Guidelines for Posting on the Message Boards and Chat: OpSEC, Privacy and Personal Safety
OpSEC, Privacy and Personal Safety Guidelines for MarineParents.com Message Boards and Chat Rooms
The message boards of MarineParents.com are public. All posts are moderated by our trained volunteers prior to being released for public viewing. To maintain Operations Security (OpSEC), privacy and personal safety, the following guidelines are to be followed when writing a post for the message board communities of MarineParents.com. The same guidelines apply to conversations in the MarineParents.com chat rooms.
To help you comply with our OpSEC, Privacy and Personal Safety Guidelines, moderators may hold a post and suggest edits prior to releasing the post for public view. In some instances, the post may be deleted after notifying the author of the action.
Follow Our Mission Statement: Embrace the Family, Be Fair
Within Operations Security, posts must follow our mission of informing, connecting, sharing and supporting Marines and their family members. For additional information, please see MarineParents.com Mission Statement. Please stick to the facts. Avoid propagating rumors, inciting panic or creating undue alarm. Members are expected to be respectful of one another. Personal attacks are not allowed. Please be fair.
Marine and Recruit Privacy and Safety Protect against identity theft – do not share personal information
Personal information about Marines or recruits is not allowed, including but not limited to identifying information such as last names, email addresses, phone numbers, birthdates and addresses. Please respect the privacy of your Marine or recruit and remember that letters written to you are not likely intended for you to publish. Do not share information about another person's Marine or recruit. We reserve the right to suggest author edits or delete posts of a private nature.
Member Privacy and Safety Protect against identity theft – do not share personal information
Personal information about yourself or other members is not allowed, including but not limited to identifying information such as last names, email addresses, phone numbers and addresses. This is a public message board and you should use discretion when posting any other personal information, including birthdates. Please respect the privacy of others. We reserve the right to suggest author edits or delete posts of a private nature.
USMC Personnel Privacy, Safety and Chain of Command Respect it!
Posting personal information about Marine Corps Personnel or Family Readiness Personnel is not allowed. Phone numbers for USMC personnel are not allowed, including office, cell or home numbers. Contact information for USMC personnel, when appropriate, will be published on the primary web site, MarineParents.com and the Unit Information Pages™ (UIPs). Complaints about the chain of command or the command of a Marine or recruit will not be allowed when the complaint is being posted by someone other than the person directly affected by the complaint.
No Politics It denigrates the support atmosphere
Endorsement of candidates or mention of political positions or any other political statements, expressed or implied, are not allowed. Discussions of the political nature of current conflicts are not allowed. MarineParents.com is first and foremost a support community; political differences have potential to denigrate the support environment. Expressions of patriotism and supporting the troops are not considered political statements and may be posted by members.
Links and References to Web Sites Please suggest rather than post – don't post competitors
We are a nonprofit organization and do not allow links to websites that compete with our products, services or outreach programs. Please respect that we must pay the bills for the outreach programs; our income is solely from donations and sales from the EGA Store. As a nonprofit, we are proud that 99.8% of our income from both donations and sales, is used for program expenses.
Link addresses and web site content have high potential to change without notice. We simply do not have the manpower to make corrections and updates in thousands of posts in the community. Because of this, external links and google instructions for finding websites are not allowed.
The primary website, MarineParents.com and our Outreach Services websites, include links to information, resources, sponsors and advertisers. Links on the web site are updated by our web developers. References to the links on MarineParents.com are allowed on the network as well as any link to .gov or .mil websites.
We encourage you to share links of interest for possible inclusion on our informational websites. To submit a link for review, use the Link or Resource Request Form on MarineParents.com
Calls to Action In support of troops and our mission statement
Posts that include a "Call to Action" will be allowed as long as the call to action is in support of our troops and/or the mission statement of MarineParents.com, Inc. and is not political in nature, illegal, targeting the Marine Corps, or in direct competition with any of our outreach programs. Soliciting donations is not a call to action and will not be allowed. We reserve the right to remove any "Call to Action" for any reason.
OpSEC (Operations Security) Content in violation will be deleted
All content must conform to military and troop Operations Security. Troop is defined as a group of military personnel. Do not discuss troop operations including movement, missions, logistics, numbers, locations, dates and morale.
Missions include but are not limited to engagement, training exercises, patrols, delivery of supplies, delivery of mail, meeting with locals. If your Marine is sharing his/her troop activities with you, don't share it in the community.
Posts identifying your Marine's specific billet in conjunction with a mission whether past, present or future, will not be allowed. Identification of a Marine in a high security billet or MOS is not allowed.
Discussions of school and training (not mission-specific) are allowed.
From or About the USMC and Recruit Training Let the Marine Corps be the Marine Corps
Posts containing information or references to information which your Marine or recruit may have shared with you about Marine Corps business, a recruit training situation, successes or failures of a unit in training and/or on missions, or specific scores or statistics of a unit may not be shared. During recruit training, the successes of a platoon may be shared once the information has been made public by USMC personnel. Posts specifically bashing the Marine Corps will not be allowed; find another venue for that please.
Incidences and Casualties Must be public first
Posts containing information related to incidences or casualties incurred by Marines or recruits that have not yet been released to the general public are not allowed. All posts regarding KIA casualties (Killed in Action), unless posted by an immediate family member, MUST be accompanied by the DoD (Department of Defense) notification. We will not allow the risk of posting information prior to official notification to family members. Casualty includes WIA, KIA, MIA, and/or DustWUN status.
Photos and Videos Must follow guidelines including copyright!
Please do not upload photos or videos that are not yours to upload. Photos and videos must be OpSEC compliant and comply with The Guidelines and Terms of Service. Photos of recruits during any portion of recruit training are not allowed. We reserve the right to reject any photo or video for any reason without further explanation.
Copyright Respect the work of others and get permission first
Posts containing text, writings, music, graphics or photos that are not your original work will need to be verified for permission from the original author, artist, photographer or owner to be shared on any public community or social network including MFN. We reserve the right to delete any post that is suspect of copyright violation. We reserve the right to either add or request the poster to add a copyright statement to the post. Likewise, posts and content from this network should not be copied and shared by anyone other than the original author. Sharing the information through social media such as Facebook and Twitter are allowed when appropriate credit is given. We reserve the right to remove members who do not comply with copyright.
News Articles Keep it short and legit to avoid copyright violation
Links to legitimate news sources are allowed. To comply with copyright regulations, sources must be cited with any news article excerpt or photo. Posts without sources will be deleted. Entire news articles should never be posted as it is a copyright violation.
No Advertising or Soliciting Be legit and buy advertising please – don't post competitors
Repeated from guideline 6 above: We are a nonprofit organization and do not allow links to websites that compete with our products, services or outreach programs. Please respect that we must pay the bills for the outreach programs; our income is solely from donations and sales from the EGA Store. As a nonprofit, we are proud that 99.8% of our income from both donations and sales, is used for program expenses.
Additionally, this is not a place for you to advertise or solicit. Nor is this a place for you to invite folks to join your club, facebook group or organization (whether online or brick and mortar). We encourage vendors wanting to sell products or services to advertise with us. See Advertising Rates for more information.
Please be responsible with your online communications. Our Marines and military personnel depend on you to maintain Operations Security. MarineParents.com encourages all military personnel and families to follow OpSEC guidelines and to practice safety and privacy in personal email as well as other online communities and environments in which you participate.
