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Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves be put to shame. —1 Peter 3:15-16
GUIDELINES FOR POSTING QUESTIONS
To facilitate the Educational Q & A nature of our Forums, the Forum Hosts and/or the Q&A Manager reserve the right to refuse to answer without comment questions which are thinly veiled attacks on the Catholic Church or the Catholic worldview, that violate or are inconsistent with these published policies, or that are otherwise unproductive to the purpose of our Forums. Judgement of what constitutes an attack, violation of policy, or unproductive question is left up to the individual Forum Host and⁄or the Q&A Manager. See our Protocol & Rules of Conduct page for more information.
- Search our Q&A Archives Before Posting. We have a
search engine available for your use to search our Archives to see if
your question has already been answered.
- Research the Topic on Your Own Before Posting.
The temptation is understandable to use our Forums to get all of your
questions answered without attempting to find the answer for yourself
online, in the Catholic Catechism, or other source. Please resist this
temptation. If you really cannot find the answer or you need clarification
to fully understand an answer you found, then our Forums may be a
useful tool.
- THE QUESTION. Hosts of our Q&A
Forums are free to reject any question they discern does not meet with
the following criteria:
- ENGLISH LANGUAGE ONLY: At this time our Q&A Forum is in "English Only" Thus all questions must be written in English.
- Simple and Direct: Please ask your question as
simply and directly as possible. Time spent deciphering a lengthy
stream-of-consciousness makes it difficult for Forum Hosts to
answer questions in a timely manner.
- Honest Questions: Questions submitted
must be honest questions motivated by a desire to learn the
answer. Questions discerned as attempts to debate, answer homework,
"test" us, or in any way violate our published Protocols
& Rules of Conduct may be rejected.
- Violate Protocols and Rules of Conduct: Questions submitted
that violate any of our Protocols
& Rules of Conduct may be summarily rejected without
comment.
- NEVER include Identifying Information: To
protect your privacy and the privacy of others please DO NOT
include your last name in your question, nor the last names of
anyone else.
Also do not include the names of towns, parish names, or any other identifying information in which a stranger could guess the identity of the person or place referenced.
Remember, our Q&A is open to the general public. Please respect the privacy of any persons referenced in the Question. Forum Host will edit out this information if necessary or may reject the question.
- The Mechanics of Posting (Readability): It is
important that your post is readable. To ensure that please
follow these guidelines:
- Subject Field: Type an appropriate Subject to
your question in the Subject Field so that people can have an idea
of what your question is about in the Index without having to open
the file.
Subject titles like, “I have a Question”, “Liturgy”, “Spiritual Warfare problem” and similar generalized subjects are unacceptable.
Please create a subject like a Newspaper Headline that gives a specific clue to what the article is about. - END OF LINES: Please DO NOT use your
ENTER key when typing your question except at the end of a
paragraph. Let the text automatically wrap on the screen.
- Create Paragraphs: Please be sure to break
up large amounts of text into paragraphs instead of having one
huge honking paragraph. Press Enter Twice between paragraphs
so that a blank line is between paragraphs making it easier to
read.
- CAPITAL LETTERS: Do not type
your name, subject, or question in ALL CAPS. Use Sentence Case.
This sentence is in "sentence case". Questions in ALL CAPS may be rejected.
- TERXTING ABBREVIATIONS: Under no circumstances use so-called "texting" abbrrievitions, such as "r" for "are", "u" for "you", and other such nonsense. Spell out words in the English language. Any questions that use "texting" abbreviations will be deleted unread and without comment.
- Other Abbreviations: Please do not use abbreviations at all unless the abbreviation is univerally known, such as "T.V." "USA", "CBS", "mil", etc.
- Proofread: Before submitting, be sure to proofread your question for readability, clarity, composition, and spelling; we do not have the staff to do this for you. Questions that are unreadable or too difficult to understand may not be answered.
- Subject Field: Type an appropriate Subject to
your question in the Subject Field so that people can have an idea
of what your question is about in the Index without having to open
the file.
- Post One Question at a Time: It is always
tempting to gather up all the questions you have on your mind and
post them all at once. Please resist this temptation. Each post should
contain only ONE question or at the most a couple of related questions.
Unrelated questions should never be submitted in one
post.
- Followup Questions: It is permissible to submit a
followup question, two at the most, if it is really needed to help you
understand our answer, but is never permitted when the followup is
designed to debate the answer we gave you. In addition, multiple
followup questions on the same topic begins to be a discussion thread
that this Forum is not designed to handle. Please refer your discussions
to Discussion Boards, Mail Lists, or Chatrooms.
- Click on the Submit Button ONCE ONLY: Please
submit your question once only! Give your browser time to communicate
with the website and notify you that your question has been received or
(God forbid!) gives you an error message. Please don't follow it up with
a “did you get my question?” email. Multiple posts and
follow-up emails delay answers significantly.
- Be Patient: If you don't get an answer in two or
three days you are not being ignored. We try to have questions
answered and published within five to seven days. Occasionally a
Forum Host gets behind and a backlog of questions accumulates.
Your question will be answered. If we decide not to publish
your question you will receive an email notifying you of that
fact.
All questions are answered in the date order in which they arrived. Thus if you notice that questions submitted at a later date than yours are being published, you may want to contact us to see if we received your question. Sometimes things get lost in cyberspace.
We appreciate the commitment of time and talent the Experts have made in being a part of this apostolate. Please don't badger them. It is a free service, generously given, by busy men and women. - Valid Email Address: Your email address is used
only in the case that a Forum Host needs to contact you to clarify
something about your question. If the Host cannot get through to you
by email then your question cannot be answered.
The “Notify Me when Answered” feature also requires a valid email address. This feature is optional.
Forum Hosts and⁄or the Q&A Manager reserve the right to not answer questions that are submitted without an email address or with an invalid email address. - Privacy:Your email address will never
be made public, and your address is never used for any
other purpose except as noted above, nor is your address ever sold
or given to any other party. Addresses are deleted after the question
is answered. (See our
Privacy Statement
for more information).
Your question and our answer to your question, is public. Once published we cannot remove the question from public view, edit the question, or remove your name.
Thank you for your cooperation in adhering to these guidelines. God bless.