This statement describes the terms in which International Law Enforcement Family Support Association, Inc. ("ILEFSA, Inc.") offers you access to its online community (“forums” or “community”). ILEFSA, Inc. reserves the right to amend this policy at any time. Once an amendment has been made we will notify all members by updating the ‘updated date’ at the bottom of this statement. It is recommended that you check this post on a regular basis. By accessing International Law Enforcement Family Support Association, Inc. website and forums you acknowledge that you understand and accept and fully consent to ILEFSA, Inc. Terms of Service as described in this statement.


Respect on the Forums
Respect is both expected and required from every guest and member at ILEFSA, Inc. Everybody has an opinion and we honor and respect that, however we will not tolerate any post or thread that has a disrespectful, hurtful, vulgar, racist, inflammatory, threatening, or otherwise antagonistic tone.

Personal attacks, threats, flaming, harassment of others, arguments, trolling, bullying or other forms of disruptive behavior will not be tolerated. Challenge others' points of view and opinions by all means, but do so in a respectful and thoughtful manner.

Any and all reports of abusive behavior will be handled swiftly and promptly by the staff of ILEFSA, Inc. Members who do not abide by this policy will find themselves with warnings and/or banned either temporarily or permanently with the possibility of having their account deleted with or without prior warning or notification depending on the severity of the behavior.

Also please understand that although the constitution of the United States of America and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights guarantees freedom of public speech for citizens of their states and countries, this website and forum are neither a United State, nor UN country, and the behaviors and activities of members of this privately owned website and forum while governed by the laws are also governed first and foremost by our Terms of Service/Forum Guidelines, Privacy Policy and Registration agreement.


Member Disputes
You alone are responsible for your interactions with other members. It is our goal here at ILEFSA, Inc. to maintain a respectful, peaceful and supportive community. We reserve the right, but maintain no obligation, to monitor and/or referee disputes between you and any other member(s). Disputes can usually be avoided when you post with an awareness and respect for other viewpoints and you use a supportive, non-confrontational and non-judgmental tone. Also keep in mind that it is difficult, if not impossible to read peoples intent in a type written statement; especially when you have never met the person. Members are advised not to handle any disputes publicly within the forums, any disagreements should be handled privately and respectfully using the Private Message system. Any public dispute that gets out of hand will be dealt with by the Administration; posts may be edited, or locked and members may receive warning or temporary bans depending on the severity of the dispute or posts.


Privacy
Anybody who is found discussing private forum information outside of this fourm or sharing personal information about members on our forums or anywhere else will be permanatly banned from the forums. This is a zero tolerance policy. If you are unclear about exactly what this means, please ask the Administration.


Membership Accounts
You agree that if you have not posted an introduction in the "Roll Call" within 3 (three) days of registration that your account may be deleted. That in order to maintain an active account with ILEFSA, Inc. you will post at least once every 2 (two) weeks, unless other arrangements have been made with Administration; we do understand that life gets in the way sometimes, we do care and we get worried and concerned when we don’t hear from you. We just ask that you take a minute to let us know by sending an email to either Admin(at)ILEFSA(dot)org or brownsugar(at)ILEFSA(dot)org.

Only one account per email and IP (internet provider) address will be allowed; and while there are exceptions to this rule they must be made with the Administration in advance. Shared accounts will not be permitted. Keep all passwords private. If you are found sharing an account or registering more than one account per person the accounts will be deleted with or without prior warning.

The Administration reserves the right to delete any inactive accounts without prior notice or notification. Any account which is left inactive for a period of 4 (four) weeks may be considered abandoned, and may be terminated as deemed appropriate by the Administration.

You agree to maintain a current and working email address in your contact information at all times for the purpose of account validations. And understand that failing to do so may lead us to assume your account has been abandoned and result in termination of your account. Your email account is visible to all members unless you choose to restrict it; restricting it will make it visible to the forum Administration team only.


Private Messaging (PM) System
Private Messages (PM) are a function of the forums which allow you to ‘post’ or send messages to another member or a group of members in a private manner, away from the public view. Abuse of this privilege will result in a warning, suspension or outright ban either from sending PMs, or from the forums depending on the severity of the abuse.

Like any other message entered on our forum, Private Messages are stored in the database. While these messages are considered private and personal they are retrievable by the senior administrator if so required by law enforcement agencies or where illegal activities or severe rule infringement is reported or reasonably suspected. Likewise, it is expected that you will not post the contents of any Private Messages in this or any other forum; that includes Chat, Journals, Blogs, Social Networking sites and any or all other public areas.


