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Old 30-11-2008, 03:00 AM   #1
typsee
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NEW GUIDELINES RE "LAST SI/OD" SIGS and VIRTUAL BRACELETS!

Well - I know its been a long wait, but after the mods read through this thread regarding "Last SI/OD" signatures on RYL, and reviewed all of your ideas and responses, we have come up with the following guidelines for the RYL community.

Please understand that these new guidelines regarding "last SI/OD" sigs are no longer up for debate as members have already been permitted to have their say on this matter and the decision has now been made .... but the mods will be more than happy to answer any questions you have about these new guidelines and the virtual bracelets.

We have gone with what the majority of members wanted with regards to these signatures, and I hope that these new guidelines and virtual bracelets will be warmly received.




New RYL Guidelines for
"Last SI/OD" etc signatures



1. "Last OD/SI/ED" date signatures are no longer permitted on RYL under ANY conditions.

This includes a ban on ALL different types of "last" signatures - eg - last SI, cut, purge, binge, suicide attempt, burn, hospitalisation etc etc.

This includes a ban on "last" signatures, regardless of whether they are
written in a "Hide box", in white text, or with a trigger warning.

This is due to the fact that alot of members find that these "last SI/OD" sigs are triggering, and also not very recovery orientated ... and members' signatures can be seen all over the RYL forums (even in non-triggering forums).

These sorts of "Last OD/SI" dates ARE permitted in your RYL profile.



2. Having a date in your signature that is worded so that it is more "recovery-orientated", is also no longer permitted.

This includes not allowing dates in signatures such as -

"In recovery from self harm since - 23/05/2008"
"10 days self harm free!"

The moderators have discussed this, and while we do like to encourage members in their recovery from self harm, we just think that determining what is and isnt "recovery-orientated" in terns of these dates in signatures, is just going to be too much of a grey area and open to interpretation.

In addition, these "recovery-orientated" signatures could be just as triggering to members as the "last OD/SI" sigs, especially if the member is still self harming frequently, and with the signature date reflecting this.

And we'd have the whole issue of "how long should a member be self harm free before allowing to post this sort of a recovery-orientated signature" to sort out . And with all the problems that we could foresee with this concept - which ALL could be solved by adopting the "virtual bracelet" idea for signatures - we just decided that a recovery-worded "last" date in signatures was just too complicated to sort out, and that our energies would be better devoted to developing the virtual bracelet idea.

Which brings us to the virtual bracelets ...



3. Members will be permitted to post pictures of "Virtual bracelets" in their signatures, that represent a certain time length in recovery from self harmful behaviours.

Volunteers from RYL have designed different "virtual bracelets" pictures for RYL members to post in their signatures when they reach certain milestones in their recovery from all types of self harm behaviour.

(please see section on Virtual Bracelets for more information)




4.
Having a date in your signature, without adding any text, will be permitted.

A date in a member's signature could mean absolutely anything ... and as long as there are no words or any other elaborations around the date, we dont see any reason to ban ALL dates from members' signatures.




These new signature guidelines will come into effect immediately, but we will be extended a grace period to members with regards to any breaches of these new guidelines, until the the community has had time to adjust to these changes.

A stickied thread announcing these changes, has been posted in the General Chat forum (link here) .... but after a month, this thread will be removed and these new rules will be incorporated into our existing RYL Rules.








VIRTUAL BRACELETS




Introduction

In a recent thread - "last SI/OD discussion" - posted in the Forum and Community Questions forum, RYL members raised some important points regarding the triggering and "anti-recovery" nature of "last SI/OD" dates that were becoming more and more popular in members' signatures.

A great suggestion was made by an RYL member - ((deleted)), - that instead of members posting these "last SI/OD" dates in their signatures (which were quite triggering and not very recovery-orientated), that RYL could offer 'virtual bracelets' for members to post in their signatures, and that these bracelets would represent the amount of recovery time from self injury and other self-destructive behaviours, that a member had achieved.

These virtual bracelets would be similar in nature to the bracelets on sale at the RYL Shop, but instead of a real life object, these virtual bracelets would be in the form of an image that members could post in their RYL signature, which would represent the amount of time in recovery that this member had achieved.

The community agreed that the concept of having "virtual bracelets" in members' signatures was alot more recovery orientated than these "last OD/SI" dates in members' signatures ... so thanks to the long, hard work of one of our RYL mods -[Purple_Rain] - these "virtual bracelet" images were designed and made ready for members to use in their signatures.



Virtual Bracelets - But what are they?

