Welcome to Fresh Baby's Community! Share and connect with other parents and caregivers in our discussion groups. Before you participate, please take a few minutes to read our guidelines.

Welcome
If you're new to our community, jump right in. If you're an "old-timer," please greet newcomers and help them feel at home. This community is here for all of us, and we want it to be comfortable, thought provoking, helpful, safe, and easy to use.

There's no such thing as a dumb question or posting. Feel free to share your thoughts, ideas, and fears. Whether you're worried about your baby's food allergies, trying to find all-natural fish sticks for your family, or unsure of the best way to introduce your baby to Japanese food, there's a good chance another Fresh Baby member has faced or is facing the same concerns. Supporting one another is a big part of what this community is about.

Responsibilities and rights

• Please bear in mind that what you read in our community areas is other users' opinions and stories. We trust you'll find much that is helpful and informative, but please consult your physician or other professional before relying on any information you find here. Fresh Baby is not responsible for the accuracy of any posts and is not liable for any damage or loss that may result from your reliance on what other users have said.
• You acknowledge that all fresh Baby communications, including discussion group postings are public and not private communications. You grant fresh Baby the right to modify and publish, both on our site and in other media, any information you post in our community areas.
• You agree that Fresh Baby has the right to delete any post and terminate any account (that is, ban a user) with or without notice, at any time and for any reason, including, without limitation, our judgment that you've violated the Community Guidelines. You also acknowledge that we have no obligation to delete content that you find personally objectionable or offensive.

Privacy
Never provide your password, telephone numbers, or home address to anyone online. Be very careful about responding to solicitations for interviews or research (unless invited to do so by a Fresh Baby staff member). Give out your e-mail address only if you want to receive e-mail. If you post your e-mail address on the site (on discussion groups) , you've made it public and given other users tacit permission to contact you.

Never divulge private information about another user online. That includes the user's real name, e-mail address, and any other personal information that the user has not made public. Don't forward or post private messages that someone has sent you unless you have his or her permission. Only send e-mail to another Fresh Baby member if they have given you permission. Please don't solicit other people's personal information.

If you're looking for subjects to interview or participants for a study, please first contact the Fresh Baby for permission.

Copyrights
Please don't post anything you don't have the right to publish or violate any copyright or other proprietary rights in your posts. That includes excerpting published articles without the author's permission. We'll delete posts that contain any such violations.

Screen names
Choose a screen name that's in good taste. If you select a screen name we deem vulgar or obscene or misrepresents you to other users, we'll reject your choice. Anyone who tries to impersonate a Fresh Baby staff member, writer, expert, host, or another user will be banned immediately and without notice.

Basic etiquette
Please don't do any of the following:

• Use all capital letters in your discussion group postings. It's considered "shouting" online, makes other members uncomfortable, and is difficult to read.
• Post the same message more than once on a discussion group or on multiple groups.
• Transfer issues or posts from one discussion group to another. Don't quote someone else's post from another group without that person's permission. A lot of misunderstanding and hurt can ensue when a post from one place is taken out of context and shared with others. Please don't direct people to controversial or problematic threads on other groups.
• "Hit and run." Please don't go to a group where you wouldn't ordinarily post, simply to point out the wrongness of another poster or group's actions, beliefs, or comments.

Unacceptable language
Please don't post anything obscene, vulgar, illegal (including viruses), harmful, insulting, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, or invasive of someone else's privacy. We won't tolerate hateful communications - especially those targeting race, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, weight, or disability. Using asterisks or other symbols instead of the actual letters in an offensive word is not okay if most people can still tell what you're saying. If you're not sure which words are forbidden, send an e-mail to us at the address listed below, and we'll supply you with "The List." Some examples:

• What's okay: "My #%$&* mother-in-law is driving me nuts!" (where the symbols indicate strong feeling and maybe the urge to use a swear word, but don't suggest any specific word).
• What's not okay: a$$hole, etc.

Personal attacks
Harassing another community member is never acceptable. A personal attack includes name-calling, mocking a user or a user's name or family members, using threatening or insulting language, or violating another user's privacy. Exercise some common sense here. If you wouldn't have the nerve to say it in person, don't post it. If you can't draw the line, we'll draw it for you, but we'd rather not have to.

You're free to discuss your personal views, including your religious beliefs and parenting choices, anywhere in our community. But please don't attack the beliefs and life choices of others as wrong or misguided - or tell others what they should believe or how they should live.

Advertising and solicitations
Don't use any community areas to advertise or sell products or services to others. For example:

• Please don't post any advertising, promotional materials, junkmail, "spam," chain letters, pyramid schemes, or any other form of solicitation.
• Please don't sell, give away, or ask for prescription drugs on our discussion groups - it's illegal.
• Please don't solicit subjects for interviews or participants for studies without the express permission of Fresh Baby.

Mentioning other Web sites
It's perfectly okay to mention, link to, or discuss other Web sites that are of interest to our users, as long as they don't violate our other guidelines. But please don't use our community to generate traffic for another baby or parenting Web site or community. This goes against basic "netiquette." We'll delete posts that, in our judgment, mention or link to our competitors for the sole purpose of encouraging our users to participate elsewhere.

Contacting us
We are only an e-mail away if you have any concerns you'd like us to address. Please contact us at info@freshbaby.com in order to:

• Report a concern about something in our discussion groups
• Get help navigating the site or participating our community
• Get clarification on our community guidelines
• Alert us to violation of these guidelines
• Report any concern you have about our community