Goals & Rules

First. Expose your true self. Be open, honest, positive and real. This is a community of acceptance. This is not a community of trite exchanges; it is a community of depth, learning, risk, exposures, support and growth. Put your real self out there.

Comments & Posting
Please try to make at least one comment for every post. If you post a poem, essay, or photo for others to read, please, at least comment on one poem from someone else.

Links and Promotions
Please try to place links to your Web Site, MySpace, CherryTap, Blog or other sites run by you in your signature. This is a good way of promoting yourself and letting other people get to know you better.

NO NEGATIVE ENERGY
This is not a DEBATE board. Topics are not posted for debunking, arguing or criticism. If that is what you are after - go somewhere else, since there are endless communities of that nature available. If I catch you trying to tear someone apart, or trying to tear their views apart, or being covertly snide or taking a stab at them, I will delete and ban you immediately. This is not a democracy; it is a benevolent dictatorship. Free Speech? You're free - just not here. This community is here for the open exchange of ideas. You are welcomed to share your ideas, but all responses to another's ideas will be carried out with respect, and with a courteous manner. If you don't like what they have to say, the appropriate response is not to try to tear them down, but rather make your own post, not as direct response, but as an independent statement of YOUR OWN, where you will be afforded the same courtesy of presentation by a respectful readership. A Note on debate: Don't misunderstand the above as a superficial stance against the value of debate. I appreciate the value of debate. I was once a person who ferociously debated numerous topics. I am known by many as a gifted orator, who can win nearly any debate, even if I am wrong. But I have moved beyond to a higher level of human understanding, appreciation and humility. Our mission here is to seek truth, refinement and enlightenment through discourse tempered with humility, compassion, intelligence and courtesy.

SPAM, Promotions and Advertisements
No spam, and no *out of context* promoting, (except in the promotions board where almost anything goes) Out of context means overt advertising where the message consist solely of an ad, and the context is out of place. For example: Here read my poem, and checkout this online casino. If you want to throw in links to your sites, books or whatever you are pushing that is fine, as long as it is a small part of your post. If it is just an ad, then post it in the shameless self-promotion section.

MOST IMPORTANTLY
NO *disrespectful* debate (there are endless forums for that) and *no negative energy*. This community is about positive growth, support, ideas, solutions and leaving people with more than they had before they came here.

School Children Visit My Site
Finally, Keep it clean, because I have a lot of school kids that visit my site.

Another Important Note
Don't ask me why, but I draw an EXTREMELY DIVERSE CROWD of people you would not typically find talking to one-another. I talk to all types of people who have very different world views. I have learned that sometimes people can become uncomfortable with me, knowing that I like a person that they find abhorrent. Then, I will learn that the other person feels the same way. For me, there are different ways to see people. I like to interface with people at a deeper level. I like to know a persons heart, and if it is good, I could not care less if they are a this or a that. In the past, everyone has always agreed with that ambiguous point, until I mentioned specifics. I have associates that fill the spectrum, and I am sure someone will find them offensive. I have close childhood friends that work with the President and Secretary of Defense every day at the Pentagon, and I have friends who are against the war. I have friends who are Christian ministers, and others who are in the porn business. Pick a topic: abortion, race, politics, Ad nauseum. I find it impossible to discount an entire person. I don't know who is going to end up in this group, but I am sure some of them will be perceived, from your world view, as the ENEMY. Please be nice to each other. Interface with the human, not the ideological framework they happen to carry at the moment. In time, all people evolve and change their world view, but YOU cannot change the way you treated someone; that goes with you forever. BE NICE. ;-)