By registering with the forum, you will be able to edit your member profile and preferences. You will get the most out of your time here if you change your profile and preferences to suit your individual tastes. There are many options in your profile to make your experience here more enjoyable, so please take a few moments to try the various settings. Also, only users that are registered and logged in can take advantage of the "New Posts" feature upon each visit. Once you've registered and logged in, click "Edit Profile" or "Edit Preference" in the Forum Navigation island to edit your settings.

The Email Address field is used for email notifications, Follow Lists and to email your password. The Public Email Address field is what other users see when they view your profile. We realize that you may not want everyone to know your real email address, but we need to know it in case you want to follow certain content or if you want to have replies emailed to you. For this reason you can give us your real email address in the Email Address field and only the Administrators of the forum will see it. You can provide a different email address for the general public using the Public Email Address. Some people like to put in something like example@no.spam.gmail.com. This way people can still figure out what your real email address is, but spamming agents can't just parse through the page and obtain your email address to spam you.

Yes. Cookies are used to remember your login information as well as what posts you have read during your current session. Without accepting cookies some functions won't work properly.

If you have registered with these forums, you must log in to take advantage of the personalization of settings. To log in, look in the upper right-hand corner of your screen for the "Log In" link. This link will take you to a page where you can enter your Login Name (or email address) and Password. Keep in mind that the password is always case-sensitive. This means that the software considers "S" and "s" to be different characters.

Once you have entered your Login Name (or email address) and Password, you'll be brought to your Starting View. (You can change the page used for your Default Starting View by clicking "Edit Preferences" in the Forum Navigation island.) If you have any Private Messages waiting for you, you'll see a flashing envelope on the My Messages island. (Note that this only applies if the Private Messaging feature has been enabled by the Administrators of the forum.)

This checklist may help you successfully log in:

1. Make sure you are entering your password correctly. Passwords are case-sensitive.
2. Ensure that your browser supports cookies; if so, check the security level you are using. High levels of security restriction in certain browsers will automatically reject cookies. In order to use the key features of these forums, you'll need to accept cookies. The maker of your browser can help you with additional problems you may have with your cookie settings.
3. Completely log out by hitting the Log Out link in the upper right-hand corner of the page, and then log back in again.
4. After logging in, you may have to hit the Reload or Refresh button on your browser to expedite the authentication.
5. If these steps don't work you can try purging your cookies for this site using the My Cookies tool.
6. If you continue to have problems, go to the Log In page and click "Have you forgotten your login information?". Enter your real email address into the Email Address field and a temporary password will be emailed to the email address used for the account setup.

It's a system-generated User Title to give ranking to your post count. You will progress through the various levels according to the cumulative number of posts you have made.

Everyone has a title within the forum. You will notice the title below the Display Name in each post. Some titles are automatically assigned based on the number of posts a user has made, and some titles are assigned by the forum owner to denote official representatives of the company or other VIPs in the forums.

0	New Member
25	Member
50	Member
100	Member
200	Member
400	Member
700	Member
1200	Member
1600	Member
2500	Member

If you have forgotten your password, don't worry! You can very easily have a temporary password emailed to you. Go to the Log In page and click "Have you forgotten your login information?". Enter your real email address into the email Address field and a temporary password will be emailed to the email address used for the account setup.

This process is safe because the password is only emailed to the original owner of the account. There is no way to steal the password by using this feature.

You may change your password any time. On the Forum Navigation island, click "Edit Profile". Edit the Password and Verify Password fields and then click "Submit" to save the information. (Keep in mind that passwords are case-sensitive.)

In order to add an image to your message or your signature, you must have the image already available on a web server and reachable by a URL. This can be an image on your own personal web page, for example. To place an image within a message, simply use the following Markup Tag:

[image]http://www.example.com/image_name.gif[/image]

For example, if you have an image called cateye.gif and its available from your own website at http://www.example.com/pics, then you would use the following image markup:

[image]http://www.example.com/pics/cateye.gif[/image]

You can do the same for your signature. Click the My Home option found on any page. Then, under the Your Profile group, click on "Edit Profile". Look for the Signature box, and enter your desired information, including any images/markup as above.

Note: To keep the forums loading quickly for everyone, it is recommended that you do not exceed 35k for your image size.

