House Rules: version 10/29/2015:

You agree to abide by these rules when you use the site:

  • Civility – ‘Is it kind/ helpful?’ Please support a civil and respectful environment and use the forum to share knowledge skills and interests. Please no
    - personal attacks, e.g. name calling, disparaging remarks

  • harassment, e.g. stalking, bullying, verbal abuse, active and passive intimidation

  • offensive language and content, e.g. profanities directed at others, excessive profanities, bickering

  • hate speech around e.g. race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, disability or other traits,

  • sexual content, e.g. sexually explicit content, avatars, pictures, innuendos.

  • Informational- ‘Is it true?’ Posts should be of informational nature. Please disclose any conflict of interest. Please no

  • promotional posts on behalf of products, services, restaurants,

  • spamming,

  • shilling, e.g. fake reviews.

  • Lawful Behavior – You do not violate copyright (e.g. materials beyond summary, quotes and links) or other laws.

  • Ingredient list of recipe is acceptable, complete quote of preparation method in recipes is not.

  • No Harm– You do not harm our technology infrastructure, e.g. spamming.

  • Excluded discussions– Please no discussions on the following topics: Policies, politics, racism, disability, religion, sexual orientation, discrimination.

Posts that do not abide by these policies may be removed and an official warning may be issued. We also reserve the right to issue warning and remove repeated posts in the grey area that create an unwelcoming environment for the community (e.g. persistent sarcasm, passive aggressiveness, etc.).

The above rules are also applicable to user messages.

If You See a Problem, Flag It

You are just as responsible for this forum as the moderators. When you see bad behavior, don’t reply. Just flag it. If enough flags accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by moderator intervention. Replying encourages the bad behavior by acknowledging it, consumes your energy, and wastes everyone’s time.

In order to maintain our community, the moderating team shares the responsibility to consistently enforce the forum rules. Minor infractions will result in post removal/ warning. Repeated offenses can result in suspension. Multiple suspensions lead to permanent ban. Major infractions will immediately result in suspension and ban. The moderators, however, reserve the right to remove any content and any user account for any reason at any time.

This is a Civilized Place for Public Discussion

Please treat this discussion forum with the same respect you would a community park. The park has minimal funding- leave it better than we found it. This is a place to share skills, knowledge and interests through ongoing conversation. Improve the discussion. Be respectful, even if you disagree. Criticize ideas, not people. Provide reasoned counter-arguments that improve the conversation.

Please do not urinate in your park:

  • Be civil. Don’t post anything that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or hate speech.
  • Keep it clean. Don’t post anything obscene or sexually explicit. This site is for age 13+. So please use language appropriate for PG13. No spamming.
  • Respect each other. Don’t harass or grief anyone, impersonate people, or expose their private information.

Please keep in mind that search engines index the discussions in this public forum.

Disclose Conflict of interest

When you write about a product, please disclose any conflict of interest, e.g. if you are related to the owners of a newly opened restaurant that you are writing about, please disclose it. If you are a professional baker, you are encouraged to offer your expertise in baking, but please don’t direct readers to your baking product or bakery. Advertisement of products and services should not be integrated into posts.

Keep It Tidy

Make the effort to put things in the right place, so that we can spend more time discussing and less cleaning up. So:

  • Don’t start a topic in the wrong category.
  • Don’t cross-post the same thing in multiple topics.
  • Don’t post no-content replies.
  • Don’t divert a topic by changing it midstream.
  • Don’t sign your posts — every post has your profile information attached to it.

Rather than posting “+1” or “Agreed”, use the Like button. Rather than taking an existing topic in a radically different direction, use Reply as a Linked Topic.

Post Only Your Own Stuff

You may not post anything digital that belongs to someone else without permission. You may not post descriptions of, links to, or methods for stealing someone’s intellectual property (software, video, audio, images), or for breaking any other law.

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This site is operated by your friendly local staff and you, the community. If you have any further questions about how things should work here, open a new topic in the site feedback category and let’s discuss! If there’s a critical or urgent issue that can’t be handled by a meta topic or flag, contact us via the staff page.

Terms of Service

Yes, legalese is boring, but we must protect ourselves – and by extension, you and your data – against unfriendly folks. We have a Terms of Service describing your (and our) behavior and rights related to content, privacy, and laws. To use this service, you must agree to abide by our TOS.