These virtual bracelets are 3D images that have been created from a design program. The final images were formed by setting up a 'camera' (in the program) and print screening it, then doing a little bit of editing, and hey presto you have your bracelets!

Obviously these bracelets look similar to the RYL Shop Bracelets, except they are designed to be used in members' RYL signatures, they're "virtual" (as the name would suggest), and they are 100% FREE!




Choosing and Resizing a virtual bracelet for your RYL signature

1. Selecting the virtual bracelet that you want to use.

* Look at the bracelet images that are available in this photobucket account - from this link, you need to select one of the 4 sub-albums, which are named -

...........ED bracelets circular
...........ED bracelets linear
...........Self harm bracelets circular
...........Self harm bracelets linear


**JUST ADDED - New virtual bracelet design**
courtesy of Dreamer&Believer


ED bracelets & Self harm bracelets

....... ........



* There are 2 major bracelet designs -

a) circular bracelets - which look like a bracelet laid flat, are clones of the RYL shop bracelets ... but have numbers/words on them to represent the time in recovery. Some of these bracelets have the time frame in recovery written on the beads, and others dont.

example of a circular bracelet ->


b) linear bracelets - are an 'unravelled' bracelet where the bracelet string is stretched out in a straight line (ideal for the top/bottom of a sig) and the number of beads on the bracelet represent how long a member has been in recovery. Beads also are marked with letters to represent the time frame in weeks (W), months (M), and years (Y).

example of a linear bracelet (2 mo, 4 wks) -


* There are 3 bracelet colour categories -

a) self harm - orange

b) eating disorders - blue

c) general recovery - white


2. Once you've selected a bracelet, you may wish to RESIZE it before uploading it to your RYL signature.

Due to our foreseeing that different members will probably be wanting different sized virtual bracelets for their RYL signature, the bracelets provided in the RYL_bracelets photobucket account have been left quite large so that members can resize them for themselves.

If you have your own photobucket account, then it is quite easy to resize your own bracelet to the new size that you want for your signature.

You can resize your virtual bracelet by following these steps -

a) saving the bracelet image to your own photobucket album.

b) clicking on the "edit" function

c) clicking on the "resize" link, and then experimenting with different sizes in order to find the size that you want your RYL virtual bracelet to be (make sure that the "keep proportions" link is ticked when resizing, otherwise your bracelet will look very weird!)

d) Once you've found a size you like, click the "Apply" link, and make sure that you either "save a copy" or "replace original" before exiting the edit screen.

You should then have your very own resized virtual bracelet in your own photobucket album, and ready for uploading to your RYL signature.

If you are still having problems in resizing your virtual bracelet image, please contact one of the following RYL volunteers who may be able to help you, or resize your bracelet for you to use.

List of volunteers

XSudden

flying_kiwifruit

*hidden_pain*


(If there is anyone who is interested in volunteering your services to help members who are having difficulties in resizing their virtual bracelets, or who can help design and create a custom made virtual bracelet for members who want them, please PM typsee or [purple_rain] and we will add your name to the list.)





Uploading your virtual bracelet image to your RYL signature.


Once you have resized your virtual bracelet in your own photobucket account, it is time to upload it to your RYL signature, which you can do by following this process -

a). Go to your "control panel" in your RYL account

b). Click on the "edit signature" link on the left hand side menu.

c) Looking at the window under the "edit signature" screen, place your cursor in the position where you are wanting your virtual bracelet to appear in your signature, and then click on the image link (which is this little yellow box - - and is the 6th icon from the right)

d) A pop up box should appear, that prompts you to insert the url of your image (which should be the "direct link" url of your image from your own photobucket account if you have resized the image, or the "direct link" url from the RYL_bracelets photobucket account if you are using the bracelet image in its original size.


e) Click "ok" and the image should appear in the window.

f) When you've included everything that you want in your signature and it looks okay, go to the "save signature" link (or go to the "preview signature" link if you want to check how it looks first before saving it) and then your signature should be complete!


If you'd like a custom made virtual bracelet with a different design, colour, arrangements of beads etc, then when we get a list of volunteer RYL members who are willing to help create some more unique virtual bracelet designs for members who want them, you are welcome to contact someone on the list and put in your request for your own unique virtual bracelet.


Last edited by typsee : 21-12-2008 at 01:12 AM. Reason: adding volunteer
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Old 30-11-2008, 04:27 AM   #2
Casper_Fading
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Ace :)



"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."


- Dr. Seuss


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Old 30-11-2008, 09:19 AM   #3
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cool.






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Old 30-11-2008, 09:31 AM   #4
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Excellent Idea :)



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Old 30-11-2008, 09:39 AM   #5
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Where's the 'general recovery' album?

