Liability & Disclaimer
Ivory Garden obtains its information from sources and people it believes to be reliable. However, because of the possibility of human and mechanical error as well as other factors, Ivory Garden and its message boards/chat rooms makes no representations or warranties, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy or timeliness of its information, and cannot be responsible or held liable for any errors or omissions in its information or the results obtained from the use of such information. Users are solely responsible for determining whether the information provided is suitable for their purposes, and reliance on the information is at the users' sole risk. Users should obtain any additional information necessary to make informed decisions. Ivory Garden assumes no responsibility or liability for any advice, treatment, or services rendered by any hospital, physician, or other health care provider, health care facility or health plan featured on its sites.
Please read our Privacy Policy. Please do not provide or ask for personal information of members for any purpose.
Unless otherwise cited, all articles and written information is under copyright protection. You do not have permission to copy anything in any way from Ivory Garden sites, discussion forums, and/or blogs including design without contacting the source.
Although Ivory Garden attempts to delete objectionable messages from its web site(s), it operates in real time and does not review material before posting. All messages express the views of the author, and Ivory Garden will NOT be held responsible for any content, any posting or any messages.
Ivory Garden is not liable for any advice or information provided on the sites/discussion boards. No warranties either expressed or implied, are made on the information we provide.
Ivory Garden, its officers, directors, and volunteers are held harmless of claims arising out of or related to anyone’s access or use of Ivory Garden websites, message forums, chat rooms, and/or conferences/ webinars/educational material. You also agree that Ivory Garden or the contributors of information shall NOT be liable to members or anyone else for any decision made or action taken for reliance on information provided or for any consequential, special or similar damages, even if advised of the possibility of such damages. Ivory Garden cannot be held liable for members’ actions or behavior.
Member Responsibility
This website and accompanying message forums which are provided for survivors of child abuse, supporters, and clinicians are not a replacement for therapy. Nor should discussion concerning therapy be 'assumed' as professional. All discussion is that of the posters opinion only.
Ivory Garden discussion forum members’ will not use Ivory Garden forums as a place to advertise, advise as ‘professionals’, request personal information, or ‘troll’ for the purpose of accessing members in a deceptive manner. Perspective members will apply using true and accurate personal information. No applications will be approved if a member is using ‘proxy servers’ in order to obtain access to the community for deceptive purposes.
Members are expected to appropriately seek help from 911, therapist, crisis line or hospital if in danger of harming self or others.
Members agree that reproducing any portion of this site is strictly prohibited, unless otherwise specified in cited material. Portions of this site contain material that may be disturbing to some folks. Members will be in a safe place when reading.
Members of Ivory Garden are legally and unconditionally responsible for their own behavior on any Ivory Garden site, message board/chat forum.
Members will follow all guidelines and restrictions of message boards/chat forums and hold Ivory Garden, its officers, staff, and volunteers, harmless for any and all decisions made as well as members’ reaction to such decisions.
Members agree that using this site to commit fraudulent activities, violate any law, statute, ordinance or regulation is strictly prohibited. Furthermore, no communications passing through this site may be defamatory, libelous, unlawfully threatening or unlawfully harassing, obscene or contain any viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancelbots or any other computer programming routines that are intended to damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data or personal information.
Members interacting on message boards and chats agree that all content is confidential and will not share such information in any way, on any site and through any means.
Message Board Guidelines:
Remember that these are 'guidelines' for our discussion forums. Our forums are 'open discussion' meaning that you can write about most all topics. We hope that all members feel free to talk to each other, get to know each other, and interact as each feels comfortable. We appreciate each other as being equally unique and significant.
Members of discussion forums agree to follow the Privacy Policy as written - meaning that any personal information collected for one purpose cannot be used for any other purposes, according to the law. For instance if you provided telephone numbers for use at the conference, this information can only be used during that conference for which it was provided. You also agree to contact Felicity Lee at felicity4us2@gmail.com if you are contacted by anyone using this information for any other purpose. No one should be contacting you using your email address which you provided on our board for any other purpose except for the reason you provided it - administrator contact concerning Ivory Garden such as: newsletters, your participation on the forums, updates sent by administrators or Board of Directors, or announcements concerning Ivory Garden. If you receive any other sort of emails, you agree to contact Felicity Lee at felicity4us2@gmail.com. This helps protect us as a community and corporation to abide by breach of confidentiality laws.
Making Application to Ivory Garden Discussion Forums
Age:
Members must be 13 years or older (body age) to participate on Ivory Garden Dissociative Identity Disorder Support Group, unless special provision are made with the owner of the forum.
Providing Information:
Purposefully providing false or incomplete responses to application questions can be considered deceitful behavior and could lead to immediate removal of membership by the Board of Directors.
General Behavior Expectations:
Respect Defamatory, racist, hateful, pornographic, illegal or insulting content must be avoided on forums. You must respect the fact that people may have a different opinion than you. If you are at odds with another member or staff, you MUST bring this up with a member of the Board of Directors immediately·
You must respect the moderators and administrators.
Personal Mail:
As a member, you agree that you will use the pm system ONLY to write back and forth to staff. If you need to contact a member, please do so on the forums. Sharing personal information through pm's is prohibited and will result in you losing pm privileges. This guideline is included to provide safety for all member. You also agree that you will follow all other guidelines within these terms.
Personal Responsibility:
All members who belong to the Dissociation Forum agree that all alters of their system are responsible for the actions of each other. All members of discussion forums agree to employ measures to ensure safety of other members' confidentiality by closing the program and keeping passwords private to others.
