SAUK Chatroom Mission Statement The SAUK chatrooms welcome people who have or believe they have Social Anxiety and/or related mental health and shyness issues. The rooms provide a place for support, exchanging ideas on how to live with SA, and importantly, somewhere "safe" to socialise with fellow SA sufferers. Primarily the rooms are aimed at those in the UK, although people from all over the world are also welcome to join.

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Rules, Guidelines and Moderation of the Chatrooms By using the chatrooms you agree to abide by the following guidelines and rules. Anyone who willfully ignores or repeatedly breaks any of the rules or guidelines is subject to being banned from the chatrooms, at the sole discretion of the Ops. Chatroom Guidelines The SAUK chatroom and lounge exist to provide a WELCOMING, SUPPORTIVE, UNDERSTANDING and FRIENDLY environment for ALL of its users to enjoy. EVERY USER of the rooms is responsible for helping to maintain a good atmosphere and behaving with consideration for others. Please treat others with the RESPECT and TOLERANCE that you would hope to be treated with yourself. Behaviour that is INTOLERANT, UNSUPPORTIVE, UNWELCOMING, UNFRIENDLY or INSENSITIVE and therefore harms the good environment of the chatrooms will NOT be tolerated. The chatroom operators (ops) are fellow sufferers of social anxiety and regular users of the chatrooms, who help to maintain the chatting environment according to the above principles. They can be approached by anyone who is concerned about any aspect of chat or a particular situation, and they will do their best to help resolve any problems. As a result of this, the operators may occasionally act to remove anyone who continues to jeopardise the chatting environment. All users are asked to respect the decisions of the ops at any given time. As well as social anxiety, all users all have one thing in common: we were all new to the chatrooms once. Please try to remember this, and help to make newbies feel welcome and at home, so that they can also begin to enjoy the benefits of feeling that they are part of the chatroom community. Chatroom Rules i. No personal attacks, threats, harassment, or impersonation of other SAUK chat user(s). Harassment is defined as any unwanted interaction, or behaviour toward another user with the purpose of upsetting, intimidating or irritating them. Decisions as to what constitutes such harassment are made by the Ops who are present at the time, or should no Ops be available, after the event by discussion. ii. Behaviour which may cause offence or disturbs the general atmosphere of the channel(s) will not be tolerated. What is deemed "offensive" is always defined by the ops, but includes for example racism, pornography etc. Please see also the Guidelines to chat. iii. You must co-operate with any requests and decisions made by the Ops. iv. All IRC server and/or network rules & regulations apply in addition to SAUK chat rules and guidelines. The SAUK chatrooms are hosted on the Serenia IRC network, and as such are also governed by its rules and regulations. Operators (Ops) These are volunteers - usually regular chatters who have SA, who help maintain the chatrooms and attempt to provide an environment where sufferers of Social Anxiety and related problems can find support, advice and encouragement. For a list of current ops, please see the Current List of Ops post on the chat discussion board at http://www.social-anxiety-community.org/db/showthread.php?t=262. Moderation The following actions are variously used by the ops when dealing with behaviour which breaches the chatroom rules and guidelines. Informal Warning (via Private Message (PM) or in the chatroom) Devoicing (user cannot speak but remains in chatroom Kick (removed from chatroom, no ban) Ban (duration in mins, hours, days, weeks, or months depending on seriousness of abuse (potentially including indefinite, in persistent/serious abuse) Extreme cases of persistent/serious abuse - possible report to IRC network administrator(s), Internet Service Provider and/or the Police Queries, Problems & Complaints If you wish to criticize/complain about a named individual user/Op(s), ONLY do by PMing (private messaging) an Op, or via the private email address given below. Posting publically elsewhere may result in censure at the sole discretion of the ops and discussion board moderators. If you have any queries, problems or comments relating to the running of the SAUK chatrooms, please speak to an Op (person with a @ or green dot in front of their nickname). If no Op is present, you can email saukchat@yahoo.co.uk. Last Revision 21st August 2006

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