HELP .. where can I find help on using the new Expat Forum software
The answers to all the questions you have .. or didn't know you had .. or will have .. can be found in the Forum software's FAQ page - www.livinginindonesiaforum.org/faq.php
How do I join the Living in Indonesia Expat
Forum?
To join you need to:
- Go to http://www.livinginindonesiaforum.org/
- Click on the “Register” button link (upper left corner of your screen)
- Fill out the information requested
- Wait for the confirmation email to be sent to you
- Once you receive the email with your password, click on the link to confirm your email address, then return to the site and sign in
- If you're still having problems, let
us know where you are experiencing difficulties and what browser
version you are using!
Keeping your email
address confidential
To keep your email address confidential, hide your email address, never give it out to another forum member, and never post it in a thread.
* To do this, click Settings -> click General Settings under My Account -> click Don't allow vCard download additionally uncheck the Receive Email from Other Members option. And then click Save Changes
Why didn't I get
my password sent to me?
If the password wasn't delivered to you there are three possible
reasons:
1. you entered your email address incorrectly
2. your email address is not a valid email address
3. the confirmation notice is held up in your spam folder
Can I post a message without
joining or signing in?
No. All guests must register and log in before they can post.
What happens after you
make a posting?
A number of things can happen in response
to a posting:
1) people post their response to you on the Expat Forum
2) people send you a personal message (PM) with a direct response
3) you get no response. This could be because your subject line wasn't eye-catching enough .. go back and edit it to be more specific and you'll be more likely to get responses.
How can I change my profile?
- Login to the site
- Click on settings link at the top right
- Click on “Edit Profile” link under “My Settings” on the left
- Make the changes you want in your profile
- Click the “Save Changes” button at the bottom
How do I change my Password?
- Login to the site
- Click on the “Settings” link at the top right.
- Click on "Edit Email & Password"
- Make the necessary changes
- Click the "Save My Changes” button at the bottom of the form.
What is Netiquette?
Simply put ... netiquette are well established common practices,
manners, customs and established procedures of internet culture and discourse,
in other words, being polite on the net ... a special kind of sopan
santun!
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!
We can all gain wisdom from an ancient Chinese proverb ...
“He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes;
he who
does not ask a question remains a fool forever.”
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.
Can companies use the Private Message or Email system to send out commercial messages?
No ... !!! Let me repeat .. NO !!
The Private message system and email system built into the living in Indonesia Expat Forum are NOT to be used by members of the forum to send commercial postings to other members. If you receive a PM from another member that you would like to complain about, please forward that PM to Atlantis, wm or Paman (or all of us is even better) and we will ban that member from the Living in Indonesia Expat Forum.
What are the real No-No's
on the Expat Forum - or How to upset the Administrators
Things that irk the Administrators 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 the webmaster 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.
Can I complain about
threads I'm reading on the Forum?
Yes, we welcome feedback on forum postings. If you feel a thread is becoming offensive, just report the post through the system. You can “Report” the posting to the administrators directly through the forum software by clicking the report button (It’s the black triangle with the exclamation point in it – the icon on the right)
Language usage on this
forum
While the Living in Indonesia website has been created exclusively
in English, that is because the expat members of the organizing committee
are all native-English speaking North Americans ... ! If we had additional
language capabilities within the volunteer pool ... we would utilize them
to make this site more multi-lingual.
In principal, the Organizing Committee has no problems with people
posting on this forum in foreign languages other than English. We acknowledge
that there are many expats for whom English is a second language. If these
expats are looking for answers from their specific nationality/community,
it makes sense for them to post in their own language.
However, this will limit the number of responses, as other nationality
expats may know the answer to their question as well. If the posting is
a more general question that would invite and welcome answers from the
broader expat community, then of course it makes sense to post it in
English.
Regarding use of Bahasa Indonesia on the Expat Forum - certainly there
is no problem with using Indonesian words in a posting. It's inevitable that we pepper our posts with Bahasa Indonesia terms .. because we all live here and it's a part of our lives ... and understanding of the language is often a part of the questions we have !
That's fine too, but posts/threads shouldn't be predominantly in Indonesian because a lot of the newcomer expats will not understand them. Remember
that this is a forum for the larger expatriate community, therefore, it is usually most appropriate for postings to be in English. Indonesians are certainly welcome on the forum ... we love having them just as we love living with them. But, remember, the purpose of the Living in Indonesia Expat Forum is to assist expats with their lives in Indonesia.
