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.

1. 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.
   
   
2. 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.
   
   
3. THE QUESTION.  Hosts of our Q&A Forums are free to reject any question they discern does not meet with the following criteria:

• 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 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.

4. The Mechanics of Posting: 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.
  
  
• CAPITALIZE LETTERS: Do not type your name, subject, or question in ALL CAPS. Use Sentence Case. This sentence is in "sentence case".
  
  
• 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.

4. 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.
   
   
5. 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 of 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.
   
   
6. 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.
   
   
7. 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.
   
   
8. 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& Manager reserve the right to not answer questions that are submitted without an email address or with an invalid email address.
   
   
9. 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. (See our Privacy Statement for more information).
   
   Your question, however, and our answer to your question, is public. Once published we cannot remove the question from public view.
   
   

Thank you for your cooperation in adhering to these guidelines. God bless.