Community Guidelines at WWWomen!
Welcome to WWWomen's Community. Here are some common rules and guidelines for the safe and productive use of our
Community Message Boards and Chat Rooms.
Please read these all the way through. You can then be a more informed community participant.
By participating in WWWomen's message boards or chats, you are agreeing to abide by our Community Rules and
Guidelines.
For you, WWWomen works VERY hard to provide:
- Safe and Accessible Community Space
We do everything humnaly possible to ensure that our messsage boards and chat rooms are safe and accessible
places. We train our Moderators to be friendly, helpful, and unobtrusive as possible. We do NOT require
passwords (that's the accessible part, we like to keep it simple and easy), so remember that filtering out
wandering hormonely-challenged boys can be more of a challenge for all of us.
- Respect and Affection
WWWomen provides a unique community feeling online for women and it's perfectly okay to be yourself, whether
that be happy, sad, harried, frustrated -- as long as you always act with respect for other WWWomen
Community participants! There is a variety of ways you can provide us feedback and we will listen to your
suggestions and complaints, and try to incorporate your ideas in everything we do.
- Republishing Quotes
In many ways, we feel WWWomen's Community is a well-kept secret. We are not one of the "big" portals, but
we stay very close to our users. We love some of the insight and wisdom women share with each other in our
Community areas. We may take particularly wonderful and touching quotes and republish on our website, our
newsletter and other publications we own in order to share a piece of the wonderfulness that is our
Community. We will obviously do everything we can to be sensitive in this matter and will not re-publish anything
that could be deemed personally endangering, inflammatory, or embarrassing without your prior consent.
- Help and Support
If you come across any violations of these rules and guidelines or have any problems navigating the site, do
not hesitate to let us know. We will be happy to address
your concerns.
What we expect from the participants of the WWWomen Community area:
- Feel Free to "Lurk" and Listen
We encourage that when you first join and check out a new message board that you first "lurk" and listen and
then actively participate. Communities are quite a bit like a public party and it makes good sense to get a
feel for the crowd and check out who seems interesting and what is being talked about (and where the goodies are!)
before leaping in.
- Don't Be Afraid to Post
Once you've lurked for a little bit, then don't be afraid to post. Posting for the first time can seem intimidating
but you will find the community VERY supportive and happy to welcome new users. Of course, every party will have
its stronger personalities and the regulars sometimes seem to almost appear like a clique to new users, but we
assure you, new users are VERY welcomed and encouraged to join the group. You will find the "regulars" to be a
wealth of information and support - so reach out!
- Agree to Disagree - Respectively!
Our community is very vibrant and has an infinite diversity of personalities, styles, and opinions. And, much
like the real world (okay...its ALL real!), people are at different stages of sophistication in their ability to
effectively communicate, respectfully debate, and explore feelings and strong emotions in a group setting. If you
feel compelled to challenge someone's post, PLEASE think about what you are writing and pause just a second or two
before posting it. Perhaps wait an hour if you feel heated or angry. Everyone is entitled to their opinion,
regardless of how it may make you feel BUT people are also entitled to not be attacked, insulted, called names,
or other symptoms of "flaming". All communication should come from a place of understanding, tolerance, and
respect. Our moderators will give some leeway for the group to work out problems themselves and then we will
step in and remove any and all posts that are contributing to the problem. Agree to disagree respectively.
- Do Not Attack Each Other
We will say this again, because people often forget it in the heat of the moment (and particularly if they feel
they are being attacked). Don't attack others. Period. Personal attacks on others will just not be
tolerated.
Harassing, offensive, vulgar, abusive, hateful or bashing communications -- especially those aimed at sexual
orientation, gender, race, color, religious views, national origin, or disability -- will not be permitted. BEFORE you
post a message (or say something during a live chat) that is intended to embarrass, humiliate or harass another person
or group of people, stop and THINK first! Harassing communications are considered to be those that may cause distress,
embarrassment, unwanted attention or other discomfort.
- IGNORE Trollers and Problem People
Okay, here is a lesson we have learned to be absolutely true over the years and if you haven't learned it yet,
trust us - we know what we speak of: trouble-makers are looking for attention and really the most effective way to
have a troublemaker go away is to COMPLETELY and UTTERLY ignore them on all levels. Do not comment on their post,
do not reply to them publicly or privately - act as if they do not exist. Because they thrive on attention, they
persist for a short period of time then get bored and move on to the next community who may give them the negative
attention they crave.
Trollers are short-term visitors who go from website to website looking for message boards and chat room where they
purposely say something controversial or contrary, just to watch people get riled up and angry. Again, your best
defense is to ignore them on all levels.
You can contact our Moderators to remove particularly offending posts. While we may not always agree a post should
be removed, we will examine EVERY complaint and remove any and all posts they we decide are not in the best
interests of the community.
- Keep Personal Information Personal
We are women and need to be particularly sensitive to keeping ourselves safe online. Don't post your address or
phone number in a public message board or live chat. Handle that sort of thing in private email. Likewise, we
will remove any post(s) where a person or people are being asked to submit personal information. This includes
but is not limited to, communications that ask for personal information submitted via email, mail, telephone,
surveys, and research studies. There are just too many creepy people online and we want our community members
to be in a safe environment.
Also, keep in mind that this has a group community approach. Over-use of our community area by individuals to
have personal and private conversations where those conversations are more appropriate in private email, may see their
posts deleted. This is for consistent and persistent personal conversation that persistently excludes all but
themselves. We have seen couples do this once in awhile in the past and it makes other community members feel like
voyeurs. If it belongs in private email, take it there.
- Keep Your Posts Clean
There may be places where explicit, obscene or vulgar language, graphics or behavior is appropriate: WWWomen is not
one of them. Message board posts that contain explicit, obscene or vulgar language will be removed. Similarly, message
board posts that solicit or offer explicit or X-rated GIFs, JPEGs or other graphic files or links will be deleted
without notice!
- Avoid Duplicate Posts
Duplicate posts across different message boards is frustrating for readers who have limited time and lots of
messages to go through. Where our Moderators see these types of posts, we will delete them.
Also, posts that better belong in another message board will either be moved there or just removed entirely.
- Do Not Post Commercial or Promotional Items
Our Community Areas are free and very accessible. That does not mean we are providing a space for people to use
our Community as a free classified ads section. Posts in message boards or chat containing commercial or
product/service/website promotional messages -- included but not limited to promotional references to internet sites, URLs, or
links to other commercial web sites -- will be removed. Persistent commercial posts breaking this rule, will have their IP
blocked from our site entirely and will be invoiced as any advertiser would be. The fee will be a flat $100.
- Do Not Post Others' Copyrighted Information
Information copyrighted or owned by any individual or entity other than the member should not be posted on the message
boards or chat without the consent of the owner. If such an event occurs, the individual posting the information shall
be held solely responsible. WWWomen, Inc. shall not be held responsible for member-posted information that may violate
copyright law.
- WWWomen Moderators Will Moderate
We do not need a reason to delete any post. If you are worried about your constitutional right to say anything, you
left your rights at the door. Obviously, we work very hard to create a vibrant and enjoyable community, but we just
need to let you know, this is our "party" and ultimately our Moderators can and will remove any and all posts they
deem to be inappropriate or not in the overall interest of the community or service we provide.
To Report a Problem
If you come across any of the above listed violations or have any problems navigating the site, do not hesitate to
let us know. We'll be happy to address your concerns.
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