How do I delete my posting?
You can delete your postings yourself. Just login and click on the “Edit” button to the bottom right of your post. Click on the “Delete” button . and then select “Delete this Message”.
How do I refer visitors to another
website?
If you want to refer visitors to another web
site ... type in the FULL url into the message composition window. For
example - http://www.thesite.com/ .. NOT the subject line. If you put
it in the subject line, your posting will be deleted.
Privacy on the Expat Forum
Just as with any other Forum in the Internet, posters should
understand that anything and everything that they
post about themselves becomes public information. Seemingly innocuous
details of your life can be gathered together from your posts over the
years by anyone who is interested. Why do they do that ... boredom, for
the heck of it, malicious mischief, revenge ... who knows!
Keeping this in mind, be cautious about any personal information
you post on the Expat Forum (or any other internet forum). If you want
your phone numbers kept private, don't post them. If you want the details
of your unhappy marriage kept private, don't post them. Get the drift?
The Organizing Committee of this website does not delete historic
posts, everything you've ever posted will stay on the forum, until YOU delete the posts yourself.
Your IP address (from the computer/ISP you posted on the forum
through) for every posting is known to the administrators. This is a safety feature for us all ..
to help rein in malicious posters activities .
How can I delete my profile?
If you are not interested in participating in the Expat Forum
any longer, just contact us and we'll delete your profile.
Why would the moderator/administrator
delete/ban my profile?
The moderator will delete your profile if it is found that: 1) you are
using a bogus email address or temporary email address, 2) repeated requests by the moderator to
stop abusing the forum go unheeded, 3) you send nasty, rude emails to
the administrators or other members of the Expat Forum..
What should I do if I'm receiving abusive emails or PMS from Expat Forum Members?
As of late it appears that some members of our forum have been receiving abusive emails from former banned members. Please know that you do have some options available to you for defending yourself online. Here are some steps you can take:
1) Hide your email address, never give it out to another forum member, and never post it in a thread.
* To do this, click Settings -> click General Settings under My Account -> click Don't allow vCard download additionally uncheck the Receive Email from Other Members option. And then click Save Changes
2) If a user is being abusive, report him to an administrator and add him to your ignore list.
* If a user is being abusive through private messages, add him to your ignore list clicking Settings located at the top right hand corner -> click Edit Ignore List under My Account-> and then add the persons forum name and click Okay.
To report a user to an administrator, simply either private message an administrator or by sending an email to webmaster@livinginindonesiaforum.org.
3) If a user is sending abusive emails to your personal email address, report email address that sending the harassing emails to the provider by following these steps:
* For a harassing Yahoo account, visit this page: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/yahoomail/abuse.html
* For a harassing MSN/Hotmail account, forward the email to abuse@hotmail.com while giving them an explanation of the email received.
* For a harassing Gmail/Google account, visit this page: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/request.py?contact_type=abuse_phishing
* For all other email providers, please look in their respective Help sections of their websites.
4) It is always advisable to not give out your real name or private information (your address, your personal website, etc.) as the information will remain online indefinitely.
5) For more information on how to protect yourself online, go to your favorite search engine and type in these keywords:
* “How to protect yourself online”
* “How to protect yourself from identity theft”
* “Online safety tips”
* ...and more!
If you have any questions, please feel free to email Paman at webmaster@livinginindonesiaforum.org.
How can I arrange a gathering or meet-up with another Expat Forum member or group of members?
If you would like to meet other members of the Expat Forum, we (strongly) suggest that you arrange it by PM rather than on the board.
In the past we have had a number of pre-organized gatherings. All were a success and a good way for the members of the board to meet and socialize . However, particular individuals (known to the moderators and long-time Expat Forum regulars) have tried to cause serious problems for some of the folks that wanted to come to the gathering. We believe it is wiser , for everyone, that these meetings be arranged by Private Message to avoid similar issues .
Members of the Expat Forum are not allowed to post the personal data about other members of the Forum in their posts or PMs
No Expat Forum member should ever divulge any data, personal information of other members without the consent of said member. This includes such information as name, address, email address, phone number/s, social network account link (Facebook, friendster...etc), and pictures of the member and/or his/her family members, or links to this information on another website.
What is your 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.
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