Rules and Guidelines

Use of the Site and all information of any kind, including graphics, text, photos and images, that is posted, uploaded, transmitted or otherwise submitted by Members to the Site ("Member Content" or “Content”) is subject to the following terms.

•       You will follow the Terms Of Service and all applicable laws;

•       Always treat fellow posters with respect, courtesy and dignity. If in doubt, edit the post prior to pressing the “submit” button to be on the safe side.

•      If you are uncertain as to whether a certain word, image, or link is allowed, contact a moderator or administrator beforehand.

•      No public dispute with the moderator is allowed. Any disputes will be deleted from the board. Any issues with the moderation of the board can be addressed by sending an email to moderator@mafiaboard.net

•       For your safety, and the safety of our other members, no public posting of ANY personal contact information such as you or any members real name, address, telephone number (or that of anyone related to you or a member of the board) should be revealed. Remember, some of the posters on our site have been victims of domestic abuse and revealing this information could prove to be detrimental to them.[/b] Additionally, there are some ongoing court cases, and release of personal information may cause legal ramifications with those cases should that information fall into the wrong hands.

•       Misquotations or misrepresentations of other members will not be tolerated. This is considered libel, and is a prosecutable offense.

•      Discussion must be on-topic and in the correct forum when possible. There is a “General and Off Topic” forum available for personal or general items that no board is available for. If you notice there is extensive information being posted in that forum on the same topic which does relate to family law, please email moderator@mafiaboard.net to request a new forum be created for that particular topic. Moderators can and will take it upon themselves to move any topic to the proper forum if they feel the topic needs to be moved, and will post on the board that this has occurred.

•       Report a rule violation in a forum post by sending an email to moderator@mafiaboard.net. An email will be immediately sent to ALL moderators. Do not use this feature for any other reason, and do not report the violation publicly on the board as that will only serve to heat up the issue. Please keep in mind that you may not receive a response, or the issue may not be rectified until the following day, as the moderators are not available 24/7. However, the issue WILL be handled once a moderator does become available.

•      No posting of inflammatory material intended to start a flame war.

•      Issues such as religion, politics, abortion, gay rights/marriage, etc, or other issues which typically become extremely heated when differing opinions begin debate are NOT TOLERATED. Posts which include any of the above will either be edited to delete the offending material, or deleted completely.

•      You will not collect or store personal information about any other individual on the Site, or otherwise stalk, repeatedly contact, or harass another user or MAFIA Management Member or appointed Moderator;

•      You will not post, distribute or transmit any content or software or other computer files that contains a computer virus or other harmful component;

•      You will not engage in antisocial, disruptive, or destructive acts, including "flaming," "spamming," "flooding," "trolling," and "griefing" as those terms are commonly understood and used in the Internet;

•      You will not upload, post, email or otherwise make available any content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, inappropriate for children, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, racial, ethnically or otherwise objectionable (in our sole judgment);

•      You will not upload, post, email or otherwise make available any content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable (in our sole judgment);

•      You will not upload, post, email or otherwise transmit any content that infringes and/or violates the right of a third party or any law, rule or regulation including but not limited to (a) copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, or other proprietary right, (b) right of privacy (specifically, you may not distribute another person's personal information without their permission), or publicity; (c) any confidentiality obligation; or (d) any content which you do not have a right to upload.

•      You will not use the Site or the Services to advertise products or services or for other commercial purposes; No commercial posts without authorization from the site;

•       Moderators and administrators monitor your compliance with these rules and dispense disciplinary action at their discretion. Disciplinary decisions may be appealed through the Appeal Procedure. No unauthorized public posting of appeals.

Disciplinary Action

Violation of the Terms Of Service  and/or the Rules of Conduct  may result in disciplinary action issued by a moderator assigned by MAFIA. Violations are evaluated on a case-by-case basis depending on the severity of the offense and past history of violations. The following types of disciplinary action are those most often applied:

Deletion of offending material:

If the offense took place on the public forum, the offending material may be edited or deleted.

Informal warning:

If the moderator determines that the offense is not severe enough to warrant a Formal Warning,  but more severe that simply deleting the offending material, an  Informal Warning,  may be issued. An  Informal Warning, is a private correspondence between the moderator and the violator advising the violator of the offense and what (s)he can do to correct it.

Formal warning:

If the offense is severe enough or an Informal Warning,  has already been issued and the behavior has continued, the moderator may issue a Formal Warning. The Formal Warning becomes a permanent part of the poster’s record and all moderators and administrators are informed as soon as it is issued. Several warnings can result in a permanent ban.

Block:

A Block the temporary deactivation of a violator’s posting privileges for one or more of the forums. A moderator may apply a Block to freeze a deteriorating situation and make time to work out issues with the violating user.

Ban:

A Ban is the permanent deactivation of the violator’s entire account with MAFIA. A moderator applies a Ban in response to very severe offenses and/or consistent display of unwillingness to follow forum rules.

Appeals Procedure:

If a moderator takes disciplinary action against you that you believe was unfair, you may appeal the decision in a courteous message explaining your reasons. Appeals must be sent via private message or e-mail only, and must follow this appeals procedure, or it will not be considered. You may submit only one appeal per disciplinary action. Please note that public discussion of disciplinary action (public posting of appeals) is a violation of MAFIA’s Terms of Service. Any public airing of grievances against a moderator in connection with a disciplinary action will be treated as a public appeal and is cause for further disciplinary action.

