pressure another member into giving out personal information, including addresses, phone numbers, and instant messenger screen names. Under no circumstances may a member share the personal information of another member.

The LGLPCI Forum is to be used for peer support only:

You may not access, read, copy, or otherwise reproduce, transmit, or communicate any portion of the LGLPCI Forum for other purposes. Members here retain complete control over their stories. Thus, this includes reporting sexual, physical, or emotional abuse that other members have experienced or are experiencing. This is a safe place for adult members to confidentially discuss ongoing abuse. However, it should be noted that in situations where a minor (a person under age 18) gains access to this forum and is disclosing ongoing abuse, the board moderators may report the information provided to and collected by letgoletpeacecomein.org to protective services. The law requires such reports of abuse in some situations in order to protect children. Moderators will use their discretion in reporting other situations involving minors. If you think abuse must be reported to authorities, contact a moderator or administrator directly.

Leaving the board:

If you decide to leave the board, you may certainly inform other members by posting. However, posts blaming other members or moderators for your decision to leave will be deleted and your account may be banned. LGLPCI stresses that each survivor is ultimately responsible for him or herself.

If a member posts that he or she is leaving the board indefinitely, his or her account will be placed on inactive guest status and will lose access to the private forums (your posts and messages will not be deleted). If you decide at some point that you would like to return, you can contact the administrator at gretchen@letgoletpeacecomein.org and request reinstatement of your account.

If you inform us that you are leaving the board, we will set your account to inactive status unless you specifically request that it is deleted. We reserve the right to deny requests for account deletion.

Religion:

We encourage religious diversity on the board, as well as people who embrace no faith. You may discuss how your religious belief have assisted you in healing - you may not bash other religions, "proselytize", that is, try and convert people to your religion, or condemn as "sinful" other member's lifestyles or choices such as homosexuality, abortion or sex outside of marriage. When you state your beliefs, own them as yours rather than making blanket statements. Importantly, please do not offer to pray for somebody unless prayer is requested.

Members must also be free to discuss harm done to them by religion, and they must not be answered with hostile defenses of the religion to which you adhere. That said, if you wish to discuss harm by a religion, you need to do so without making negative blanket statements about the religion as a whole. If you are an atheist, please refrain from derogatory comments about religion.

Suicidal ideation/notes:

If you are thinking of suicide, please call the police, a local hotline, or RAINN (1-800-656-HOPE). We understand that everyone isn't always in a happy mood, and you can definitely post about how you're feeling, but that does not include suicide notes (or posts that could be interpreted as suicide notes). Most of the people here are not trained professionals. While we want to help you through your difficult times, the feeling of helplessness that comes with reading someone's suicide note online is incredible. Please seek help from someone who can help to keep you safe. In situations where a member expresses clear and imminent suicidal ideation, the moderators of this board may report the information provided to and collected by the LGLPCI Forum to local authorities.

Images, photos, and videos:

You may post photographs of other people only with their permission. All posted images must be appropriate for a large audience of survivors. You may not post photographs of your abuser unless he or she has been convicted of the crime he or she perpetrated against you. In this case, please contact a moderator before posting any photographs. To protect the LGLPCI Forum from liability, you will need to provide evidence that your perpetrator has been convicted and that the photograph you are submitting is of the person who was convicted.

Videos must be appropriate and should not be triggering. Provide a description of the video you've linked to. Please seek moderator approval for any video that may be potentially triggering by sending any member of the moderating team the link. Members should be aware that moderators have not reviewed each video and watch them at their own risk, although we will make every reasonable effort to remove inappropriate videos swiftly.

Risk-taking activities:

We understand that risk-taking is something many survivors have felt the urge towards, or have done in the past (for example, risky sexual or drug-taking behaviors). It is okay to post that we have considered it or that it holds a certain amount of appeal. We can also post about past situations, but it is not okay to post about imminent situations; that leaves the rest of the board feeling very powerless.

Erasing your own posts:

If you erase your post, please edit the subject line to read *deleted* as well so that members do not spend time trying to read a thread that's been erased. If you erase the first thread in a topic, the whole topic will be removed.

Asking for medical advice

Please ensure you abide the following guidelines regarding asking for medical advice:

Asking for a medical opinion: It is not permissible to ask members for a medical opinion on the board --even if that member claims to be a medical professional. This means that it is not appropriate to ask members to comment on the seriousness or cause of any symptoms you may have, ask them to suggest a diagnosis, or comment on a potential or actual treatment. Similarly, it is not appropriate for any member to argue for or against a certain medical treatment or to suggest an alternative treatment to that which the member in question is taking.

Asking for information:

If you want to know more about a medical condition we encourage you to talk to a qualified medical professional. It is not okay to ask members to explain a medical diagnosis or treatment, or to offer such explanations yourself. However, you are allowed to post on the board to find other members who have similar diagnoses to you and to discuss coping strategies, or how the diagnosis affects you and your healing. Keep in mind that members on this board can only provide you with peer support, and not medical advice.

Providing information which allows members to infer conclusions regarding their own medical conditions/treatments:

While it is permissible for you to talk about your diagnoses and treatments, it is not permissible to provide information in such a way that allows other members to infer medical information. For example, while you may say that you take a certain medication(s), you cannot state the dosage or frequency of this medication. We do this for two reasons: one, members offering you support do not need to know this information; and two, other members on similar medication(s) to you could potentially believe it would be safe to alter their own medication dosages to the levels you are taking, without seeking professional medical advice. Each patient's situation is unique, and the only person qualified to make medical decisions for a member is a professional who knows the patient's case history and diagnosis.

The Let Go… Let Peace Come In Foundation is committed to bring healing, support, and awareness to the hundreds of millions of adult childhood sexual abuse survivors and their families worldwide. We plan to enact change within the healthcare systems, political systems, and societies by teaching and educating through the current technologies. We will weave our message of peace, hope, recovery and happiness into the fabric of these societies by integrating published materials with video, audio and Internet media throughout the world. And we will raise money for a non-profit fund to provide the financial assistance necessary to start survivors of childhood sexual abuse on the path to recovery “one” survivor at a time.

Your use of the LGLPCI Forum constitutes acceptance of the Terms of Service.