We ask that you keep your images relatively small. As a rule, please do not exceed 600 x 125 pixels and/or 35k for a signature image. This will ensure that the forums load quickly for all users.

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.

Yes, you'll be missing a trick if you fail to take advantage of the versatility offered. There are many aspects of how the Forums are displayed that may be customized. On the Forum Navigation island, click "Edit Preferences".

You can choose the style in which you wish to view the forums, how many posts are displayed on each page, whether or not you want to view users' pictures alongside their posts, and much more. Once saved, these become your default settings. You may edit these preferences again at anytime.

The first post of a given topic establishes the subject by which all subsequent replies will be known. Once there's been a reply, the topic subject cannot be subsequently changed. It's therefore important to get the subject right from the outset. Make it as descriptive and as specific as possible. For example, "LCD burn-in questions", is much better than something completely generic, such as "Newbie needs help!". Not only is it more likely to elicit a response, but it'll also make it much easier for all posts in the topic to be subsequently located.

One of the key benefits of the discussion forum format is that it enables commonly asked questions to be answered once, for the benefit of all. Before posting your question, it is always worth checking to see if it has already been asked - and answered! You can do this via the Search island. Using the Search island, you can perform a quick keyword search, or click on the "Advanced" button to search by more specific criteria. Various options are available, both for how the search term is specified and for controlling how many forums you want to search. This is where the specificity of topic subjects is important, making it much easier to locate precisely what it is you're after from a list of search results.

It means that you have unread Private Messages. When you hover over this image it should display how many unread Private Messages that you have.

On the "New Message" page, you can type in a new user then press "Add" or you can select them from the "Friend List" dropdown. You can add up to the forum maximum of users (this limit will show on the "Private Messages" page) to the Private Topic.

If the tags are showing up in your text or you're getting a link, but it's to "http:///", you're including some unwanted spaces in the syntax. Avoid any intervening spaces, and everything will work fine.

Users can edit their own posts up to minutes after they are made. Where the change is substantial, it is courteous mark the post as edited so as to alert readers to the changed content. For cosmetic changes, it's better not to do so.

Let the forum Administrator or Moderator know - he/she will be able to move it for you.

There are 2 ways that this can be configured on a per-forum basis. If HTML is On then you will see HTML is On and you can use normal HTML in your posts. If UBBCode is on you will see UBBCode is On.

The following tags are available for your use if UBBCode is enabled:

Text Formatting
[b] text [/b] = Makes the given text bold.
[i] text [/i] = Makes the given text italic.
[u] text [/u] = Underlines the given text.
[s] text [/s] = Will post your text with a line through it (strike through).
[color:red] text [/color] = Makes the given text red.
[color:#4caf50] text [/color] = Makes the given text green. [size:20pt] text [/size] = Will change the size of the text to whatever size value you specify.
[font:Comic Sans MS] text [/font] = Will post your text with the specified font.

Links
[email] smith@example.com [/email] = Makes the given email address clickable.
[email= smith@example.com ] text [/email] = Makes the given email address clickable.
[url] link [/url] = Makes the given url into a link.
[url= link ] title [/url] = Makes the given title into a hyperlink pointing to link.
[img] link [/img] = Embeds an image.

Code Tags & Highlighting
[code] text [/code] = Surrounds the given text with pre format tags.
[php] text [/php] = Passes the text through the PHP Syntax Highlighter
[highlight] text [/highlight] = Will highlight your text.
[spoiler] text [/spoiler] = Will wrap your text in a spoiler container. Users must click a button in order to see this text, thus giving them the ability to specify if they want to read the item.
[spoiler:warning] text [/spoiler] = Will wrap your text in a spoiler container and allow you to specify the warning message displayed. Users must click a button in order to see this text, thus giving them the ability to specify if they want to read the item.

Text and Image Alignment
[align:left|center|right] text [/align] = Will align the text in the direction defined.
[img:left|center|right] Image URL [/img] = Will allow you to allow text to wrap on the specified side of your image.

Misc.
[list]
[*]Item 1
[*]Item 1
[/list] = Makes a bullet list. [list=A] or [list=1] will make order/numbered lists. Other options include: circle, i, I, a, A, 1, disc, square.
[quote] text [/quote] = Surrounds the given text with blockquote and hr's. This UBBCode tag is used for quoting a reply.
[quote=username] text [/quote] = Surrounds the given text with blockquote and hr's. This UBBCode tag is used for quoting a reply. The username specified will be shown as quoted.

