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?

[Deanna & Desi & Cori]

To me, these look great as is!  No matter how guidelines are tweaked, there will always be a few individuals who ignore policies, believing that said policies don't apply to them (for some reason).  I'm not a member of other online communities (other than Facebook), so I have no real measure of comparison, BUT as far as I'm concerned, DK is a wonderful place to hang out!  Sedona and I thank you (Clark) and Adina for the time and effort you put into making DK both fun and informative!!!  

[F, Calla & Luca]

Ditto to this, except Calla, Luca and I can be substituted.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

Ditto to the Ditto from Tara and me!

[AndySharon BoomerShaynaMariner]

May I suggest that a Group be started for new litter announcements and breeder discussions of their litters.  And then confine those discussions to this Group.  In this way those of us interested in this would have a designated place to go - and KNOW that these are posts by breeders.

 

Again - thank you for the opportunity to add input.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

I don't have any suggestions for improving the guidelines however, it seems that often when a person doesn't follow the guidelines it is because they "didn't know" about them.  Which tell me that they have not read them. So changing or improving them will not solve that problem. I can't remember what happened when I joined but it seems like it was suggested that I read the Guidelines but they didn't automatically open. Some sites put them right in front of you and ask you to agree to them before you are allowed to join. Do you think that would be helpful or even possible? Or maybe that is already the case now?

[F, Calla & Luca]

Good idea. Not that I don't often click on agree without reading through what I've agreed to myself.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

That's true! I do the same thing but usually it is on those sites where the guidelines are 5 pages of small print. Maybe if it were presented as it is above with the gist of each paragraph in bold print people might at least read those lines.

[Kathy, Harley & Roxie]

Or maybe just those guidelines that are frequently not observed (ie   Breeder recommendation)

[Adina P]

Prospective members agree to the Terms of Service (which includes the Community Guidelines) on the first page of sign up and they agree to them again when they fill out their profiles.  And new members get (or should be getting) a welcome message that links them to the Community Guidelines and other things new members should know.  So yes, many don't actually read the guidelines, and that is pretty common I believe.

But what Clark is getting at is that if certain posts should not be allowed, we need to agree on a rule(s) that address such posts.  Because right now, cute posts of puppy antics by breeders are still doodle owners posting about doodles...and short of links to their website or announcement about how many are left in the litter or even mentioning the fact they are selling some is not truly an advertisement (regardless about our assumptions of intent).  I want the rules to decide, not my opinion.  So that's what we're trying to address.  Do we need a new rule?  Do we need to change the wording of an existing rule?  Are we so overrun by certain types of posts that a NEW rule is necessary?

[F, Calla & Luca]

I don't think the breeders posting in the way you mentioned are a problem, really. There have been several lately but that's not the norm. I do think recommendations for commercial products that are clearly potentially harmful is more of a problem and not really appropriate for a blog IMHO. If the recommendation is confined to the particular group, e.g. food in the food group, than people with some expertise can support or refute the recommendation. That seems more appropriate.

I recently wrote about a grooming experience but I did not name the groomer. If local people wanted to know they could have asked. I think we sometimes talk about places and things to which we clearly have no connection and that's OK too. But some bloggers seem to be often hyping services or products and they may be compensated for the recommendation or be personally selling something and that is a problem. I think that sort of thing prompted Andy's discussion. Perhaps we need a rule like the politician's and broadcasters have, which requires disclosure of the politician's connection, or in broadcasting "our parent company has a stake in this" etc. But I doubt those rules are always followed either.

[Adina P]

I'm not worried that rules won't always be followed, because if there are the proper rules we can enforce them =)

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

I was just thinking about the disclore issue. Maybe there could be a question when new members join, that says "are you a breeder, or do you intend to breed your doodle?" and "do you represent a commercial entity," or "have you joined for the purposes of promoting a product, compnay or personal blog....? and if they click yes then direct them to the community guidelines that discourage use of this website to sell puppies, products, or as a way to advertise your personal blog... of course, some will lie, but we can't control everything.