Message Board Community Guidelines
(as of 2/11/2004)

The PassPorter Message Board Community welcomes friendly discussion of vacation planning (and vacationing) at Walt Disney World, at Disneyland, on the Disney Cruise Line, and around the world. We encourage a free flow of information that may be helpful to vacationers and fellow Disney fans.

All the normal principles of netiquette apply on this board. Please keep your messages on topic. Behavior and language that would be unwelcome within the borders of Fantasyland is quite unwelcome here as well. Advertising or other attempts to use these boards for financial gain are not permitted. Libel and slander will not be tolerated. Personal attacks and attacks on providers of goods or services are also prohibited.

Please refrain from making religion or politics a topic of conversation on our message boards, except in those cases where it directly involves your travels (i.e, finding religious services, visiting holy sites, discussion or attractions and events of a political or religious nature such as the Hall of Presidents, the Candlelight Processional, Christmas season, attending political conventions, travel to places with political unrest, etc.). PassPorter welcomes everyone, but when religion and politics are discussed, the end result is that some people do not feel welcome and may be afraid to participate. We also ask that you do not make prayer requests, as this excludes those who do not pray from participating -- instead, you can ask for thoughts, "pixie dust" or good wishes, which anyone can offer. Typical expressions of religious or political belief and affiliation are welcome. You are welcome to say things such as, "I will pray for you," "I'm a Republican (Democrat, Christian, Buddhist, etc.)," "Christmas is my favorite time of year, and I love going to Midnight Mass," etc. If you need to discuss religious or political topics more directly, we recommend you visit http://www.allspiritual.com or these political forums.

Please respect the copyrights of others. You may not repost messages from e-mail, other message boards, Usenet newsgroups, Web sites, books, newspapers, magazines or other sources without permission of the author/copyright holder of that material, except for brief quotations as provided for by the fair use principles of U.S. copyright law. Posts and/or message threads that violate these standards will be removed or edited without apology.

Within the boundaries stated above you may feel free to discuss any appropriate topic, even if it happens to be a glowing review of a travel guide published by another company (so long, of course, as it's an independent consumer evaluation). In fact, we encourage this sort of discussion and comparison as it is helpful to vacationers.

Although most users of these boards are not trained journalists we encourage you to think like journalists when reporting to the members of this community. We encourage you to prepare messages that are complete and balanced in presentation. Please cite the source of information whenever possible, and distinguish between personal eyewitness accounts, hearsay, rumor, speculation, official statements, and third-party reports. When possible offer URLs (Web addresses) to important source materials. State whether costs, dates, times and similar information is exact or approximate, and note whether prices include or do not include sales tax.

Before you ask a question of the members of this group, recognize that obtaining the answer to your question may require them to place one or more long-distance telephone calls. If you can easily obtain the answer to your question by placing a telephone call yourself, we encourage you to do so, and if you unearth new information you're encouraged to share it with the rest of the community.

The original contents of a post remains the property of the author of that post, and the contents of these boards constitute a compilation under U.S. copyright law. Any copy or reproduction of all or part of the contents of this message board without the expressed permission of the individual authors and MediaMarx, Inc. is prohibited. Those wishing to create a hyperlink to this message board and/or other parts of this site from their own Web site are asked to send information about the link to webmaster@passporter.com, as a courtesy to the operators of this site.

Message boards are like any other organized gathering of people; there are rules of etiquette that everyone is expected to follow. Here are the common rules of netiquette as they apply to message boards:

Read Before Participating
It's best to browse our message board for a while before you post your first message. Read a few subjects (threads) the first time you visit our board, and then read new messages for another couple of days. You'll see what topics are hot and which are cold, you'll get to know some of the key participants, and you'll become familiar with the demeanor of our board.

Communicate Clearly
Write clearly when you compose a message. Review your message carefully before submitting it; typos are confusing. Remember, if your message can be misunderstood, it will be.

Refrain from using ALL CAPS
Typing in all capital letters is frowned upon; it's the equivalent of screaming at everyone. It also makes your message more difficult to read.

No "Me Too's"
"Me too" messages are a quick way to irritate other members. If you agree with a posting, either enjoy your consent by yourself or reply with an informative comment about why you agree. Imagine how dull a board would get if it contained hundreds of "me too's."

Be Careful About What You Post
Be careful about including private information about yourself, such as phone numbers and street addresses. Private information of that nature may be better sent by e-mail. Additionally, be careful posting hearsay or unverified rumors that aren't identified as such.

Be Kind, Be Honest
Don't issue personal attacks, use profanity, or post threatening, abusive, harassing, or otherwise offensive language or images. You also may not impersonate another individual or communicate under a name that you are not entitled to use.

Remember Your Options
Some replies are better sent as e-mail, rather than posted to our message board. Personal messages and especially critical comments are more appropriate when sent directly and privately. You can click the author's name to compose an e-mail to them.

No Chain Letters or Advertisements
Chain letters are never appreciated in the online community. Advertisements are just as unwelcome. Please read our message board guidelines to the left also.

Respect Copyrights
Use your own words. If you want to quote another source, be brief (a few sentences will do) and provide a hyperlink to the remainder of the information.