Putting a poll in your post is simple.

If polls are enabled, start by creating a new post in a forum. Below the body of your post, you will see a text box that allows you to specify how many polls you want to have in your post and the system will guide you through the rest.

You can change the number of posts displayed on each page by editing your display preferences. You can set this to anything between 1 and 99 posts per page. By default, this is set to 25 posts per page.

Quick Reply is made as a "Quick Response" block, so you can make a response to a post (or thread) before you forget or as you read them. Quick Reply is meant as a "no thrills" response box, as it's just there for a fast/non-formatted response.

Reply however brings you to a "Full Response" page that allows for heavy posting.

You can also click the "Full Reply" button from the Quick Reply box which will forward you (and all of your Quick Reply text) to the Full Reply page.

Quote will quote the users text to the Full Reply page. Quick Quote will quote the users text to the Quick Reply box below the thread.

Click on your Display Name (located in the top-right of every forum page) and select the "Edit Profile" link.

Using Gallery Forums are just like using any other forums... However, you can post images too!

After you create your post (subject and post, both required) you can click on the "Image Manager" link.

Adding images are as easy as:
1. Click "Browse" and a navigation area will appear that shows your computers files, navigate around to locate the image you'd like to upload. Once located, click on the image and select "open"; you can also choose to add a description (note that in v7.2 you do not have the option to change the description once another image is added).
2. If you wish to add another image, repeat step one; otherwise, select "done".

From here, just press submit, and your new "Gallery Posting" should appear for users to comment on your image(s).

When creating a new thread or response, you'll see a "Attachment Manager" link on the "Full Reply" or "New Post" page. When selecting this option you'll receive a popup which will allow you to attach files to your post.

Steps:
1. Click "Attachment Manager" to bring up the "Attachment" window.
2. Click "Browse" to bring up the file browser window; this will allow you to browse your computer for any files or images you wish to upload; please note that you're bound by whatever the "allowed file type" setting is for the forum.
3. Click "Open" on the file you wish to upload.
4. Enter a descriptive caption for that file (optional).
5. Click "Upload" to add another file, or "Done Adding Files" to close the window and complete your posting.

Please note that you must enter some text in both the "subject" and "post" fields when responding otherwise you will receive an error; you cannot just respond with an attachment ;).

Subscribing to a Forum
Enter the Forum and Select "Follow Forum" from the "Forum Options" dropdown.

Subscribing to a Thread
Enter the thread and Select "Follow Thread" option from the "Thread Options" dropdown.

Managing Follow Lists
Select a "Follow Lists" group from the "My Account" menu, from here you can select the type of List that you wish to edit and by clicking the "Edit Followed Threads" (or "Edit Followed Forums" or "Edit Followed Users") link you can remove them or toggle the "Email Notification" option.

Toggling Emailed Follow Lists
See the above "Managing Follow Lists" directions.

Toggling the Default "Email Followed List" Options
Select "Preferences" from the "My Account" menu. From here you can manage the "By default should anything added to your Follow Lists be emailed to you?" option.

Emailing a Post or Thread
To email a post, simply navigate to the post and select "email post" from the bottom set of buttons (near reply, quote, notify, etc).

From this "email post" screen, you can select to mail yourself:
Just this post
This post and all replies
The entire thread

Emailing a Private Topic
When viewing a Private Message, simply click the "Email Topic" button from the bottom set of buttons (near reply, quote, etc).

RSS Feeds for Forums
For forums that have an RSS Feed configured for them, you can enter the forum and select the feed link from the "Forum Options" dropdown.

My Feeds
If the administration has enabled the "RSS Feeds" option, you can manage RSS feeds from the "RSS Feeds" link in the "My Account" dropdown in the navigation area.

From the RSS Feeds area you can see all of the RSS Feeds available to you, including all of the forums that have individual feeds. You will also be able to retrieve the feeds for your inbox and the global feeds for recent topics. Please note that these may or may not be available based on admin preferences.

The username colors generally specify a users status. Some select users can can also have special colors signified by the Administration.

The default user status colors are:
Administration
Global Moderator
Moderator
Search Engine Robot

The numbers in parenthesis indicate how many new topics (or posts) have been made since your last visit to the forums.