8. CONFIDENTIALITY: Guideline of the Day

[Guest guest]

The 12 sections of the " WTO Guidelines "

are posted at the rate of one per day, as below:

1 - Intro to WTO

2 - Technical Stuff

3 - List Facilitation

4 - List Netiquette

5 - Posting and Getting Responses

6 - Eggshell Resources, Abbreviations

7 - Offended? Send Problems to Us

8 - Confidentiality

9 - Humor, Lasagna Therapy, Off Topic Posts

10 - The Family of Welcome To Oz Lists

11 - Live Chat, The Buddy System

12 - BPs on WTO

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8. CONFIDENTIALITY: Guideline of the Day

Confidentiality is your RIGHT, for both you and the BP in your life. So

please:

a) Please keep your passwords private. Do not let anyone else have

access to your Yahoogroups account. If anyone else in your life feels it

is their right to read the mail of others, please tell them it is

against the guidelines of this group and refer them to

WelcomeToOz-owner .

Keep all posts confidential and do not show them to others or repost

them on other lists without permission (except for quoting the other

person in your reply, of course.) Paraphrasing is OK. Short quotes are

generally OK, especially when kept within the WTO lists.

c) Unless you receive permission from each list member, you may not use,

collect or download list names for your own purposes. This is also

against Yahoogroups guidelines, which prohibits " harvesting or otherwise

collecting information about others, including email addresses, without

their consent. " An example would be sending a mass mailing of your own

to list members without their permission. This violation of privacy will

result in immediate removal from the list to protect the privacy of

others.

d) For increased confidentiality, go to mail.Yahoo.com or any other site

that offers Web-based email. Create a new email address for yourself,

and subscribe using another name. When it asks you for your REAL name,

you must use a nickname. If you use your real name, it will appear

onlist. We have spoken with Hotlist, and their main concern for

obtaining real names is to prevent spamming and such. Creating an alias

for this list is fine.

e) Since the person with BPD in your life has NOT chosen to reveal

information about him/herself, please do not reveal details that would

invade the privacy of the BP (e.g., " The BP in my life is an actress who

is in a TV show where she plays a postal worker who moonlights as a

dance instructor. " )

f) The facilitators may also write about BPD. However, their own beliefs

about confidentiality and U.S. laws prevent them from using anyone's

post. Legally, you retain copyright of everything you write. (This is

also one of the reasons why you need to ask permission to repost the

work of others.)

g) Posts on all lists EXCEPT WTOStaying and WTODivorcing are archived.

They can be accessed through the main page and clicking on " Messsages. "

The members of Divorcing and Staying decided not to archive for privacy.

If they ever vote to change that, it's easy to change.

However, it's important that the members of these groups not get a false

sense of security. Please remember that each list contains more than 100

members, and you do not know who is on them.

Again, for complete confidentiality on ANY list, we recommend obtaining

a different account (perhaps web based; do NOT use your real name) and

changing the details of your posts such as what you do, where you live,

your gender, etc. In my years of experience, topics do not radically

change and chances are good you can participate without revealing

personal information you don't need to.

Randi Kreger

List owner, Welcome To Oz Lists

Coauthor, Stop Walking on Eggshells

Love and Loathing, Hope for Parents

www.BPDCentral.com

Addendum:

A portion of the guidelines to the WTO groups are sent out each day

because altogether they can be rather overwhelming. They are sent to all

lists in approximate order of what is important and are not making any

comment on any particular message on any one of the WTO groups. Please

note our guidelines have developed over the years by the group as a

whole to meet situations that come up again and again. Before you post,

you must agree to try to read and try to meet them. If you have any

questions, comments, or feelings you wish to voice about the guidelines,

please write to at bear454us@... or Edith at

psychprof5@.... Thank you!

__________________________________________________

Posted by Edith

Facilitator / WTO lists

PsychProf5@...