*RULE CHANGES NOW IN EFFECT* Rule Changes to the ED Forum *all MUST read*
 

Hey there ED boarders,

As most of you know, for the last eight months or so, the mods and members have been discussing the issue of the 'pro-ED' attitude that have been slowly affecting the ED board community.
This hasn't just been noticed by the Mods, but also by other staff, and members themselves, both from the ED board and others.

These complaints highlight that some threads, avatars and signatures, etc. give off the impression that an Eating disorder is a good, desirable, attractive, admirable...even normal thing.
This is something we're really trying to tackle; it'd be very damaging for the community to continue this way, considering how ill its' members are, and how we proudly state this board is for recovery.

Over the last year, the mods have discussed this and other issues with members of the ED forum, for example, this thread, where you guys, and other RYL members, really rose to the challenge quite magnificently.
The comments of which were invaluable when decisions were made about the "what are you wearing today" and the ED board picture threads.
Also from the feedback, the mods have become a lot more active in dealing with more questionable content, and have tried to steer the forum away from pro tendencies by sending PMs to members, editing threads or removing avatars.

However, despite the changes, and despite the best efforts of both us as moderators, and the whole community, we feel that it hasn't made a change enough to warrant no more action.
After long discussion with the members, staff, moderators, and Harley, we've decided to implement some new policies, to try to keep RYL, and the ED board, as recovery-orientated as possible, and to make the most of the wonderful resource we've got here.


These changes are now in effect.


The guidelines are:

1. There is a complete BAN on all numbers.
No numbers that refer to eating disordered behaviour or body size/shape will be allowed. This includes BMI, Weight, Calories, as well as numbers such as amount of purges, binges, laxatives taken, or days fasted.

The number aspect is only a small part of what an eating disorder is, and to move the board into a more positive spectrum of the disorder, we want to take the emphasis off numbers, and on to emotion.

Whilst numbers are no longer allowed, word categories are.
For example:
* "my weight is alot less than what is "average" for my height""
* "my BMI is considered underweight"
* "I ate heaps more than what is recommened for a daily requirement for someone my age, sex, and height"
* "I purged several times today"
* "i took alot more laxatives than what it says on the box/container" "


2. Any Pro/borderline/questionable avatars will be removed.
This includes avatars that contain: body shots, 'thinspirational' images, images that emphasize a person's thin physique, and well-known 'thinspirational' celebrities.
We have already been working on this, but will from now be taking a tougher approach, and will be penalising people who repeatedly break this rule.


3. Food lists are now completely banned.
Any list of food you have eaten, or are planning to eat, is NOT to be posted. This includes discussing any plans to go on a strict diet, or details of binges. This will apply to ALL forums, including the ED board, the ranting and Venting forum and RYL Journals.

The ONLY exemption to this rule is posting a meal plan set by your doctor or a qualified health professional e.g. a dietician. or posting a one-off positive announcement of foods eaten as a celebration of an important recovery-based milestone that has been achieved




4. Trigger labels.
As you will have noticed the trigger labels have all been removed apart from the *positive recovery post* label. These posts are to have NO TRIGGERING CONTENT WHATSOEVER. These are to be used, ideally, when an ED member achieves something on the road to recovery, no matter how big or small. We are no longer using any other trigger labels in this board, so please do not write in your own as they will be removed by the moderators. The trigger labels have been changed across RYL and this thread explains more.





These are not rules/guidelines, just changes.

* Stickies
There is a new-look to the stickies, to try and help the board become more recovery orientated. These include such threads as the medical complications of EDs, what to do when RYL triggers you, and other brilliant articles. These stickies should provide you with much needed information, as well as to make supporting others easier.
[Please note changes here have yet come into effect]

__________________

Please do remember the Post Report function - to find out more about it, click here. it makes the mods jobs a lot easier, as we are only human and have lives to live as well; RYL is such a huge place, and we are often pulled in many different directions on this website, and therefore its not always possible for the mods to always know every single thing that goes on in each board.




Guys, this isn't going to work unless we all join forces and work together.
After all, we are a community.
I know that we can do this if we try; we're not going to let the board deteriorate. We just want to build it back up to something we can all be proud of.

Please, please PLEASE bear in mind that this does NOT mean if you are not in recovery, you can't post. These rules aren't about forcing people into recovery at all! We just want to make the ED board as safe as possible for those in recovery, as helpful as possible for those who aren't, and to make the most of the fantastic resource we have here.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM to one of the ED board moderators -[Purple_Rain] , random.swirls - or to post any further questions here.

Thank you for your help.

The Moderating Team


__________________________________________________ _________

EDIT as of 10/03/09

The Terms 'Ana' and 'Mia' are now banned.
The terms 'ana' and 'mia' when in reference to the Eating Disorders anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are now banned, due to severe 'pro' connotations. Suggested Alternitives are AN and BN.

