There was a discussion on gurgle last week in which several members wrote their email addresses in the chat forum. Whilst there is nothing against this in our rules, I wanted to write a post advising on some best practices for staying safe while using online communities like the one here on gurgle.One of the things that makes gurgle a great community is the openness of our members. Whether it's giving advice, uploading photos or telling parenting stories, the amount of information our members have been willing to share with us over the last two years has really helped to make gurgle what it is today.Nevertheless, it still pays to be careful with your personal information - even on a site as friendly as gurgle. Giving out your full name, home address or phone number in the public areas of the site - chat, groups, blogs - is not recommended, neither is providing the name of your workplace or place of study. Remember that these areas of gurgle are completely open for anyone in the world to read.Writing your email address on a public forum could invite spam emails from people trying to rip you off or trying to infect your computer with a virus. Sharing contact details publicly could also attract attention from people trying to contact you for more sinister reasons. If you want to exchange email addresses or other contact details with another gurgle member we would advise that you do so by using the private messaging service on gurgle - and only share your contact details with people you have built a relationship with and who you trust.Another topic that sometimes comes up is meeting in real life. Again, while we are happy that you've made such strong relationships with each other here on gurgle, we would advise you to follow these steps when meeting someone you know from the internet in public:- Get a friend to accompany you to the meeting.- Always meet in a public place, preferably of your choice.- Always tell someone you trust about where, when and who you are seeing.- Have someone call you during the meeting to make sure everything is OK. - Ring that person again when you get home to let them know you are safe. If you do get unwanted attention from your presence here on gurgle, do not respond or react to any unsolicited messages, also don't click on any links or open any files from email addresses that you don't recognise. Report any problems using the exclamation mark on the site or by email - community@gurgle.com.Finally... Be careful, stay safe - but most importantly enjoy using gurgle!Pic: Search Engine People Blog, some rights reserved View less

We're very lucky here at gurgle. Lucky because you, our users, make our lives very easy. Like all online communities we have a list of house rules that govern what you can and can't post on gurgle, but unlike other communities it's very rare that these rules are broken because we have the friendliest and most helpful pregnancy and parenting community on the web. In most cases, when someone does break a rule it's because they weren't aware of it rather than a deliberate attempt to cause trouble. Therefore we thought it would be useful to use this week's How To blog to post a quick reminder about exactly what our rules are. The rules are also listed in our terms and conditions but we thought it was also worth presenting them in a slightly easier to digest form here...1. Thou must not libel anyone We won't bore you with the precide legal definition of libel, but in short, don't say someone is gay unless they've publicly admitted they're gay, don't say someone is a paedophile unless they've been convicted in a court of law, don't say someone is a drug addict unless... you get the picture. 2. Thou must not be in contempt of court Please do not discuss ongoing or pending criminal cases. Once a judge and jury have done their thing you can talk about it as much as you like, but until then please don't talk about criminal trials on the site because we could be held in contempt of court. The maximum punishment for that is two years in jail and we're sure you'll understand why we'd much rather not do that.3. Thou must not abuse other users One person's abuse is another person's constructive criticism; it's a fine line. As a general rule, criticising someone else's opinion is fine; we want to encourage healthy debate. Making that criticism personal is not... so 'you're talking rubbish' is OK, 'you're talking rubbish because you're an idiot' is not. In addition, please do not impersonate other users or start discussions that invite negative comment about a specific user.4. Thou must not post offensive content Again, the word offensive is fairly general, but the following will definitely not be tolerated: - racism, sexism, homophobia (this is the 21st century after all) - swearing (please don't try and get round the swear filters, we'll just add your new variations to the filter too) - naked/sexual imagery (to be specific, pictures of babies' bottoms or breastfeeding are fine, pictures of babies' genitals, or naked breasts, are not) - images of weapons, violence or drugs (yeah, unlikely we know, but just in case)5. Thou must not advertise (not for free anyway) I'm sure you'll agree that one of the best things about gurgle is that it is completely free to use. However, we here at gurgle do need to feed ourselves when the day's work is over and we do this is by selling advertising on the site. To protect this very important part of our business and ensure that we can continue to provide gurgle for free, we ask that users do not use gurgle to sell anything. If you are an advertiser and would like to pay to advertise on gurgle, please email ads@gurgle.com And just in case that all sounds very negative, here are some things thou MUST do...6. Thou must sign up for a free gurgle account to get personalised, week-by-week updates on your pregnancy and parenting journey.7. Thou must take full advantage of the amazingly helpful gurgle community by posting as many questions as you like in our chat and answers section.8. Thou must show the rest of the world how cute your baby is by uploading pictures to our image galleries.9. Thou must share your parenting journey with us by starting a gurgle blog.10. Thou must contact gurgle at info@gurgle.com, or via our Facebook and Twitter pages, if you have any problems using the site or any suggestions for improving it. If you have any questions feel free to post a comment below or via the means outlined in commandment 10...And, most importantly, enjoy gurgle! Pic: What happens when you break the rules ;-) - from bbaunch, some rights reserved View less

This week's video tutorial is about how to personalise your gurgle profile.After registering an account with gurgle you'll want to add a little bit of personality to your profile. In this tutorial we show you how to add an avatar (or profile picture) and how to tell us a little about yourself.One of the best features of gurgle is the way we provide you with content specific to your stage of pregnancy or parenting. If for some reason your stage is wrong, for example if your baby was born early or late, this tutorial will show you how to do that too.Simply watch the video or follow the text instructions below...To change your stage 1. Log in to gurgle with the user name and password you chose when you registered.2. Click on the link to change your stage underneath your welcome message near the top of the page.3. Scroll down to the Child Details section and enter the correct details. There is also a button to Add Another Child if you have more than one.4. Click on Update Profile to save your changes. To add an avatar to your profile1. Log in to gurgle and click either on the My Profile tab or on your user name at the  very top of the page.2. Click on Add Photo and then on the Browse button to find where the photo is stored on your computer.3. Fill in the name, date taken and description details.4. If you wish to enter the photo in to one of our public galleries, choose one from the drop-down menu. If you do not want your photo to appear in a gallery just leave this blank.5. If you want the photo to be visible only to you select the relevant privacy setttings. 6. Click upload and then on Use as Profile Picture underneath the photo.7. Please bear in mind that all photos appearing on gurgle have to be approved. Normally this happens within 24 hours, although it may be a little longer on weekends and public holidays. Thanks for your patience on this. Once your photo has been approved you will be notified by the Your Gurgle notifications box on the right of the page.To add a description to your profile1. Log in to gurgle and go to My Profile in the same way you did for adding an avatar.2. Write up to 2000 characters about yourself.3. Click Update Profile to save the changes.If you need any further information or help with personalising your gurgle profile, please feel free to contact us by email at info@gurgle.com  If you haven't registered an account on gurgle yet, you can do so for free here. Watch our video tutorial on how to register a gurgle account hereReturn to main Help section View less