Forum Goals, Guidelines, & Privacy Policy

Please take a moment to read this important information carefully. This information is essential to the success of your participation, and The Bilingual Zoo community as a whole.

Goals for this forum

1. To create a friendly online community where parents raising bilingual and multilingual children, who often feel alone on this journey, can find kinship and support.

2. To provide a lively, respectful venue for interaction, where parents of bilingual and multilingual children can share their experiences, challenges, ideas, and resources.

3. To maintain this forum as a free service for all, sustained by advertising and voluntary financial support from the community.

Guidelines for this forum

To fulfill the above goals, the following guidelines have been established. In using this forum, you agree to abide by these guidelines.

1. Visitors are welcome to browse this forum, but only members--those who have registered for a free account--are able to post to the public boards or send private messages (PM). Only one account is allowed per person.

2. You must use your real name (for your Display Name, found under your Profile). You can use your first name (like "Adam"), or your full name (like "Adam Beck"), or your first name and the first initial of your last name ("Adam B"). The use of real names, rather than pseudonyms, has been proven to result in more polite and respectful forum discussions. However, if you have a valid reason for wanting to use an alias, exceptions are possible. But you must contact forum staff directly to make this request. Do not begin posting to this forum with an unapproved alias.

3. Using a real picture of yourself (for your Avatar, found under your Profile) is obviously best and is strongly encouraged. If using your real image is a concern, a cartoon image created with the built-in Avatar Maker is acceptable.

4. While this forum is offered as a free service, there are costs involved in maintaining it. To help cover these costs, please consider buying a copy of Adam Beck's book Maximize Your Child's Bilingual Ability. Proceeds from sales of this book go toward sustaining our community. (Plus, it's an empowering book and praised by parents worldwide!)

5. This is a civil and supportive community. Be polite and respectful at all times. Any rudeness or personal attacks, either on a public board or through a private message, will be dealt with swiftly and strongly. Please be kind to one another so this sort of unnecessary unpleasantness can be avoided.

6. The main language for this forum is English. English should be used in all posts made to the boards. Other languages can be used when sending private messages to individual members.

7. The level of English ability among members will vary, and that's perfectly okay. However, everyone should make a good habit of proofreading posts carefully before submitting them so the text is clear and easy to read. Do not type your thoughts and submit them without checking what you wrote. Forum staff reserve the right to edit typos and other errors to make the posts as reader-friendly as possible.

8. Write full sentences, with capital letters at the start of your sentences and for all proper nouns (like names of countries and languages) and periods (or other punctuation) at the end. AND DO NOT USE ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. To the reader, it feels like shouting.

9. It's fine to share helpful resources in your posts, and include links to those products, services, or websites, but spamming will not be tolerated. If the same product, service, or website is repeatedly recommended, those posts will be removed.

10. The use of a signature (found under your Profile) for your posts is permitted, but the signature must be brief and should not include images.

11. Forum staff reserve the right to edit or remove posts that are deemed inappropriate, without notice. We also reserve the right to edit, close, move, or remove any thread on this forum.

12. Any inappropriate language or behavior that violates the standards of this community, as determined by forum staff, will be dealt with swiftly and strongly. Serious or repeated infractions may result in a suspension or ban.

13. Please report any objectionable content that is not caught by forum staff so it can be handled promptly.

14. All posts and private messages express the personal views of the author and are the sole responsibility of that individual. Forum staff will not be held responsible, in any way, for content created by members, nor will we accept liability for any loss or damages resulting from information or opinions put forward on this website.

15. Users accept personal responsibility for their participation in this forum and in following links to external websites. Forum staff will not be held responsible, nor liable, for any loss or damages resulting from a user's actions on this website or on external websites.

16. Users also accept personal responsibility for their actions in networking with others. Forum staff will not be held responsible, nor liable, for any negative repercussions that may arise from networking actions taken by users of this forum, whether online or offline. Prudence is advised.

17. Questions or comments about actions and decisions regarding this forum should be handled privately by contacting forum staff. Do not post objections or complaints on a public board.

18. Certain areas of this site may be accessible only to forum staff or authorized members.

19. While these guidelines are intended to cover most situations, they cannot anticipate all matters that may arise. Consequently, we reserve the right to take any actions deemed appropriate to ensure that this forum is not disrupted or abused in any way.

20. These guidelines may be modified or updated, at any time, in line with the evolving needs of this community.

Privacy Policy for this forum

At The Bilingual Zoo, we recognize that the privacy of your personal information is very important. This privacy policy describes the types of personal information that we receive and collect when you visit this site and how that information is safeguarded and used.

Your email address and personal information will not be disclosed to a third party without your consent. At the same time, you are advised to adjust the privacy options for your email address and personal information (found under your Profile) in keeping with your level of comfort. Forum staff will not be held responsible for any data that is disclosed, nor any loss or damages incurred, if you neglect to adjust the privacy options of your account.

Log Files

Like most websites, we make use of log files, which merely log visitors to the site. The information in the log files includes your IP (internet protocol) address, ISP (internet service provider), browser used to visit this site, the date/time of your visit, and which pages you visited. This information is used to administer the site and analyze the use of this site. None of this logged data includes information that is personally identifiable.
Cookies and Web Beacons

We use cookies to store information about visitors’ preferences, to record user-specific information on which pages are accessed or visited, and to personalize or customize our web page content based upon your browser type or other information sent via your browser.

We also use third party advertisements on Bilingual Monkeys to support our site. Some of these advertisers may use technology such as cookies and web beacons when they advertise on our site, which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through the Google AdSense program) information including your IP address, ISP, the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed. This is generally used for geotargeting purposes (showing New York real estate ads to someone in New York, for example) or showing certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites).

DoubleClick DART Cookie

We also may use DART cookies for ad serving through Google’s DoubleClick, which places a cookie on your computer when you are browsing the web and visit a site using DoubleClick advertising (including some Google AdSense advertisements). This cookie is used to serve ads specific to you and your interests (“interest based targeting”).

The ads served are targeted based on your previous browsing history. (For example, if you have been viewing sites about visiting London, you may see London hotel advertisements when viewing a non-related site, such as on a site about sports.) DART uses “non personally identifiable information”. It does NOT track personal information about you, such as your name, email address, physical address, telephone number, social security numbers, bank account numbers or credit card numbers.

For further information on DoubleClick advertising, and opting-out of such advertising on all sites that make use of it, please visit:
www.doubleclick.com/privacy/dart_adserving.aspx

Third Party Privacy Policies

You should consult the respective privacy policies of third-party ad servers for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices. The privacy policy for Bilingual Monkeys does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, other advertisers or web sites.

If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers can be found at the browsers’ respective websites.

Measuring Website Usage

We use Google Analytics to collect information about how visitors use this site. Google Analytics stores information such as what pages you visit, how long you are on the site, how you got here, what you click on, and information about your web browser.

IP addresses are masked (only a portion is stored) and personal information is only reported in aggregate. We do not allow Google to use or share our analytics data for any purpose other than providing us with analytics information.

Amazon Affiliate Disclosure

The Bilingual Zoo is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program which enables websites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

Children’s Information

We believe it is important to provide added protection for children online. We encourage parents and guardians to spend time online with their children to observe, participate in and/or monitor and guide their online activity. This website does not collect any personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13.

Consent

By using our website, you hereby consent to our privacy policy and agree to its terms.

Update

This Privacy Policy was last updated on Friday, March 20, 2018.