Wooh!

Fantastic :)
xxx

thankyou so much for putting thse new rules in place, i was really starting to worry about the ED board and its effect on others. Hope this works out well xxxxxx

Thanks for letting us know. The changes sound like a good idea and i'm also glad that other info is to be put up soon
x

Thank you Liz and the rest of the mod team :) Sounds good!

xx

Brilliant!

Should be interesting, if not a little bit strange to begin with. Hopefully it will go well (Y)

Thank you, it sounds great :)

That's a new one on me, Liz. :-P

I quite like this change, it solves alot of problems and should also help people feel confident in posting here as it gets rid of the 'people are worse than me' stigma. (:

I was going to say something else but then a teacher started talking to me (turns out moderators are human, teachers talk... i'm learning lots today!). ;]

Well done moddies! :-D

Take Care,
Josh

Thanks for this guys, I think this is a good idea and I hope people read this and follow the rules. I'm sorry if I triggered anyone in previous posts xx

I hope these changes help the majority of the ED board.

Though I must admit I'm glad they weren't in place when I frequently posted here. The reason I joined RYL rather than somethingfishy was because I found the more relaxed rules a lot easier for me to ask for support on and to gain specific advice with regards to my weight/diet. It is a pity that because of people's competitiveness that these rules have had to be brought into place.

Looks like a fantastic idea Moddies :)

i think this is a great idea....i was getting rather pee'd off with some of the posts on the board...so ive been spending less time here.....
i hope people just stick to the rules!xx

I kinda agree with Heidi Tiger, B-eat is fab, but you couldn't really say anything, which is why I loved it here - but I can understand why you are doing it.

It's not because people are competitive as such, it's the disorder that is competitive.

I don't think we need these rules really, but there you go, it seems my opinion is pretty unpopular. See how the trial period goes and take it from there I guess.

^
May i ask what is your reasoning for them not been needed is?

hi, i was just wondering, regarding does this mean we need to remove posts that we have already posted in our R/V regarding food lists? or we can just leave them as they are and carry on with the above rule?

The date given in the post for this rules to come into effect is the first of october, so all posts before that obey the old rules. however, if yours is a rant thread with udates often, it may be an idea to remove these lists. The reasoning behind our descision to ban them was becuase people found them triggering, and wer euseing them to trigger themselves, so obviously we'd rather not have any posts that are bumped ften with triggering content.

dont you mean october liz? *licks*

yeah, sorry.

*Edits*

sounds like a good idea to me. whats the point of a support board when all it does is trigger people! Hope the new rules work ok :)

COOLIO

Just a random thought i had today in uni ( yesi am lame and think about RYL in uni) but will there be a change in rules regarding the r/v board concerning numbers etc that have been mentioned in this thread? just curious thats all :)

sorry if this was talked about in the thread or posted about, tired after uni :)

Great idea guys:D

Coming to the ED board was always a bit risky for me, half the time I'd leave more triggered than I was when I arrived..

Wow a lot of changes then!

I'm unsure about them all but i think overall it might help people. This recovery forum is the only one i know of so far that people CAN actually say what their weight is if they want and list food etc as most recovery websites i think have that emphasis of not trying to make people compete.
However im just concerned that some people who may be severely underweight may not believe it and so that's why the number and food amounts thing is sometimes good because at least we an offer advice.

So yeah im in two minds but i guess will see how it goes ;o)

The avatar and signature thing is a great idea though!

Sarah x x

Talk about cotton wool...

Well if it helps then I guess it's a good thing :)

Gosh that's alot to remember!
I can see that it has to be done if the boards are so triggering to people at the moment though.
xxx

I'm sooo uncomfortable with the new rules but there you go

I thought that the numbers rule might be difficult to abide to, until I saw the bit underneath so that was a good compromise I thought. =)

Just one question - about the avatars.. What if someone has a picture of themselves as their avatar but they happen to be really anorexic..? Do they have to remove that too?

Oh & I found it a bit odd that rules were changed in RYL JOURNALS.. Not sure what I think about that one!

I'm not sure about this one either...aren't journals a place to let everything and anything out?

I personally liked the freedom to discuss BMI/ calories etc, but I can see that this may have been triggering for some people and for the good of the wider ED board it makes sense to ban it.

At the end of the day, we all want each other to get well and be safe, and if this is going to help that, then its the right thing to do.

I'm also wondering about the R&V question?

What is it about them that is making your uncomfortable?

This has come up before, and I think the mods usually evaluate it on a case by case basis. If multiple people have reported it, it probably would be removed though, even if it was of the person.

