Should a member of local or national government obtain information from this list regarding families it may be both a breach of the data protection act and the persons right to a private family life as defined by article 8 of the Human Rights Act. Should I become aware that such a breach has occured I will take action against the individual in the form of a complaint to the persons superiors and any other authority I think may be interested.

Should a member of the press use the list to gain private information I will make a complaint to the press complaints authority.

It should be noted that I take privacy of discussion here very seriously.

Introductions

when you first join the list you will be placed into moderation. I will remove you from moderation when I see that you have introduced yourself and posted a few emails.

An introduction does not need to contain any detailed personal information just say hello and state what you hope to get out of the group.

What NOT to post:

meta-comments/discussion. (see below)
Anything that violates another's privacy.
Personal comments.
Attachments
Requests for personal information.
Hostile posts or posts that are likely to be interpreted as hostile.
Off-topic messages.
Spam, chain letters, virus warnings, etc.
Anything which advocates violence or harm towards a child which includes smacking or hitting a child.

Cross posting:

Do not cross-post without permission of the person who wrote the original. Either onto or off the list and remove any third party information before doing so.

All posts remain the copyright of the person who wrote it. Cross posting without permission will be regarded as a major infringement of the list guidelines and may result in the removal of the offender.

Explicit permission must be obtained for the cross posting of each and every post.

When bringing a discussion here from another forum ensure that it is understandable to those who have not read the preceding discussion and that it has a new and appropriate subject line with no "Re:" in it. Where possible, paraphrase the point you are discussing rather than quoting it, but where the point is original, please get permission to quote it.

Further guidelines to take into account:

While welcoming firm and strongly held opinions I expect all exchanges to remain polite.

Avoid One-line, 'content-less' posts such as "I agree".
Administrative messages such as "Unsubscribe me" should be sent to me directly off list

Re-post requests (send those to the individual poster).
Personal messages.
Discussions should be general and hypothetical avoiding personal details about you or your children where possible.

Try to bear your childs right to privacy in mind before posting any personal details.
Ensure that the subject line accurately reflects the content of your messages.

Please include and change subject lines.

To make posts easier to read, add white space. If you write more than about six lines without a gap, consider breaking the text into two or more paragraphs. It will encourage members to read what you have written.

Its helpful to those receiving the digest if people delete unecissary text when replying to other posts.

What is meta-discussion?

Meta-discussion is discussion about the discussions instead of about on-topic matters. For example comments or discussion about -

Posting styles
The List or web site management
The attributes of a particular poster (other than being right or wrong in something they have stated or advocated)
The attributes of a particular discussion

This list is not complete but intended to give you some guidance on this matter. Posts on any of these issues should be sent directly to the listowner.