PLEASE READ: Forum Rules

Jimerson
Jimerson Posts: 291 admin
edited November 2021 in Rules

The Grow Network Forum Use Policies

Thank you for being a part of the Grow Network Forum Community. We are so excited that you have decided to join us. The forums are an exciting place for us to grow together through communication.

We thrive on the ability to share our experiences with you and hope that you are just as excited to do the same. We want to be sure that this experience is a positive one for all parties involved and therefore, we have established some ground rules that we hope you will comply with. We don’t like to be bossy, but we do appreciate a positive and comfortable environment for all, so we thought it would be helpful to share our expectations with you.

Forum Rules

No Spam

All automated messages, advertisements, and links to competitor websites will be deleted immediately.

Post in Relevant Sub-Forums Only

Messages posted in the wrong topic area will be removed and placed in the correct sub-forum by moderators.

Be Descriptive

When posting on the forum, be sure to give as much detail as possible. Our community is very helpful, and we strive to help others, so do be sure you are giving a clear description of what it is you are looking for when posting to the forum. Remember that some members are brand new to these concepts being taught, so try to keep your posts at a level where everyone can understand.

Respect Others!

Respect other users and other humans. No flaming or abusing fellow forum members. Users who post inflammatory, abusive comments will be deleted from the forum after one warning issued by moderators. We have zero tolerance for abuse, including hateful speech related to a person's gender, sexual orientation, race, culture, politics, or religion.

Welcome New Community Members

We will see new people on the forum regularly. Please help us to make these new users feel welcome in our online community. We all know how it feels to be the new kid on the block, so let’s be sure we are providing a warm welcome to everyone!

Harassment Will Not Be Tolerated

No threats or harassment of other users will be tolerated. Any instance of threatening or harassing behavior is grounds for immediate deletion from the forums.

No Trolling

Trolling (posting to provoke others, luring them to flame or rant) will not be tolerated. We do understand that trolling can be done involuntarily, so please be considerate when posting. Do not engage or quote people who troll or flame.

Keep it Clean

No profanity or pornography is allowed. Posts containing adult material will be deleted. This is a family site and we do have younger readers. We want this to be a community where anyone can feel comfortable.

Keep it Legal

No re-posting of copyrighted materials or other illegal content is allowed. Any posts containing illegal content or copyrighted materials will be deleted.

No Selling or Advertising

Please do not advertise your products or services outside of the appropriate Buy Sell Trade areas of our forum.

Competitors

Please do not actively promote other websites that are similar to our site, especially similar forums. Though we love that there are others with similar missions, it can lead to confusion on the forums.

Outside Articles

If you find interesting, credible articles on other websites that relate to gardening, homesteading, or making home medicine, feel free to share them! However, please do not copy-and-paste the entire article into a post on the TGN Forum. This can create problems for the other site, and may also infringe on copyrights. Rather, feel free to copy-and-paste a brief, relevant excerpt from the article in your post, along with your own comments about the article and a link to the article on the original website. 

Personal Information

Forums are a great place to make friends and get to know one another. But, please do not publicly post your private information. Posts with phone numbers and/or mailing addresses will be deleted from the forum for your safety.

Religion and Politics

This is a judgment-free zone, and we happily support your right to hold personal religious and political beliefs. However, we strongly discourage forum posts on religious, political, and other strongly divisive topics, and reserve the right to close or delete them at our discretion.

Moderation and Content Obligation

We thrive to keep our forum area running as smoothly as we can. However, we also feel that there are some conversations that are better had privately. Please email [email protected] with any discussion pertaining to technical issues, personal concerns, feedback, or issues regarding moderation.

If a topic is closed or removed do not, under any circumstances, re-post the same topic or material. If you have any questions as to why a thread was closed or removed please contact [email protected].

If you do not agree with these terms, please let us know so that we may help you in discontinuing your membership. Use of the Service constitutes acceptance of these terms. If you wish to close your account, please email us at [email protected].

