READ FIRST - Posting Guidelines

[atlantis]

Anyone intending to post for the first time should read the Posting Guidelines of this forum (follow the link). However, here is an excerpt:

What are the real No-No's on the Expat Forum - or How to upset the Adminstrators
Things that irk the Moderation team and lead to deletion of your posting, infractions, or banning of your profile (in extreme cases) ...

- obviously inflammatory postings
- flaming, provocating or bickering
- hate postings of any kind attacking people for their race, creed, marital choice, eating habits, dating preferences, stereotypes, religious beliefs, etc.,
- offensive swearing and/or name calling,
- posting the same message in multiple channels,
- including links to mature subject matter websites in your posting,
- subject lines or words in subject lines of postings in ALL CAPS* ... a cardinal rule of netiquette ... don't do it!
- posting a URL in a subject line,
- promoting illegal activities or encouraging corruption
- purposefully using asterisks or plus signs or other symbols in the subject line to make your post stand out,
- use of bad words in the subject line (resulting in asterisks ... or camouflaging words that resulted in asterisks), and
- abuse by businesses who use the Expat Forum to try to get visitors to buy products or services through multiple or repeated postings. Businesses should limit commercial postings to one a month and only in ONE appropriate channel! If you want to approach the expatriate community through this site on a regular basis, consider becoming a sponsor.
- threats made against the webmaster, moderators, administrators, or the Expat Forum
- setting up profiles with a nic that is obviously intended to mimic/copy/impersonate another member

If you are not sure if your posting is welcome ... contact any moderator and we'll let you know!

* By all caps we mean words in capital letters(huruf besar) in the subject line .. like “LOOK AT MY POSTING, SCREAM ... PAY ATTENTION TO ME!!” Or ... Great Boxing Gear FOR SALE ... Get my drift?

Is this forum censored?

We don't condone the spread of hatred, pornography or ridicule of individuals for any reason. These postings serve no positive purpose for the expat community or the larger community in which we live.
The committee that runs this site (and volunteers hundreds of hours each year) have long since decided that the purpose of this forum is to assist expats moving to Indonesia with questions they have ... that may not already be answered in the articles we have written.
While acknowledging that not all portions of the expat experience in Indonesia will be positive ... we see our role as helping to make the experience as positive as possible for all concerned ... and to assist in a SUCCESSFUL transition to living in Indonesia. To this end we maintain this forum!
Anyone with questions on how this web site is run is contact us ... we'll be happy to answer your questions.

What is our Infraction Policy?

The infraction policy is our way of standardizing the way we issue penalties and disciplinary actions on the Living in Indonesia Expat Forum. This formal system is in place so that users and moderators can monitor infractions. The infraction system will be on a point-based scale. For each infraction that a user receives he/she will be allotted a certain amount of infraction points. These points are based on what type of infraction was issued, as well as the severity of the offense. For a listing of possible infractions, in no particular order, as well as the associated infraction points:

* Hate Posting (Racial, Religious, etc.) - 10, 20 points
* Inappropriate / Crude / Lewd Language in Postings - 2, 5 points
* Inflammatory / Baiting/ Provocative post - 2, 3, 5, 10 points
* Multiple Postings of the Same Post - 3, 10 points
* Offensive / Name Calling/ Insults - 3, 5, 10 points
* Private Messaging Abuse - 5, 10, 20 points
* Promoting Illegal Activities - 3, 5, 10, 20, 30 points
* Spam Posting - 10, 20 points
* Subject In All Caps or URL in subject - 3, 20 points
* Threats against User / Mod / Admin / Forum - 20, 30 points
* Unauthorized Advertisement(s) - 5, 10, 20 points
* Posting Personal Data of Other Users 3, 5, 10 points
What do the points mean? Here is a breakdown:

1 < 15: Warning (sent by email or PM)
15 < x < 20: 7 day ban
20 < x: Permanent ban

Infractions will stay in place for a total of 12 months. If no further infractions are accumulated during that time, your points will expire. If not, they will continue to accumulate.

Every user has the right to protest their infraction. To dispute your infraction, you need to PM the Moderation team (Atlantis, paman, and wm) with a note about the infraction. Include why you believe you were unfairly issued the infraction, including URL links to any relevant posts. One of the moderators will acknowledge receipt of your PM/email and then the moderator team will discuss the infraction and will come to a decision. The decision may be a reaffirmation of the previous infraction, a downgrade of the infraction or even possibly an increase in severity of the infraction.


Do we allow companies to advertise their services and products on the Expat Forum?

The Expat Forum is meant to be for community discussion. Advertising is NOT THE FOCUS of the Expat Forum. We understand that there are many companies that would like to sell their products and services to the expatriates, yet the Expat Forum members will get upset if we see a flood of ads messing up interesting discussion threads.

Including your company name, logo and/or address in the signature of your Forum Profile, so that it appears on every post, makes each one of those posts a commercial post (promoting your business), no matter what the subject of the post is.

We only allow one commercial posting per month from companies. If a company is interested in promoting their services to the expatriate community, they should consider becoming a sponsor. Contact us for more information.


Don't Jump on newcomers ... there are NO stupid questions!

This forum was created to answer practical questions about the daily life and concerns of expatriates in Indonesia for: people who are planning and preparing for their move to Indonesia, those newly arrived, as well as seasoned veterans. Therefore, please don't jump on anyone, but especially not on newcomers, for asking what you may feel are stupid questions. That is the purpose of this forum ... to have someone to turn to when you need to find answers. There are no stupid questions!