DK Community Guidelines - How can we improve them?

[ClarkP]

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: [e-mail]  

 

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?

[KELLY BEENE]

I did not join to promote my product, but yes I was not made to read the disclosure, I would not have done anything against it. Right now there is a Labradoodle on the 2013 Calender that a breeder owns, and is a breeder pup,  and why did they get to put it there? The rules are not followed on this site.

[Adina P]

Kelly, what rule are you saying is not being followed?  I'm not clear on what you are objecting to.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I think Kelly is saying that one of the dogs in the calendar, not sure which calendar, is a breeder's dog and the calendar rules state that is not allowed if it's a puppy that a breeder intends to sell. But It seems to be that a dog a breeder owns is allowed.

[KELLY BEENE]

2014 Calender, Maple

[F, Calla & Luca]

But I believe Kelly that the rule states that breeders may submit photos if they currently own the dog and do not intend to sell it as a pup.  Here is a copy of the photo requirements.

1) YOU MUST BE A MEMBER OF Doodle Kisses to be eligible--and your doodle must be in the photo. This means, for example, if you have a friend with a doodle or are a breeder you may not submit a photo of a doodle you do not currently own or a puppy that you are planning to sell.  

[Adina P]

Yes, what F said.  I don't care if the dog belongs to a breeder.  The point of the rule is that members submit photos of their own dogs.  Otherwise a breeder, with access to 100+ dogs, through their career, could potentially submit 500+ photos.  Do you get what I mean?   A litter with 10 pups would mean up to 50 submissions.  The point is to limit it to the dogs each member actually has as their own personal forever pets--not just all dogs that pass through their home.  It has nothing to do with whether the owner is a breeder or not.

The other point is I want our DK Calendars to be calendars of our DK members' dogs.  This is a community of doodle owners FIRST, and a community of photographers of doodles second (or third or something further down on the list).  A dog that someone once took a photo of (breeder or not) that is no longer part of that person's family (or is soon to leave) just doesn't seem like a member's dog anymore. 

[KELLY BEENE]

Yes a dog named maple is owned by a breeder

[KELLY BEENE]

Great, I have some amazing dogs that are my forever dogs that I will submit next year, they are breeders that I intend to keep, but was not sure if I could submit them, thanks for clarification.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I will give this some thought. I chuckled about the lawsuits needing to be brought in Walla Walla County. That should reduce the chance of one at least a thousandfold : )

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Thank you for posting this as it  is.  It gives us a chance to review what we can and can't or should and shouldn't do.  I think recent puppy posts might be skating into advertising  but in reality an obvious ad was avoided and we all got to see some pretty cute puppies.  I think the breeder just needs to be careful she doesn't slip into advertising - even in a sneaky way. The doggy day care/spa that one member was thrilled about being photographed for - twice!!!!  was  fine once, but the second go round was obviously for advertisement purposes.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

It's blogs like this that are the problem: http://www.doodlekisses.com/profiles/blogs/pet-tech-round-up [removed]

The person whose website is promoted and linked towards the end of the blog is in the business of promoting and marketing blogs and websites, from what I can tell, and a previous blog by this "member" talked about this person and having formed a business colloboration or something of that sort with her. Here is the blog in which she discusses this:http://www.doodlekisses.com/profiles/blogs/cancer-water-goldendoodles

To me that first whole blog is marketing, and probably all of those links to websites are clients of this person who is also being advertised. (and how the heck is this website marketing person of interest to the average doodle owner????) And it's not the first one, just the most extreme. Here is the one in which a dangerous product made by a multinational corporation, which has been in many discussions here on DK as well as in the news, for having killed and sickened people's pets, is praised and promoted:

http://www.doodlekisses.com/profiles/blogs/do-you-know-milo

This makes it clear that the blogger doesn't read a thing that's posted hear on DK, but it's also disturbing because it's promoting a product that is dangerous. There was a similar one previously that was removed when several of us apprised the blogger of the facts. And why would someone write a blog about a dog treat if they weren't being compensated. Any of the rest of us would have posted in the FG or just in the forum: "Hey, I tried these and my dog liked them."

I really think the guideline wording needs to address the issue of subject matter in blogs. The current guidelines cover promoting your own websiute, products, etc in your blogs and elsewhere, but they don't cover promoting your friends or the companies who are paying you to advertise for them. Plus, it just isn't appropriate subject matter for blogs.

I know you don't want to create tons of rules, and we don't want that either, but something that simply states that product and service reviews (and promotions)  should be limited to the review section or the appropriate group (Foods in the Food group, groomers in the Grooming group or Geographic groups, etc.) might help. If someone made a mistake and started a discussion in the main forum about a great groomer they found in their neighborhood, nobody here would really care or complain, but it might make your job of not approving blogs like the ones I linked above a whole lot easier and spare the rest of us.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Good points all Karen.