Adult Topics
Any topics of an adult nature should only be posted in the "Risque Cafe", or "Dirty Talk" (Adult Topics Area). Any discussions, jokes, etc containing adult material and/or vulgar language should not be discussed in any other forums. If you would like access to either of these areas please send a private message (PM) to 'Admin' asking for the password.


Ownership of Posts
ILEFSA, Inc. and their Administrators do not claim any ownership rights in the text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, or any other materials (collectively called "content") that you post to the ILEFSA, Inc. website, blogs or forums. After posting your content on ILEFSA, Inc. you retain all ownership rights to such content, and you continue to have the right to use your content in any way you choose. By displaying or publishing ("posting") any content on or through the ILEFSA, Inc. website, blogs or forums, you hereby grant to ILEFSA, Inc. and it's Administrators a limited license to irrevocable perpetual use, modify, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, and distribute such content solely on and through the ILEFSA, Inc. website, blogs and/or forums and related promotional activity regardless of the status of your account.

ILEFSA, Inc. strives to foster an open, honest, communicative and transparent atmosphere. To this end, all members are accountable and responsible for their posts and messages. Members may edit their own posts, but may not delete them. So, before you push the “post thread” button, be sure your message is how you intend it to read. So while the Administrators and Moderators reserve the right to delete or edit posts for any reason, this is rarely done and generally only for spam, extreme obscenity or otherwise significantly detrimental posts.

In the event of a member being subjected to disciplinary or investigative action, or that the deletion or editing of a post or posts is thought to be malicious, a members rights to edit posts may be revoked for such time as deemed necessary by the Administrators of this community.

Threads can not be deleted once a reply has been posted in them. This to protect the ownership rights of the replying members.


Avatars and Images
Avatars may only be uploaded and saved to the server by the Administrator and only for certain supporting levels. You may ask the site Administrators or Moderators to make you a customized avatar or if you have a specific graphic you would like to use you may email the link or graphic to an administrator. Any graphic used must not be lewd, vulgar, offensive, or overtly sexual in nature. Avatars are limited to a maximum size of 200x300.

Images may be posted in a thread by either using a third party account such as PhotoBucket or by attaching the image as a thumbnail. Posted images may not have a maximum width larger than 350 pixels, this is to prevent slow loading times for any members with slower or dial-up connections. Images that exceed this limit will be automatically resized by the system and posted with a notice attached; this is an automatic process that the Admin and Moderators do not control or do manually.


Advertising and Spamming
ILEFSA, Inc. has a zero tolerance policy for spam. If you are caught sending or posting spam even if it is your first post your account will be closed and your IP address will be permanently banned.

Commercial posting of any kind will generally not be permitted whether it is in a post, thread, or signature. We are a support group not an ad agency. There is a thread set up for recommending products and companies that you want to share with others. Please limit your posts to this area of the forum and to products that you want to recommend, it is not meant to recommend competing support sites.

On occasion the Administrators or Moderators may post links to books and articles that are relevant to supporting law enforcement families. If you have a link of this nature that you think would be useful in helping someone please feel free to forward the link to the site Administrator for review and possible approval; if approved you will be credited with providing the link.

If a link is posted without approval it will be removed immediately and the posting member will be warned. Continued warnings will result in account deletion.


Copyright Notice
Also refer to "Ownership of Posts" listed above.

Any and all logos and images pertaining to ILEFSA, Inc. are the property of ILEFSA, Inc. and cannot be replicated, duplicated of posted without express consent of the site Administrator.

Copyright © 2008-2010 ILEFSA, Inc. Website and Forum. All rights reserved.


Sister Sites and Partnerships
As police wives, fiancées and girlfriends and families we share a unique bond, that is why have partnered with the ladies over at LEOWives.com to form a sisterhood that reaches above and beyond the badge. If you are a married to a law enforcement officer you are welcome to join their site also. Please remember that as a member on both sites you represent both sites and are expected to follow all the rules and guidelines for both sites. Any member found not following the rules of either site will be dealt with by the Administrators of both sites accordingly. It is possible to lose your membership on both sites for violating the rules on one site or the other.


Questions?
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the above stated policies please feel free to contact the site Administrator at Admin(at)ILEFSA(dot)org or use the contact us link on the top links.


The Terms of Service were last updated on January 17, 2010.