All content posted on our forum may be sent to third-party verification services (including, but not limited to, spam prevention services). Please do not post any content that you consider to be private or confidential.

We reserve the right to remove or modify any content submitted at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice.

We reserve the right to terminate your access to all or any part of the service at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice.

You are entirely responsible for the content of, and any harm resulting from, the content you post and your conduct.

These terms may be changed at any time without notice.

Update: This discussion has been closed to further commenting. Contact [email protected] directly if you have any further questions or need clarification about any of the forum policies. Thank you!

Comments

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Jimerson Thanks for the clarification as I am one of the newbies. Should I only upload small size photos to be safe?

  • Jimerson
    Jimerson Posts: 291 admin

    @shllnzl Great question! In short, yes. Smaller photos reduce overall bandwidth and are more friendly to mobile viewers or those with slower internet speeds.

  • Nikki
    Nikki Posts: 20 admin

    @rainbow Absolutely! Questions are always welcome. You may ask here on the forum or you may reach out to me directly at [email protected] with any questions. If there are personal concerns, those should always be directed to me rather than publicly posting.

  • Foodgardenguy
    Foodgardenguy Posts: 106 ✭✭✭

    Hi @rainbow,

    I used to own and manage a forum before. I've dealt with quite a few intense conflicts directly with members and between members. There will always be misunderstandings, misinterpretations and disagreements. This is unavoidable and should be expected so that you don't get surprised or shocked. The truth is that in this world you will always find someone who is out to cause trouble.

    The challenge is to learn to respond with grace and truth, peace and goodwill. In other words it is an opportunity for character building.

    You don't have to worry or be in anxiety about whether you are posting anything wrong as long as your aim is grace, truth, peace and goodwill, and I'm sure the staff at TGN cannot help but do likewise. If you're doing anything wrong, they'll let you know. And if you see me posting anything wrong, go to the staff at TGN. They'll deal with me. And if you want to do something that you're not sure off, just ask the staff at TGN.

    Just like we are counselled to bring our troubles and cares in our relationships with people and things to our heavenly Father to take care of, so likewise in this context, it is better to leave all these issues with the staff at The Grow Network.

    Having been a past forum manager, owner of a company and being a father, it is better for each member, employee and children to come to me if they have any issues, and not to fight it among themselves.

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    What do the points mean and how do we accumulate them?

  • Jimerson
    Jimerson Posts: 291 admin
    edited February 2023

    Great question!

    The point system is in place for a couple reasons:

    The first is simple.. some people like earning points and badges! For them it's another way to have fun on the forums! For people who don't care about points, they can safely ignore them.

    Badges and points can be earned in several ways, including posting and receiving positive reactions to your post. There are even some secret badges that can be earned! Soon, certification courses completed on academy.thegrownetwork.com will earn a badge for each course completed as well as 100 points.

    Another reason for points is that if a forum member consistency receives negative points, we are notified and can investigate. Perhaps they are a spam bot or just a negative or abusive person, in which cases might warrant further action from us. This is less effective than reporting forum abuses directly to [email protected] because people seem to nice to use the negative reaction button in our forms. It's a nice problem to have. : )

    To reiterate, unless someone is accumulating negative points, one can safely ignore the points and badges system if they wish. I hope that helps, have a great day!

  • Jimerson
    Jimerson Posts: 291 admin
    edited August 2019

    Update: This discussion has been closed to further commenting. Contact [email protected] directly if you have any additional questions or need clarification about any of the forum policies. Thank you!

    🦕

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,561 admin
    edited October 2023

    ***I want to add that if any member notices any comment or post that violates these rules, to contact any one or all of the moderators by PM so that we can deal with it in a proper & prompt manner. Please note that for a faster response, it is best to choose a mod in your general region.

    Moderators & appropriate admin would be:

    @LaurieLovesLearning (North America)

    @torey (North America)

    @judsoncarroll4 (North America)

    @Jens the Beekeeper (Europe)

    Thank you to those who help keep our forum an enjoyable place to spend time learning. 😄

This discussion has been closed.