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Please
don't abuse our guestbook. Please.
When everyone is treating
our guestbook respectfully, it is a useful and powerful tool that permits our visitors the unparalleled opportunity
to express their thoughts and good wishes to Laci's family and friends knowing that they really will read them. That's right! Laci's
mother, father, step-father, brother, half-sister, cousins, uncles, aunts, students, co-workers, neighbors and
all of her lifelong friends really do read the guestbook. The really
do! And they derive great comfort and support from it...
...that is, when people treat it with the kind of respect befitting the horrible tragedy that is the subject of
this web site.
A small number of unthinking, uncaring and in some cases downright mean-spirted people sometimes ruin it for everyone
by posting things in our guestbook that are just not appropriate. When that sort of thing gets out of hand we are
forced to suspend the ability to post while we try to get back some control. We hate having to do that! And we fear that one of these days we're
going to lose our patience and just put the guestbook in read-only mode permanently. We hope that never happens, but if we can't get that tiny
minority of abusers to finally stop, we may have no choice. And then everybody loses!
We ask everyone to try to remember that this is a web site that chronicles the tragedy of missing woman: A daughter,
a sister, a friend, a mother-to-be -- a woman whom those who love and miss her now worry they will never, ever
see again. Ever. To say they're heartbroken is a gross understatement.
Before you post to our guestbook, ask yourself how Laci's mother will feel when she reads whatever you write here.
Try to put yourself in her shoes and honestly ask yourself if whatever you write will actually be helpful or useful
to her in the midst of her pain.
When Laci's friends and family come to this guestbook:
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They do
not want to read hateful rhetoric. The reality, of course, is that many people believe Scott Peterson is somehow
responsible for Laci's disappearance. Therefore, a certain amount of anti-Scott rhetoric in the guestbook, whether
it's deserved or not, is to be expected. But the over-the-top, angry, rabid postings are just not welcome here.
Please post from your heart, but please keep it reasonable and responsible. |
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They do
not want to read theories and suggestions that are better suited to a forum. There are several good forums out there where
you can post theories or argue with people. When Laci's friends and family want to read that, they know where to
go. Our guestbook is not such a place. |
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They do
not want to read debates between those who post here, or the commentary or response of one poster on or to the
posting of another. They don't want to read "conversations" going back and forth between guestbook posters.
This guestbook just isn't the place for that. That sort of thing should be confined to a forum. Please post such
things there,
not here. |
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They do
not want to see their guestbook vandalized by obviously sick individuals who post links to pornographic materials
and other unsuitable content. This is perhaps the most repugnant abuse of all. Aren't pornographers human, too?
Have even they no common decency?
We beg of you, pornographers, please, please stop it. Please. |
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They do
not want to see this guestbook reduced to an electronic billboard for spammers who are so bereft of compassion
and a sense of time and place that they blithely post their inappropriate and in some cases downright repugnant
advertisements here with no regard to anyone's feelings or sensibilities. Spammers, please stop it. Please. |
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And they
don't want to read the postings of those who attempt to police the guestbook and who scold others for doing any
of the above. We know that the hearts of those who do so are in the right place. But, think about it: When you
use a posting to scold others for making unwelcome postings, you're making an unwelcome posting yourself. Please
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It is those kinds of
abuse that we have battled here. Frankly, we just can't understand how anyone with even an ounce of decency in
them could possibly be so brutally thoughtless on a web site like this one. We hereby send the plea out to the
abusers that they please give us some peace. Please, we ask of them, honor our stated wishes for how this guestbook
should be used.
- Do not try to turn
it into a forum.
- Do not vandalize it.
- Do not commercialize
it.
- And do not try to
police it for us.
We are grateful for
the interest in Laci's plight that visitors to this site have taken -- the heartfelt good wishes and offers of
help, the words of encouragement and hope, and the thoughtful attempts to console us that they typically post in
our guestbook. It is those words we love to read here and which have become so precious to us.
If it turns out that you're one of the people who have been abusing our guestbook in any of the ways we describe
above -- or if you're thinking about doing it -- please take a moment to search your soul first. Ask yourself if
it's just generally an important thing to be of "good character." Character, after all, is doing the right thing even when no
one's looking.
Ask yourself what kind of character you have, and if having good character is something you
believe may be important in this life. Then, before posting to our guestbook, please endeavor to be of good character
and do the right thing. Please.
Thanks for your understanding and your continued interest in the Laci Peterson case. And thanks, in advance, for not abusing our guestbook.
Click here to return to the guestbook now.
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