Members will make clear in posts, and chat area that what they state is their opinion while still validating others' opinions as important and significant. Debates, gossip and/or arguments posted on message forums or while in chat area are prohibited. This includes taking an argument about any topic to a personal level or name-calling, repeated critical and sharply negative posts or emails toward any staff or forum member. Flaming, or slanderous posts are not acceptable and grounds for immediate removoking of membership to Ivory Garden.
Confidentiality:
Members will maintain confidentiality and will not copy, reprint, or repeat in any way what is written on Ivory Garden discussion forums as stated by copyright law unless you gain permission from the author.
Copying and Stealing:
Copying and stealing other members' work is not allowed unless you gain written permission from the author.
Posting Within the Message Forums:
Supervision of younger alters on survivor discussion forum:
If younger members are posting, an adult older than 16 years old must be present, supervise, and accept responsibility for the younger members' actions.
Sexually oriented, gore and any other type of discussion or language is prohibited.
Remain on-topic When posting. Read the first topic in the thread every time that you post. Your response should be to that person and on that topic.
Edited Posts:
When appropriate, messages may be edited. This does not mean that you did something ‘wrong’.
Moved Posts:
If you don't find your topic, it may have been moved to a more appropriate place. If you are not sure how to find it, go to the "Statistics" tab of your profile. There you can do a quick search of all the posts or topics you recently made. You will find it there.
Advertising:
Advertising or recruiting is not tolerated through posting or while in the chat area. Members are responsible also for reporting any incident where they are accessed or solicited by another member. Placing any link on a forum is considered 'advertising'. Links can be added to posts with permission of admins. Members/friends websites, blogs, etc. should not be shared in posts and/or in profiles.
Contacting staff:
Please do not post on the forums information that should be emailed to staff or a Board of Directors' member. If you have a problem or question that concern administration of the board, please contact Felicity Lee, 'owner' of the discussion boards.
Trolling:
Trolling is strictly prohibited anywhere on our forums, sites, or boards. All members of discussion forums interact with discretion and respect of the community.
Avatars & Signatures:
Do not use any avatars or signatures that may be triggering to folks. If asked by staff to change or remove an avatar or signature, you will do so immediately.
About hugs/prayers and terms of endearment:
Do not offer unsolicited hugs, prayers or terms of endearment in posts. Respect others' level of comfort.
Personal Safety:
Members of this board are not responsible for others' personal safety. Therefore, self-care and enforcing personal boundaries should be a priority. When reading on the board, attend to trigger warnings.
Trigger Warnings/ Spoilers:
Please use trigger warnings and spoilers as requested in each forum. No member will cue or purposefully trigger any other member.
Clear Threats/Intentions of Hurting Self or Others:
If you have a clear intention and plan to hurt yourself or others, you must leave this board and seek professional help. If you post here, your posts will be removed, and you will be advised to seek professional help. No member here has the authority to help if a member is threatening harm to self or others except to tell them to seek appropriate care.
We are a proud and strong community, because members understand that Ivory Garden terms of service guide the principles that we stand for: respect, validation, and acceptance of all members.
Thank you all for respecting and demonstrating loyalty to Ivory Garden and all members.
Pat Goodwin
Ivory Garden, President
Felicity Lee
Ivory Garden, 'owner' Discussion Communities
1. Be in an adult state of mind thoughtful, kind, and supportive before logging in or posting.
2. Before beginning a new topic, consider carefully what you need from community members. State your topic clearly, including spoilers, if appropriate, and post your intention (sharing experience, asking a question, or seeking support). Then, state what you need from members. Do not include several topics in one post. Break down the topics and post them in the appropriate areas within the board. These steps will help other members respond to your posts.
3. Before responding to a post, read it a couple times and identify the important points the writer presents and determine their needs, be it support, information, validation, etc. Reply by responding directly to the member constructively and with their needs in mind. Try not to hijack posts by making the post about you or changing the subject from the original topic. If you think of a subject that pertains to, but is not in answer to the original members post, begin a new thread. If something comes to mind that you would like to explore, start a new topic. All posts should be on-topic and directed to the original member's post.
4. Recognize what triggers you. Do not read posts that you know are triggering. If you feel uncomfortable, walk away from the board and take a break. If you are feeling overwhelmed with new information, give yourself time to absorb before reading further on that topic. If you become triggered or overwhelmed while chatting, leave the room immediately.
5. Agree to Disagree. We don't always agree with others' ideas, beliefs, or opinions and that is okay. When we disagree with another member's opinions, beliefs, or ideas, it is imperative that we respect and support their feelings and experiences as valid. Members may state opposite points of view by first responding with support and validation, then clearly and diplomatically presenting their opinion as their own, rather than presenting themselves as experts. Debates, arguments, etc. will not be tolerated.
6. Do not, for any reason, attempt to recruit members, either through email, telephone, or posts for any outside organization. If you know of any organization you would like the board to promote, please submit it to a staff member for approval. Once approved, they will be added to the resource section.
7. If you receive email or telephone calls that seem intrusive from members of our community, such as a member requesting personal information or unsolicited friendship, please copy the source and paste it to an email to Felicity Lee at felicity4us2@gmail.com. This will help to promote discussion concerning boundaries and safety issues. All information received and any discussions is completely confidential.
9. Respect and support each other and the Ivory Garden community.
10. Always know that Ivory Garden Board of Directors is here for each of you. Never be afraid to report infringements of guidelines and/or inappropriate behavior.