You will notice that all of these related mini-websites have the same look and feel, although each one has different colors, fonts, and design elements. If you know how to find your way around any one of these databases (and there are instructions in the beginning of some of them) then you can find your way around all of these websites. They all have the same basic philosophy.
The same philosophy guides this entire series of websites.
Each website has nine similar pages to help you understand the site. The following files are available for each website:
About gives a short description of the site and the corresponding discussion forum. A single page leads you to all of the About pages for all of the groups.
Definition explains the name of the website. Several forums have Yiddish names. We’ve explained the meaning of the Yiddish name and a little bit about why we decided to use that particular name.
Excluded lets everyone know what topics or types of topics will not be discussed on the discussion group. Hopefully, this will prevent people from raising such topics and then being informed that their issue would not be put through to the group. We’d like to prevent ill-feelings and frustration by having to stop certain messages from going through before they are even brought up.
Introduction is your first page to search for any group. After a brief statement of the goals for that group, it gives links to all of the other pages.
Not For describes who should not join the discussion group. The groups are not for everybody and even though they might sound very interesting (and they are for certain people), not everyone should sign up. This page gives some guidelines of who might not be appropriate as members of the forum.
Related explains which other groups in our series that might be of interest. Since you are now interested one particular group, others in this list may also interest you. There’s no pressure to join, but we would like to make you aware of other groups that are available.
Guidelines only relates to isses that apply to that particular group. The basic guidelines that apply to all are listed under a link on that page. It is a good idea to read the page for the specific group as well as the general guidelines. This way, you may avoid misunderstandings concerning the groups.
Topics lists suggested topics to be raised on that group. Other topics may be discussed as well, but this page gives an idea of the scope of the group.
Who Joins tells about the people (the audience) who should join that group. This is our way to assure that those who join the gruop feel comfortable. For example, we run two groups for women only. Men are not invited to join. Not only that, but if they do join, they are asked to leave the group. We like to present this important information up front.
Each of these pages has links to other descriptions of the websites or the forums. There's a great deal to learn from the groups, and we also stand to learn a lot from your postings, knowledge, and experience.
