Welcome to the International District - Please read this first

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SaraP

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Hi!

Welcome to the International District. :welcome:

For those of you who don't know me yet, I'm Sara and I'm a Moderator for this section of the Absolute Write message boards. I'm also Portuguese, by birth and by residence until I got married and moved to the US.

As a Moderator of such a large forum, I know it's not always easy to keep an eye on all threads and posts. The awesome AW membership plays a huge role in helping us Mods make this forum the wonderful place it is by drawing our attention to troublesome issues, be it via PM, rep comments or, most importantly, the Report Post function.

In a place like the International District, where most of us don't understand so many of the threads, this moves up from important to vital.

Many times, people don't realize just how important the Report Post function is for the Moderators, and don't use it often enough. Remember, as an integral part of this community, we need you to tell us when someone says something that makes you feel uncomfortable.

I'd like to take a moment here and go back to Mac's post on the #1 Rule:

On Respecting Your Fellow Writer

We've always, first and foremost, used "respect your fellow writer" as our guiding principle. It's a really good one, in general. I absolutely believe in it.

It's really not complicated. Seriously. It means don't act like a jerk. You don't name-call, or bait, or sneer, or taunt, or generally be unpleasant to the people around you; at least, not if you want to stay here very long.

So here's the thing. Many of us passionately disagree with each other, about everything from politics to religion to using the serial comma.

But what makes AW the amazing community that it is, is that we manage to create an environment of inclusiveness, in spite of our differences. (I'll admit to a romantic notion of the Cooler as a sort of Rick's Cafe, where people from all walks and backgrounds can meet and find common ground and a relatively safe place to be. And if you don't get the Casablanca reference, I grieve for you. Also, get thee to NetFlix and put it in your movie queue.)
Now, unlike her, if you haven't seen the movie, I won't tell you to get on Netflix because unless you're reading this from certain countries, you may not be able to have access to it. :greenie I do hope you'll find a way to watch it, though.

All this to say, we want you to feel welcome here. Just because we can't understand a post, doesn't mean it can bypass the #1 Rule. We want you to have fun posting in a different language and enjoy the camaraderie with fellow AW'ers who share that special language with you. And we want you to know that if something makes you feel uncomfortable, anything at all, you can - and should - let us know about it.

That is what the International District means to me.
 
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