Marriage Advocates' Terms of Service

Marriage Advocates' Terms of Service, sometimes referred to as "TOS," govern your use of and access to our Forums. The terms are dynamic and Marriage Advocates reserves the right to revise them at any time. Said revisions will become effective upon posting of the modified terms on the Marriage Advocates' website.

By registering as a Member, you agree to abide by these terms as revised from time to time. Any violation of these terms may result in the suspension or termination of your right to access the Forums and/or such other remedies as contained herein.

These Forums are a free discussion place where you can exchange information about marriage programs with other Members, offer support and advice about marriage, and discuss opportunities to promote marriage and strong families. Please note that the Forums were launched so that our Members can interact and exchange their experiences and marriage resources with one another. These are English language Forums, but Members from all over the world are welcome.

Registration

No person is obligated to register in order to access the Forums and read the message boards, with certain exceptions. However, registration (via provision of a valid email address, Member name and password) and login are required in order to post to the message boards and adjust Member settings.

Marriage Advocates will handle all information received from you in accordance with Marriage Advocates' policy, but does reserve the right to release information as set forth herein.

When you register, you will also be asked to enter personal information. When choosing a Member name and filling out your profile, bear in mind that whenever you post to a message board, your Member name, link to your profile, and online status will appear when you are on Marriage Advocates' site. Your profile may display historical information such as “joined,” “last visit” and number of posts.

Marriage Advocates may refuse to grant you, and you may not use, a Member name (or email address) that is already being used by someone else, impersonates another person, belongs to another person (without his or her prior consent), violates the intellectual property or other rights of any person, is vulgar or otherwise offensive, or that Marriage Advocates rejects for any other reason at its sole discretion.

Marriage Advocates' Moderators and Screening Process:

Although the Marriage Advocates' Member Forums are moderated and Marriage Advocates does permit members to give advice in the Member forums, this is not a replacement for individual or marriage counseling and accordingly, there is no guarantee that the advice will be helpful or that your questions will be answered.

Please note that Marriage Advocates does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy, reliability, completeness, usefulness, non-infringement of intellectual property rights, or quality of any content on the Marriage Advocates Forums, regardless of who originates that content. You expressly understand and agree that you bear all risks associated with using or relying on that content. Marriage Advocates will not be liable or responsible in any way for any content posted including, but not limited to, any errors or omissions in content, or for any losses or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of, or reliance on, any content.

Marriage Advocates does not assume any obligation to screen, verify or edit the content posted by Members in the Forums. Marriage Advocates may at its sole discretion, screen, verify or edit content posted by Members in the Forum in accordance with these Terms of Service and Moderators' Manual which are subject to amendment from time to time. Marriage Advocates and its agents reserve the right to investigate any violation of the Marriage Advocates' Terms of Service and to take appropriate action.

Marriage Advocates has absolute discretion and right to enforce these terms, including, but not limited to: warning Members of violations, disabling or suspending message privileges and/or Forum access, deleting, screening or editing any content, or prohibiting any behavior that does not comply with these terms, including the rules set forth below, or which is otherwise inappropriate for the Forums, harmful, objectionable, or inaccurate.

The determination of what conduct is violative of these Terms of Service and the remedy imposed are at the sole discretion of Marriage Advocates and its agents.

If you want further information on the moderation policies of Marriage Advocates, the Moderation Manual is posted in the Welcome Forum.

Links

Marriage Advocates permits Members to post hypertext links to content hosted and maintained by third parties. Although linked sites may or may not be reviewed by Marriage Advocate moderators, links are subject to treatment like any other type of content posted to the Forums. You may not include a link, including embedded video/audio links, in the Forum that directs Members to any content or information that, if posted in the Forum, would constitute a violation of these terms without an appropriate warning issued by the member posting. Our Administrators and Moderators are not responsible for posting warnings for a member.

As a Member, be advised that when leaving the Forums using any link provided by a Member, Marriage Advocates' terms and policies no longer govern, and, therefore, you should review the applicable terms and policies of the linked site. If you access a linked site and find the materials to be in violation of these terms, you may report the link as described below. Marriage Advocates makes no claim or representation regarding, and accepts no responsibility for, the quality, content, nature or reliability of sites accessible by hyperlink from the Forums.

