ZapLife.org Rules & Policies

LAST REVISED: OCTOBER 10, 2005

When The Zapper was first launched in January of 1994, there was only one rule: No Personal Attacks. Since then, a few unpleasant episodes erupted from misunderstandings not covered by that sole guideline, creating something more representive of anarchy than a functional community. The site owner (Duffey Cybercations founder, Jon Duffey) was justifiably criticized for being less than responsible for letting discussions get "out of hand" and failing to crack down sooner. That lead to many people abandoning ZapLife.org to avoid the growing environment of hostility.

To restore and maintain order, credibility, and service, the following Rules & Policies are adopted. Anyone and everyone is invited to take part in and benefit from the wide variety of FREE ZapLife.org services as long as each agrees to abide by the following Rules & Policies.

1 Personal attacks and anything that constitutes name calling are not permitted. Since Zap•Life.org serves cardiac patients whose conditions might worsen from anxiety, we have an obligation to protect site users from words that harm.

Such incidents will be edited or deleted, with notations made to explain the action taken. If you notice a posting that violates this rule, do NOT respond in public. Instead, notify the Editorial Board which has the responsibility to address the issue with appropriate action. This policy applies to all of the following rules:

2 Do not post any content that contains libelous content or any form of a threat.

3 Do not dispense medical information without a license. If some treatment or medicine regimen worked for you and you want to share your discovery with others, only do so with a mandatory caveat: "This worked for me, but always check with your physician before following this course of action."

4 Profane, obscene, vulgar, sexually-oriented, and pejorative comments of a racial, ethnic, religious, age, disbility, or sexual nature are not permitted.

5 Any and all criticism dealing with the operation of Zap•Life.org must be confined to the subordinate forum: Zapper Admin Archive. Past polling indicated overwhelming support among members for accepting support from a sponsor. Therefore, this issue is off limits for debate.

6 Do not make postings (to the ZapperBBS or the Administrative Forum) that threaten or endanger ZapLife.org integrity and credibility, or that of ZapLife.org administration, Editorial Board, hosting staff, and/or service providers. This will constitute a threat to the ZapLife.org mission and will be dealt with severely.

7 Debating issues (even if politically charged relating to an ICD) is welcome. Limit criticism of individuals to private contact via the Zapper•BBS email and messaging systems. Putting that in the public forums is unacceptable and anything deemed a judgmental comment that reflects negatively on another ZapLife.org member will be edited or deleted.

8 "Spoofing" is the practice of stealing or adopting a false identity of another (real or fictional) person for the purpose of confusing and/or committing fraud through electronic communications. It is criminal mischief. Those who originate such material face banisment, and such incidents will be turned over to appropriate law enforcement for prosecution.

9 As per ZapLife.org copyright policies: Duplication and/or distribution of published materials is encouraged - with attribution required. Only registered users will have access to post to the various forums, including the Zapper•BBS, Zap•List, and the Zap•Chat (sign-in rquired for each session.) By registering, posters surrender ownership of authored materials and ALL submissions to ZapLife.org forums becomes the exclusive property of the ZapLife.org ownership..

10 While the administrators and the The Zapper Editorial Board will attempt to remove or edit any objectionable material as quickly as possible, it is impossible to review every message. Therefore you acknowledge that all posts made to these forums express the views and opinions of the author and not the administrators, moderators or webmaster (except for posts by these people) and hence will not be held liable.

1 There will be no poll to seek approval for these Rules and Policies, which may be changed as needed without prior notice. They are established by the ZapLife.org publisher and founder of Duffey Cybercations, the owner of this site, to restore and maintain order to this broad group of internet based support programs. Those who agree to abide by these reasonable rules are welcome to make free use of the various support services provided. Those unable to accept these terms are invited to seek support elsewhere.

2 We will make every attempt to handle violations with content editing to avoid punitive action. Repeated minor violators may face suspension of access to certain programs. Those who put ZapLife.org or Duffey Cybercations in legal or financial jeopardy or threaten site integrity/credibility or that of the administrators and staff can lose access after one incident, depending on the severity and intentions of the violation, as determined by a majority vote of the ZapLife Editorial Board.

3 Anyone wishing to criticize these Rules and Policies, or decisions made by ZapLife.org administrators, Editorial Board, and service providers is requested to do in a private email, to obtain permission prior to launching a public discussion on the Zapper Admin Forum.

4 All involved in the operation of ZapLife.org maintains a committment to providing the highest level of quality FREE services ro registered members and visitors. We are also dedicated to protecting the privacy of all site users. No administrator or Editorial Board member is permitted to disclose any personal or proprietary information.

EMail questions/comments to

Ed-Bd@ZapLife.org - Content Issues
Mike@ZapLife.org - Technical Issues
Duffey@ZapLife.org - Administrative Issues