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Old 30-11-2008, 10:17 AM   #6
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Fabulous =]



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Old 30-11-2008, 11:01 AM   #7
SweetLemonSour
 

I really like this idea! Will be adding a bracelet soon! *gets excited*

I think they also give a good incentive to recover, like people will want to be able to put a bracelet on! or maybe thats jsut me, but yeah, i think its great :D

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Old 30-11-2008, 11:46 AM   #8
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Fab =] x

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Old 30-11-2008, 11:46 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stellata View Post
Where's the 'general recovery' album?
I dont quite understand what you mean katherine, sorry x





"I would be almighty in my own world of art, even if I had to paint my pictures with my wet tongue on the dusty floor of my cell." -Picasso
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Old 30-11-2008, 12:26 PM   #10
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Maybe I missed it, I didn't follow the other thread very carefully, but what is the difference between the bracelet and saying something like "one month free" or 'free since Jan 1st, 2008"? I would've thought the bracelet was more prominent than some text.

This ruling doesn't affect me, I'm just curious.

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Old 30-11-2008, 02:36 PM   #11
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Quote:
Maybe I missed it, I didn't follow the other thread very carefully, but what is the difference between the bracelet and saying something like "one month free" or 'free since Jan 1st, 2008"? I would've thought the bracelet was more prominent than some text.



The truth is, we had to draw a line somewhere so it was clear for people to follow and understand .... and so while it may seem that recovery statements such as -

"10 days free"

or

"in recovery since 5th MArch '08"

... are just as harmless and non-triggering as a virtual bracelet with writing in it, these statements were just too similar in their layout to the original "Last SI/OD" sigs, not to mention that it wouldnt stop people from saying that they were -

"in recovery for 3 hours"

... or something equally absurd ... and a member could keep updating their sig so often that it would indicate when they cut/ODed/purged etc, and it would be just as triggering as the "last SI/OD sigs!

So we decided against the recovery-worded dates in people's sigs as well, as the potential for twisting it around to make it just as triggering/annoying/attention seeking as the original "last SI/OD" sigs that people were complaining about, was just too great.

I hope that helps explain things a bit better .... but the reality of it is that we needed to draw a line somewhere, and this is what we decided.

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Old 30-11-2008, 02:39 PM   #12
typsee
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stellata

Where's the 'general recovery' album?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Liz
I dont quite understand what you mean katherine, sorry x

Liz - I think Katie is looking for those white recovery bracelets .... arent they in one of the ED photo albums?

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Old 30-11-2008, 03:09 PM   #13
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the colour white is the colour of recovery, the blue and orange bracelets have white in them. i could make general recovery bracelets if peopel wanted, but they wouldnt be all white





"I would be almighty in my own world of art, even if I had to paint my pictures with my wet tongue on the dusty floor of my cell." -Picasso
"No, painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war." - Picasso

'I have scars becuase I have a past; but they, like my past, do not define my future'


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Old 30-11-2008, 04:08 PM   #14
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I was assuming that the white ones were the ones, that there were ones that can celebrate 'general recovery' i.e. recovery from depression&SI&ED. Being 'in recovery'. Maybe I misunderstood. Sorry. :)
Not white as in being completely free of SI or ED, but white or whatever colour in the context of Recovery Journey.
Ams I making sense?

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Old 30-11-2008, 04:43 PM   #15
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it's okay Katie, i assumed it meant that too.
though re-reading i think it means the white beads on the orange/blue bracelets are the "length of recovery" beads or something like that? could be wrong.
i would like general recovery bracelets (maybe light pink with white?) but maybe that could come sometime in the later future?

i really love the bracelets, you've done a brilliant job, well done :)

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Old 30-11-2008, 07:49 PM   #16
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love it!
*gives mods gold star*

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Old 30-11-2008, 09:00 PM   #17
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I like it..but dont have a photobucketaccount and to be honest cant be bothered to make one at the moment...so aint going to have one until i can...cz otherwise its really big!! Really good though guys!!
Specially like the different stylesof bracelet...



"People have abused you lots in the past? Why do you then abuse yourself more?" - Quote
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Old 30-11-2008, 09:07 PM   #18
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I like it and think it's a really good idea




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Old 01-12-2008, 01:43 AM   #19
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not a big fan of the bracelets, but i think this is def the right decision. yay.



take what you love
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Old 01-12-2008, 03:30 AM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by linder surprise View Post
not a big fan of the bracelets, but i think this is def the right decision. yay.
that's what she said.




&& then buffy staked edward. the end.


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