CIDAA Forum: Forum Guidelines

Forum Guidelines

CIDAA Forum: CIDAA Forum Guidelines (Public): Forum Guidelines

By Webservant on Saturday, December 16, 2006 - 06:35 pm: Edit

This website practices good netiquette.

Simply put ... netiquette are well-established common practices, manners, customs and established procedures of internet culture and discourse. It generally means being polite on the Internet.

Postings by unregistered (non-CIDAA Forum members) are permitted… and queued for review and approval by moderators before they can be seen by anyone else. This is not a board for use by all members of the public as they see fit. This is a board existing for the pleasure and benefit of Dues Paying CIDAA members. If you desire to post something as a guest, use your correct name and e mail address so that we may contact you (under some circumstances) to determine if in FACT that it was YOU who made the specific posting. We do have to deal with imposters in this cyber world!

Registered members can peruse and post to many topics other than those the public can see, including meeting info, job postings, hospitalization/birth notices, CIDAA memorabilia for sale, thousands of pages of archived postings, and lots more. The CIDAA members user list includes personal details members choose to post about themselves, sort of an online email addressbook with links to profiles that can include a photo of the member, favorite saying or life motto, and other things that will make you smile.

Who Can Register for Accounts on This Forum?
Your Forum account request will be vetted by the CIDAA moderator against recent membership information provided by the CIDAA Membership Chairperson, so please be sure to you keep your annual dues paid up, and your email and contact information current with the CIDAA Membership Chairperson:

Warren L. Cox
CIDAA Membership Chairperson
555 Frog Road
Locust Grove GA 30248-3750
E-mail: cidaa_membership@bellsouth.net

Full membership is available to US Army CID Agents, past and present. Associate membership is available to some US Army CID commanders and supervisors, and USMC CID Agents. A special provision allows surviving spouses of deceased members to continue receiving the newsletters and annual membership directory of the CIDAA and access the Forum for an annual $10 payment (one half the regular membership fee). This provision is also available for the surviving spouses of CID Agents who were not members of the Association upon submission of a completed application and payment of the $10 annual fee.

Is the CIDAA Forum censored?
Yes, we do EDIT this forum!
(The difference between censoring and editing is basically whether or not you agree with the changes.)

Is this Forum Secure from Public Dissemination?
No password protected Internet website is secure from Hackers, from social engineering bypasses (folks who share passwords) or other undesired disclosure. Although we attempt to limit public consumption, anything you post herein may appear on the front page of the Washington Post (or your own hometown newspaper) tomorrow morning.

Those of you who are web-savvy know that if something is posted online, many more persons than just those with a password may view it. Your ISP providers, for instance, may monitor your e-mail and web browsing activity to review what you send and visit/receive. If a discussion forum is hosted on a commercial web server (as this and most other web sites are), the system administrators and all the help desk employees often have privileges enabling them to read and copy any content in any file on their systems. If you are a retired agent now employed by a government agency, by an insurance company, etc., then your office system administrators can and do monitor your web activity and e-mail. The point is that access to restricted web posting comments are not limited to just those persons with a password.

What are the real No-No's on the CIDAA Forum - or how to anger the Webmasters/Moderators:

a) Obviously inflammatory postings which will start-up threads of argumentative postings.

b.) Postings which tend to bring CID activity or any CIDAA members or personnel (agents or other employees, current or retired) into disrepute, jokingly or real, or, links to sites detailing alleged CID improprieties and unprofessional CID activity. Absolutely NO postings or discussions about any past or ongoing CID investigations which have not been adjudicated or which or currently under appeal... including names of Agents or Suspects, case titles and details, about cases that may be on appeal. Do not openly solicit members or others for official information pertaining to any investigative matter, Federal, State or local which has not been adjudicated (gone to trial) or which is pending appeal.

c.) Hateful or unkind postings of any kind attacking people for their race, creed, marital choice, personal habits, dating preferences, stereotypes, etc. Such postings serve no positive purpose for the CIDAA membership or the larger community in which we live. They will be deleted!

d.) Profanity and/or name calling, or badgering someone that might disagree with you. No sexual inferences or connotations and absolutely No Jokes whatsoever!

e.) Subject lines of postings primarily in *ALL CAPS* ... a cardinal rule of netiquette ... don't do it;

f.) Abuse by businesses who try to use the CIDAA Forum to try to get members or visitors to buy products, services, or visit their website; No endorsement(s) of any product, sports team, or individual, wherein an argument or challenge about the subject might ensue. Postings about new or old books of interest to investigators are allowed, even with a link to an internet library, online store, etc., offering the book for sale or for free borrowing (many US public libraries no offer such services through a variety of apps/websites).

g.) The CIDAA is Non Political and Non Sectarian. Please refrain from posting your personal views
about any controversial matters or your personal, political, or religious persuasions, on this website; Subject to deletion.

Can I complain about threads I'm reading on the CIDAA Forum?
Yes, we welcome visitor feedback. If you feel a thread is becoming offensive, just write and tell us. Your e-mail will most likely speed up a deletion of the thread from the CIDAA Forum. Send your complaints to thogwil@centurylink.net and ed@onin.com

If we get several complaints about particular postings in a thread, wherein there is an obvious flare-up, we are likely to delete the entire thread or attempt to edit it in a manner we hope is less likely to be offensive.

1 - Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.

2 - Don't Threaten or Abuse. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated. AND PLEASE TURN OFF CAPS LOCK.

3 - Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.

4 - Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.

5 - Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.

6 - Share with us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.

Foreign Language usage on this forum.
This web site uses English because CIDAA members primarily communicate in English and because English is the official language of the US military (from which spring all CID Agents). Your webservant and many CID Agents are multi-lingual, but we don't have enough hours in the day or the dozens of moderator volunteers that would be required to translate and monitor postings in all the languages in which our CIDAA members are fluent.

What do I do if the CIDAA Forum software isn't working correctly?
If you are experiencing technical difficulties, please send an email to ed@onin.com and we'll do our best to solve the problem! Please tell us:
- what browser and version you are using;
- what page the error(s) occurred on;
- what you were trying to do and where it went wrong.

What About posting articles or stories into the CIDAA Forum so that everyone may share them?
There are many thousands of interesting stories circulating widely on the Internet as email attachments you receive from your friends. Such stories are often a delight for everyone to share. Please ONLY post a link to the interesting story, article, etc., for others to visit and read for themselves. Except for obituaries, the CIDAA website does not normally repost content readily available elsewhere. If you receive an interesting story forwarded to you as an email attachment, you can normally also find it in many other places on the web. With a tiny bit of effort, you can usually cut-and-paste a sentence from the story or article into a Google search (www.google.com) and find links to versions already posted on the www. Copy and paste one of those links into the CIDAA site for your friends to enjoy.

This page was last updated by Webservant Ed German on 1 July 2022.