1.         You must submit the appeal to the moderator who originally carried out the action via email or private message, or thru the generic email address of moderator@mafiaboard.net if you do know which moderator it was who carried out the action.

2.         Within one week of receipt of the appeal you will receive a response either:

a).            Upholding the disciplinary action;

b).            Revoking it, or;

c).            Requesting more information.

Even if you have a pending appeal you are still required to comply with moderator instructions.

A Note on Appeals:

If a moderator merely warns you and you know you have broken the rules, please do not appeal the decision. There is no penalty for a simple warning, therefore, it is a waste of our time and yours to appeal a warning. A warning is not the worst thing in the world, and is only a precursor to the punishment. Some of our best and most productive board members have broken a rule and received a warning for it. As long as you stop the offense, we can go back to what this board is for: having good, productive discussions about divorce, child support, parenting, custody issues and law.

Disclaimer:

No information or material posted here is intended to constitute legal advice, nor can we guarantee the accuracy of posted information, especially as to each individual situation. This site does not constitute an attorney-client relationship; local counsel should always be consulted. Any advice given here is a result of the posters individual experience in the family court, or a result of specific state statutes, which can and should be verified with a reliable source on the Internet.

LEGAL DISCLAIMERS AND DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

YOU UNDERSTAND THAT YOUR USE OF THE SITE AND SERVICES (INCLUDING ANY DOWNLOADS OR ANY LOSS OF DATA OR OTHER DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM YOU EXPERIENCE FROM USING THE SITE AND SERVICES) IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. YOU UNDERSTAND THAT THE SITE AND SERVICES AND ALL INFORMATION, PRODUCTS AND OTHER CONTENT (INCLUDING THIRD PARTY INFORMATION, PRODUCTS AND CONTENT) INCLUDED IN OR ACCESSIBLE FROM THE SITE OR SERVICES, ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" "WHERE-IS" AND "WHERE AVAILABLE" BASIS, AND ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT ANY TIME WITHOUT NOTICE TO YOU. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT MAFIA MAKES NO WARRANTY THAT THE SITE OR SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE. YOU UNDERSTAND THAT MAFIA DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE RESULTS OBTAINED FROM YOUR USE OF THE SITE OR SERVICES WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS. NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, CAN MODIFY THE TERMS OF THE DISCLAIMER SET FORTH IN THIS DOCUMENT.

YOUR USE AND BROWSING OF THE SITE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. IF YOU ARE DISSATISFIED WITH ANY OF THE MATERIALS CONTAINED IN THE SITE OR SERVICES, OR WITH ANY OF THE TERMS OF SERVICE, YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY IS TO DISCONTINUE ACCESSING AND USING THE SITE AND SERVICES

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, MAFIA DISCLAIMS ALL REPRESENTATIONS, WARRANTIES, AND CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND (EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT OF PROPRIETARY RIGHTS) AS TO THE SITE AND SERVICES AND ALL INFORMATION, PRODUCTS, AND OTHER CONTENT (INCLUDING THIRD PARTY INFORMATION, PRODUCTS, AND CONTENT) INCLUDED IN OR ACCESSIBLE FROM THE SITE AND SERVICES.

THE INFORMATION IS PROVIDED WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT MAFIA IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, MEDICAL, FINANCIAL, COUNSELING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES OR ADVICE. MAFIA ENCOURAGES YOU TO SEEK APPROPRIATE PROFESSIONAL, LEGAL ADVICE OR CARE REGARDING ANY SITUATION THAT REQUIRES SUCH ATTENTION.

LIABILITY DISCLAIMER

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL MAFIA OR ITS POSTERS BE LIABLE TO YOU (OR ANY THIRD PARTY MAKING CLAIMS THROUGH YOU) FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, OR DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF USE, PROFITS, DATA, OR OTHER INTANGIBLES, OR THE COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO AND TAMPERING WITH YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION OR TRANSMISSIONS, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE USE, INABILITY TO USE, UNAUTHORIZED USE, PERFORMANCE, OR NON-PERFORMANCE OF THE SITE OR THE SERVICES, EVEN IF MAFIA HAS BEEN ADVISED PREVIOUSLY OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES AND WHETHER SUCH DAMAGES ARISE IN CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE, TORT, UNDER STATUTE, IN EQUITY, AT LAW, OR OTHERWISE. ANY ISSUES ARISING WITH COMPANIES LINKED THRU MAFIA SHOULD BE TAKEN UP WITH THE LINKED COMPANY AND NOT WITH MAFIA. MAFIA DOES NOT GUARANTEE THE QUALITY OF ANY MERCHANDISE NOR THE SAFETY OF ANY SITES FROM VIRUSES OR ADS OR EMAIL SELLING FROM THESE LINKED SITES. ANY ISSUES PERTAINING TO ANY COMPLAINT HAVING TO DO WITH ANY LINKED SITES SHOULD BE TAKEN UP WITH THOSE SITES AND NOT WITH MAFIA.

If any part of these warranty disclaimers or limitations of liability is found to be invalid or unenforceable for any reason, then our aggregate liability for all claims under such circumstances for liabilities shall not exceed ten dollars ($10).