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DA as an organization has many traditions, all intended to
foster our recovery, and avoid controversy and contention. Of these traditions,
the following should be kept in mind with regards to Etiquette on the dontdebt
list:
1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon D.A.
unity.
2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority--a loving God
as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted
servants; they do not govern.
3. The only requirement for D.A. membership is a desire to stop incurring
unsecured debt.
10. Debtors Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the D.A. name
ought never be drawn into public controversy.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding
us to place principles before personalities.
We come from many faiths (or none at all), many politics and many places. Please
always keep in mind that there is a suffering debtor on the other end of your
email message. With these thoughts in mind, here are some suggested guidelines
for the dontdebt list:
1. Everything here is considered confidential. It is not to be shared
without the poster's express permission. Each list and online meeting is completely
self-contained in this regard. You may print out posts for your sole use only.
In addition, please be aware that when you post things like articles and material
from other websites you may be in violation of the author's copyright. If you
wish to share non-DA material that you find elsewhere, a link to the desired
site is often the best way to do so.
2. The purpose of this list is to provide experience, strength, and hope
for those who wish to recover from incurring unsecured debt. Other topics are
best addressed through private e-mail conversations. It is certainly understood
that many situations come up that can have an impact on our recovery and support
is offered here. But some discretion is requested in terms of going too far
afield, and again, continuing a conversation privately may be best. One line
posts that are addressed to a particular person, although beneficial to that
particular person, clog up the list for the other hundreds of subscribers.
3. To assist others in following a particular topic thread, please use
the Subject heading. If you wish, please paste only the relevant sentence
or two from a prior post if you feel it helps to communicate your point or meaning.
It is particularly inconvenient for those people who subscribe to the digest
format, and can't delete single e-mails but rather have to wade through many
repetitive posts and lengthy coding in order to read the messages.
4. Also for the above reason, it is requested that you set your e-mail
to send in plain text, not HTML. If you are having difficulties with this, please
first contact your internet service provider (ISP). Unfortunately, AOL 6.0's
email program is in HTML, and cannot be turned off. If you have any further
questions about HTML after dealing with your ISP, please contact the listmom.
5. We aspire to treat each other with respect always. Please consider
this when expressing your feelings about something that has been said. We welcome
the expression of feelings, however it always can be done without flaming anyone.
6. Please Participate. Feel free to lurk for a little while to get a
feel for the group, but try to jump into the discussion as soon as possible.
We need everyone's input. Newcomers to D.A. are especially encouraged to introduce
themselves and ask questions about our program of recovery from compulsive indebtedness.
7. We do not have a rule of "no cross-talk.", as is customary
in face-to-face DA meetings. In fact, we encourage feedback and response. However,
we suggest that you confine your sharing on any topic to your own experience,
strength, and hope. Refrain from "giving advice" unless you have some
*solvent* experience on that topic of discussion.
8.Constant, total agreement is impossible on this, or any other list.
We do not expect or even desire all of our members to agree at all times. However,
it is important that contributors refrain from using inflammatory language or
making personal attacks.
9.At this time, dontdebt is a closed DA meeting. That is, it is
intended for recovering compulsive debtors only, not for others. If you believe
you have a problem with debt, and want to stop, than this is the place. If you
are not in this category, we ask that you respect our desire for anonymity,
and unsubscribe. In particular, if you are a member of the news media, DA traditions
are firmly against any member breaking anonymity at the level of press, radio
and films. This is for the benefit of the recovering debtor. If you are a member
of the media, we refer you to: http://www.debtorsanonymous.org/news_media.htm