Thunderdome Rules

Marriage Advocates provides a specific forum where controversial subjects may be discussed. Thunderdome has been created to discuss and debate issues and topics not appropriate for other Forums, specifically but not limited to meta debates and discussions that tend to erupt in threads meant to provide advice to those in need.

Entrance to Thunderdome is automatic upon signature to this Marriage Advocates Terms of Service and will activate after the posting of at least 25 posts in other Forums. Members read and participate in Thunderdome discussions at their own risk.

Moderation rules are specifically different in Thunderdome from those applicable in other Forums and are as set out at the top of that forum and in the Moderator Manual, the link to which is provided elsewhere in this Terms of Service.

General Rules

We encourage you to use caution and not reveal information that you do not want to make public in your postings. Any personal information that you post can be obtained and used by others. Anything you post in the Forums, you post at your own risk. You use the Forums at your own risk. In any online Forum like the Marriage Advocates Forums, it is not possible to be sure that other Members are who they say they are, know what they say they know, or are affiliated with whom they say they are affiliated.

By participating in the Forums, including the posting of content and sending of messages, you agree that you will not upload, post, embed, or otherwise transmit any content (including text, links, communications, software, images, videos, sounds, data, or other information) that:

(i)is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, invasive of privacy, vulgar, profane, sexually explicit, obscene, racially or ethnically offensive or otherwise objectionable;

(ii)reflects personal information of any kind, from whatever source derived, about any Member not publicly disclosed by that Member without the express written consent of that Member secured prior to such disclosure;

(iii)infringes on any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, or other proprietary rights of any party;

(iv)constitutes advertising or promotion, junk mail, "spamming," chain letters, or any other form of unauthorized solicitation;

(v)contains software viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancelbots or any other computer code or files that are designed to disrupt, damage, or limit the functioning of any software or hardware;

(vi)intentionally interferes with the operation of the Forums or attempts to turn help threads into venues for meta-discussions;

(vii)impersonates any person or entity, or forges any TCP-IP packet header, e-mail header or any part of a message header;

(viii)attacks or insults another Forum Member by any method including, but not limited to, ridicule, badgering, slander, innuendo, insinuation or any technique intended to discredit, defame or slander another member or person;

(ix)suggests or encourages illegal activity; or

(x)violates US or international laws or regulations.

In plain English, this board is not, and never will be, a place to engage in name calling, personal attacks or accusations of a personal nature. Characterizations of someone's posts as not worthy are specifically prohibited. Alternative opinions are encouraged, but not in the form of disparaging or discrediting the opinions of others.

You agree to indemnify and hold Marriage Advocates, its subsidiaries, officers, and agents, Administrators, Moderators, and Advisory Board members harmless from any claim, including reasonable Attorneys' fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of content you submit, post, transmit or make available through the Forums, your use of the Forums, your violation of these terms, or your violation of any rights of another Member.

Release of Information

Marriage Advocates may release information concerning your use of the Forums (including posted content, registration information, and network records) when Marriage Advocates believes release is appropriate to comply with any applicable law, or:

(i)to protect Marriage Advocates' rights or property, or;

(ii)to protect Marriage Advocates' Members from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful use of the Forums or;

(iii)if Marriage Advocates reasonably believes that an emergency involving immediate danger of death or serious physical injury to any person requires disclosure of communications or justifies disclosure of records without delay.

Any deliberate attempt by you or someone on your behalf to evade or circumvent your suspension or termination of your rights to use the Forums violates these terms, constitutes an unlawful trespass, and may result in legal action, or such other remedy as Marriage Advocates shall seek or apply.

This is Marriage Advocates' Terms of Service as approved by the Board of Directors of Marriage Advocates, Inc. a Texas Non-Profit Corporation and is subject to the laws of the State of Texas and for all legal purposes, is located in Dallas County.

September 20, 2011 replaces previous version.