Welcome to Mosaic Minds! The Mosaic Minds website was developed as an information center for people whose lives are affected by dissociation. If you are new to the concept of dissociation, the Reading Room provides many links to information on the topic. The interactive community forums are designed to be a gathering place for making friends, asking questions and sharing your own experience with dissociation and DID. If you are just learning about your own dissociation, mostly these forums are a place to learn that you are not alone. You do not have to be dissociative to participate here. "Safe" (non-abusive) family members, friends and significant others are welcome. The only requirement for participation is a willingness to show respect for our community, both collectively and to individuals, and to follow the guidelines that you will find in the Community Standards. If you are simply interested in dissociation in general, you are welcome as well, but please be prepared for some skeptical questions about your interest. Your interest and curiosity are not bad things and showing respect for our community members goes a long way towards the goal of mutual understanding. Most folks who are new to our community spend some amount of time just reading and getting familiar with things. If you are new to interactive forums on the internet our "Staying Safe on the Internet" is an important document to read. If you are the type to jump right in, please take the time first to read through our Community Standards. Mostly what we request is that you conduct yourself here as you would in any public place. But there are a few things that we expect that are unique to survivor communities. The Community Standards and Community FAQ try to explain some of these. When you first start reading it may seem like everyone here already knows everyone else. But each person who is a part of this community today was once new as well. Some of us have been around for a long time, but there are a lot of people who are nearly as new as you! If you decide to stay and participate in the interactive forums, here are some important things to remember: Ask questions. Questions about the site and posting should be posted on City Hall. Remember, we were all new once, and there is no such thing as a dumb question. Don't worry about making mistakes. Everyone here was new once, and we all understand that it takes time to learn how things work. If you happen to have a post removed, remember that almost everyone, including the volunteer administrators, have had one or more of their own posts removed at one time or another. Besides, one of the best ways of learning is to make a mistake! We learn more from making an honest mistake than we do from our accidental successes! Respect your own boundaries. Touching, even cyber hugs, can be an unsettling thing for many of our community members. If you don't want others to offer hugs in support, let them know in a way that both respects your boundaries and recognizes their good wishes and intent. Because not every person reads every post, you may have to state a boundary like this quite a few times to different people. Try not to get frustrated by this. Recognizing and enforcing your own boundaries is good practice! Respect the boundaries others set. You are not responsible for remembering every individual's personal triggers. As you get to know people you'll learn to be sensitive to some of their "tender spots." In the meantime, moving slowly is a good idea. If you post something and don't get many or even any replies, it doesn't mean that no one cares. While people may empathize with you when you post, they might be too involved with their own lives to respond sometimes. The majority of our community members are survivors with their own issues, and we all have 3D lives that can get overwhelming at times. If you are new it may just mean that they have not gotten to know you well enough yet to know how to respond. Reading and replying to the posts of others is a good way to let people get to know you. Keep yourself safe. Use caution and common sense. In the 3D world we know who we are interacting with because we can see them face-to-face. On the internet, where all we see are what folks write, people can be whoever they want to be. Sometimes new folks tend to trust everyone because they think they have something important in common. Go slowly. Get to know people over time. For example, don't be too quick to give out your email address. You will make friends, but the best and safest ones are the ones you take time to get to know and trust. Don't post your full name, phone number or other personal information on the forums. Anything you post on the forums is accessible to anyone on the Internet; there are no passwords or registration requirements here except on the Round Table and the Hard Hat Zone. The volunteer staff of Mosaic Minds does its best to enforce the community guidelines consistently. But no one can read every post, so the staff relies on community members to bring troubling posts to their attention. If you have a question about a post you see on the forums, either ask the author of the post to clarify or post a question on City Hall. Remember there are no st*p*d questions. If you feel unsafe posting such a question publicly, you can send an email to the admin team at admin-at-mosaicminds.org. Once again, welcome and we hope you find Mosaic Minds to be a helpful and informative place.