DK Community Guidelines - How can we improve them?

This discussion is for suggestions of how we can improve our Community Guidelines (http://www.doodlekisses.com/notes/Community_Guidelines). Our guidelines determine the kind of community we have. Improvements to the Doodle Kisses community come about by improvements in our Community Guidelines.

So here is your chance to help improve DK. We thank you for your help in making DK the best doodle community in the world... now let's make it even better.

Our current Community Guidelines are:

Community Guidelines

Our Community Guidelines are created to keep Doodle Kisses a fun, informative, and respectful place where we can all have fun 'talking doodle.' By joining Doodle Kisses, you agree to the following Community Guidelines as terms of membership:

Be Nice. Doodle Kisses is here for connecting doodle owners around a common interest: our doodles! Even though we all love doodles, there will always be differing opinions within large groups. That is okay. Don't let your heated opinion about a topic or idea turn into heat against an individual.

Don't post on the public threads personal differences, arguments, old grudges, hearsay, private messages, etc. Keep personal grudges private. Doodle Kisses is not the place for rehashing old grudges or personal issues with other members. We don't provide judges, lawyers or juries.

Keep it Clean. While this may mean different things to different people, swearing/profanity is not appropriate on Doodle Kisses. Because many of our members have become friends via this community...some off topic discussions will occur and that is totally okay and fun! But as non-doodle topics progress, remember that Doodle Kisses is intended to be a friendly, welcoming community of people who are here to "talk doodle" FIRST. Watch your language and keep things somewhat family friendly.

Please do not use 'Doodle Kisses' as a means to advertise your site/products/services or to solicit customers/members. No spamming, soliciting money, commercial messages, or link farming. Members agree to not use any of the following ways to advertise, promote, or repeatedly link to their website: Status Updates, Comments, Chat, Videos, Photos, Groups, Blogs, or Forum Discussions. As such Profile names may not contain website URL's -- in other words ---"Adina of Adina's Doodle Photos is okay... "Adina (DoodlePhotos.com)" is not. A simple name looks so much nicer and less cluttered than a business name. You may only use your profile page to tell others about your website/product/service. You can also participate in our link exchange to get your site listed on our links page or contact me for other options. So there are legitimate ways to promote your stuff, but please keep ads and promotions out of blogs or forum discussions or anywhere else besides your personal page or pre-approved areas. It's one thing if someone comes to you seeking info about your site/service/product, another if you go around soliciting.

Reviews of individual breeders do NOT belong in the main forum, blogs or groups or any public area of DK. If you want to recommend your breeder, you may do so in our Owner Recommended Breeders group or invite your breeder to post an ad in our puppy sales groups (mentioned below) or make the recommendation privately (on a member's profile page or by private message). If you are seeking information on an individual breeder, please ask for private responses.

Breeders may only advertise dogs or puppies for sale in either the "Labradoodles for Sale" group or the "Goldendoodle for Sale" group -- instructions on ad guidelines are listed in those groups and must be followed. Breeders may also advertise breeder-related matters in the Breeders group freely. If you are a breeder, please keep breeding related discussions (finding studs, heat cycles, trouble with dam's pregnancy, trouble finding clients, etc) confined to the Breeders group.

Doodle owners seeking a breeding mate for their dog should do so elsewhere.  We recommend finding a breeder mentor with which to discuss breeding plans. But such inquiries may not be made on DoodleKisses.com.

Only one member account per individual is permitted on DK.   Extra aliases and multiple accounts are not permitted.  If you are having trouble with your account, please contact administration at: admin@doodlekisses.com

No fictitious identities/profiles.  If we doubt the legitimacy of your profile identity, we may ask for further identification.

If you find a member in violation of any of the above guidelines, please contact me. If you look at the very bottom of any page you will see an orange bar and in that you'll see text that reads "Report an Issue" -- click that and fill out the form.

This site is for doodle owners, by doodle owners...while all dog lovers are welcome, we will not tolerate non-doodle owners joining simply to stir up trouble or promote a political agenda.

Listen to, and cooperate with, moderators. Challenging the decisions/actions/inaction of moderator/s in the open forum is not acceptable behavior. Please report problems you encounter by going to the bottom of any page on DK and clicking "Report an Issue."

DoodleKisses.com is an online community. Members contribute the vast majority of content to this site. Any content or opinions expressed, implied or included are the sole responsibility of their authors and/or contributors and are not official statements or opinions of DoodleKisses.com. DoodleKisses.com is not responsible for the content of external websites linked to from this site.

It is understood that DoodleKisses.com is headquartered in Walla Walla County, Washington, USA. Any and all legal action taken against DoodleKisses.com must take place in Walla Walla County, Washington, USA.

Doodle Kisses reserves the right to adjust/change these rules as needed and without notice.

If members or potential members do not agree with any of these terms, they should not become members of Doodle Kisses or participate in the website. Using DoodleKisses.com demonstrates your acceptance of these terms.

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So what do you think? How can we improve these?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty on August 5, 2012 at 5:28am

Completely agree Karen!

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Permalink Reply by Maryann,Roo and Tigger on August 2, 2012 at 6:36pm

It is a fine line between sharing your excitement about you or your child or dog doing something that is in a magazine, tv ad whatever and advertising it. Since no one forces me to read anything, I am not too concerned about it. I think the DK guidelines are pretty darn thoughtful and work well. Being "older" and not very excited about social networks in general, I really don't get them, DK is awesome. Generally discussions are interesting or funny or educational or all three.

Thanks for providing me with my social network, where I know no one, but we have a common interest and generally also common sense.

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Permalink Reply by Laurie, Fudge, and Vern on August 4, 2012 at 4:14am

I think the rules are well thought out and very reasonable. The thing that has been bothering me lately is that there seems to be a select few people who have joined DK primarily to get you to link to something they are promoting and/or their own blog. I don't know if that would even bother me, IF they were also on here to meet members, participate in discussions, and comment on other blogs or discussions. There have been some blogs promoting products that if you did a quick search on DK you could clearly see was not in the best interest of our dogs, which points to the fact that they are not participating in discussions in any way. I am not sure what rule would change this, so I have made it a practice to just ignore the blogs, however I wish for the sake of some of the newer members there was a rule that discouraged these posts. I think Adina and you do a remarkable job with this website.

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Permalink Reply by Laurie, Fudge, and Vern on August 4, 2012 at 4:20am

I also have one rule I would like added to the above rules, although it might seem slightly self serving :) If I have a blog and/or discussion running on the front page, no one is allowed to bump me down the front page for 5 days. I think this seems perfectly reasonable and would appreciate any help you could give me in making this happen. Thank you!! Boy, do I feel better now....LOL!!