Bipolar World's Chat Room Guidelines

The goal of all interactive pages within the Bipolar World community is the comfort and safety of all who choose to participate. You must be 18 or older to be in any of our chat rooms. With all this in mind, the following are the guidelines enforced in the chat rooms.

1. Treat each other with respect, i.e. as you would like to be treated yourself. Flaming, hostility or harassment will not be tolerated.

2. Every member is entitled to privacy if he/she chooses. For your own safety, personal/private identifying information should not be shared with anyone you don't know well and trust and definitely not shared in the open chat roo.m

3. While a “light touch” – joking etc is an important part of sharing and support, if someone needs special support please make it a priority.

  4. If you are suicidal, please call 1-800-273-TALK or 911.
                                                       (1-800-273-8255)

5.  Difficult or trigger topics such as self-injury, abuse, alcohol, etc.: private message the chat operator and let them know you would like to be able to discuss a particular topic. The chat operator can then poll the room and determine if it's okay. To learn how to private message, click here.

6. Disagreements are permitted…arguments are not. Topics which frequently cause disagreements such as politics and religion are permitted when they directly pertain to bipolar episodes, specifically delusions. Use good judgment and be respectful of all.

7. No foul language permitted. An occasional “slip” won’t get you banned but beware of abusing it. Many people are offended by foul language.

8. Select a nick that is in good taste and avoid frequent nick changes. Changing nicks is confusing to many.

9. The use of capped letters and colored text will not be tolerated. Caps are considered shouting and colored text is hard on some people's eyes due to the meds they are on.

10. Disruptive or obscene topics and discussions will not be tolerated. These behaviors, which include lurking, idling and itunes will not be tolerated.

11. You may chat in the support and the lounge rooms at the same time as long as you chat appropriately in each room and you don't idle in either one for more than 30 minutes. For those using java, sign into the second room using a variation of the nick you signed into the first room with or you can type in:
/join #channelname example: /join #bplounge

12. As non-professionals we can not and must not give medical advice including encouraging people to change and/or add a medication etc.

13. Use good judgment when you chat.

14. Your presence in the chat room indicates you have read, accepted and agreed to all of the guidelines as set out on this page.

15. We reserve the right to remove or ban you from the room for violating any of the above guidelines or for any other behavior which is deemed to be inappropriate for our rooms and the ban can be on a permanent basis.

16. Finally, we retain the right to update and revise these guidelines as we see fit.

Disclaimer

Bipolar World is a privately owned site(s) and is operated strictly by volunteers, which includes the owners and partners. We strive to offer concise and verifiable information about Bipolar Disorder, but we are not professionals. Do not use the information in this web site in any way to replace the advice of the doctor or professional who is caring for you. Always talk to your doctor before changing medications or dosage, or if you experience any serious side effects or questions regarding your health. Do not attempt to diagnose yourself based on the information presented, or attempt to treat yourself.

All interactive areas within the Bipolar World websites operate on a peer to peer basis. The site owners, partners, chat operators and supervisors, forum moderators and supervisors, email group moderators and supervisors, and email responders are all volunteers. None have special training in their area, other than their own personal experience with the illness (and this can vary from one person with bipolar disorder to another), personal education, and empathy for others.

Bipolar World accepts no responsibility for information posted in our chat rooms, forums, email list, or in emails. The opinions expressed in articles within our site are those of the writers, and may not reflect the opinion of Bipolar World. We are not responsible for the content within websites that are linked to or from Bipolar World. We retain the right to reject materials that we feel are inappropriate, or to ban individuals whose behavior is likewise inappropriate within the interactive areas.

All individuals with Bipolar Disorder are welcome within our community at their own discretion and at their own risk. Upon entrance to Bipolar World, and upon use of any of its information and/or interactive areas, you agree to release and hold harmless Bipolar World, it's owners, partners, and all of its volunteer representatives from any and all damages and liabilities that may arise from your participation at our online support sites located at http://www.bipolarworld.net and http://www.bipolarworld.org.

The chat room may be reached by one of three ways. For the java chat room go to http://www.bipolarworld.net and choose the chat room you want. Bookmark the bipolar support room at http://www.bipolarworld/Community/bpsupport.htm and the bipolar lounge at http://www.bipolarworld/Community/bplounge.htm For those with a mirc client: the channel name of the support room is #bipolarworld and the channel name for the bplounge is #bplounge, the port number is 7000 and the server is webnet. Anyone wishing to obtain a mirc client or a list of commands for mirc see http://www.mirc.com .

The chat rooms are open 24 hours a day. You are free to arrange to meet bipolar friends for a chat at any time. Operators are in the room according to the schedule posted on the Community Support page.

Chat Support team operators are: Allie, Blackdog (David S), ez, jduffy, choi, chrissy207, dpool, JackFlak, Mimi, Missyk, Rednut, silversurfer and Vicky.

Chat Behavior Team operators are: bunkers, cowgirlie, glinda, grrr, Or1k

Some simple Chat Room commands:

Register: If you wish to register your nickname and its password, this is how to do it. Type in:

/NickServ register mypass myemail (where mypass is your chosen password and
myemail is your email address)

Stay in the chat room and watch for the email that comes to you from webchat. Open it and copy the /verify command and the long string of characters and then paste this into the text bar in the chat room and press the enter key on your keyboard. If you have any problems, ask a chat op for help or email Allie at inga_1@hotmail.com

Change the password for your registered nickname: type in:

/setpass oldpassword newpassword.

Stay in the chat room and watch for the email from webchat. Open it and copy the /verify command and the long string of characters and then paste this into the text bar in the chat room and press the enter key on your keyboard.

Private Message someone: /msg nick your message or click twice on the person's nick in the list of chatters and a separate window will open where you may talk privately.