Maybe the mods could clarify this for people, because I was a bit confused too! (So don't worry, it's not just you :))

If a journal, or entry is private do the rules still apply?

The thing is, we've tried everything else - it is time to pull in desperate measures, because we've tried and we've failed to try and pull the ED board up using more leniant methods.
And this isn't just an attack on you, Claire :) More to everybody who's said something along the same lines.

As we've said in the post, this is a trial period - but if people do contact us, we're more than welcome to listen to feedback, of any sort.

Yes - obviously it depends on each different situation, but we have been contacting people, and will continue to contact people, who have pictures of themselves that are particularly 'slim'.

I'm think these are for public journals - but, I'll double-check and get back on this one. The thing is, Journals are still a part of RYL; the issues we have been having are forum-wide, so we cannot allow some things in some parts, and other things in other parts - it wouldn't make sense.


Which R&V question?

xx

Jo, people are wondering if these rules will apply to ED related posts in the R&V forum.

The one i asked jo :p

:P Teaches me for reading! I thought Liz confirmed it?

Jo, are the main RYL forum rules going to be changed to reflect these changes then?

is this going to be added in the rules and posted on other boards because not everyone that has issues with food/ weight etc will be reading the ED board or notice this thread as i personally dont ever think to check the rules as i dont expect major changes.

I dont know sorry

My brain is dead heh

These new rules seem a brilliant idea. Very needed too. =]

As the new rules are only here for a trial period at the moment, they are unlikely to be added to the main Rules page until the trial period is over and final rules are discussed and implemented. :)

We will be trying to put into place these rules are RYL as much as possible over the trial period, and spreading the word, so that people who do not have an ED but may post eating related posts are aware of the new trial rules. However, this rarely happens anywhere outside of the ED community, which is why the main thread has been posted here.

x

I'm really glad to see this. I was just thinking about this last night.

Thanks guys :)

im loving this.

personally for me I can't wait to be able to come here while in recovery from my ED, and not be triggered, and be able to help as much as possible. This has been difficult for me to do, but think with these rules, I will be able to come here often :)

Yeah, woohoo!
I had always hoped that the rules will made stricter and I'm glad that this will happen now.

Perhaps you can make a little tiny addition to the rules? Could you ban the word "fat" here?
I myself wasn't against writing about BMIs and weights because well, sooo many people here write that they are fat, although they are severely underweight and how could you know if someone is really underweight or just thinks she/ he is.
By banning the word fat completely and only allow the sentences you mentioned like "I weigh more/ less than someone my height should weight" there wouldn't be this problem anymore.
Moreover, many people are triggered by the word fat, I guess.

I hope it is understandable what I want to say.

Thanks a looot for the new rules,
Judith :hop:(who felt much like the bad girl for asking for stricter rules)

Delete this if you want but this sounds ridiculous.

We used to be able to be honest in our posts, be specific even.

And if our rant threads are labelled,,, then if someone was going to be SOOOO offended or whtever by it,,, they could just see the trigger label and not read it.

I dont see why all these new rules are coming into place, i mean fair enough not to postlinks to pro ana sites or like "look how thin i am" posts,,, but dont you think these rules are getting too much now? What exeactly are we allowed to post!?

I honestly think that the post with the new rules explains pretty well what is allowed to be posted now.

I see 2 big issues with just having trigger labels for everything and asking people to avoid triggering posts. 1 is that some people may intentionally trigger themselves and 2 if someone is easily triggered it means they can't support anyone else because they are triggered by all the posts.

No no no, this is perfectly fair enough - you're allowed to express your point.

At the end of the day, people were not only coming on and getting unintentionally triggered, but we've heard that people were coming on specifically to get triggered. This is most certainly not what we want, without a doubt.

You can still be honest in your posts, express yourself. Eating Disorders are not about weight, they're a coping mechanism that people use to deal with whatever pain or anguish they're going through. That's exactly what we're trying to get at. Numbers aren't essential to describe your day, or your eating disorder.

For example:

Could be expressed as:

Now, this actually means that there's far more you can say - why do you want to be underweight, it's sweet your mum is trying to help, she only cares, and weight can fluctuate easily by well over 2lb daily...

Does that make sense? It means that the emphasis is no longer on the numbers, the issue of 'oh, well I shouldn't post here, because I read x and y post and I weigh more than both of them', and it removes the issue of people coming on to get triggered.

As we said, though, this is only a trial period. We're going to give it a go, and I do know that change is strange and scary. It's going to take an adjustment period, for both the members and the mods, but we really just want to make RYL as positive as possible.
If you do have any concerns, please do feel free to let us know about them - really, we will take them on board.

xx

wow, well i think these a good changes, well done mods :)

i can see where people are coming from saying its too much and like cotton wool, but i think we just want RYL to be as safe a possible

Caz