'Where all Stitchers can showcase their work.'
Community Guidelines
We want to keep Stitcher's Showcase relevant and suitable for all Stitchers, regardless of age, beliefs etc. Because of this we are setting guidelines, in addition to the Terms of Service, that we expect all members to follow.
Our Goal
Our main goal is to provide a venue for all Stitchers to interact, share experiences and other information related to stitching, and to showcase their work and talents.
To achieve this we have a set of guidelines that we ask all members to adhere to. These guidelines apply to your personal page, your blog, the comments you make throughout Stitcher's Showcase, the discussions you start, the information you add to photos and videos, the private message you send to Friends. In fact, to all activity on Stitcher's Showcase.
To hopefully make it clear what you can and cannot do I will first deal with some general statements to do with activity on this website. I will then talk about more specific areas of our community.
This may sound like a lot of YOU CAN and DO NOT's, but this is for everyones benefit and I hope you do understand.
General Guidelines
This site is for stitching artists, beginner or experienced, casual or professional. It is not a general social network open to anyone. If you are not a stitching artist this is not the place for you.
This is not a venue for commercial promotion.
Sure, we know a lot of our members actively sell their work, and to some it is their living. We don't have a problem with some promotion on your page. We do have a problem with excessive promotion on your page and a big problem with spamming other members in content off your page about your products and services, and an even bigger problem with adding links, banners and other sorts of promotional material for your affiliate programs, stitching related or not.
There are plenty of other sites for this sort of activity.
Having said that, we reserve the right to decide what activity is excessive and what activity is blatant unacceptable commercial promotion.
The best approach all members should take is to never include promotional material in content they post off their page, and to limit it on their page. If you want to include something that you believe may not be acceptable please contact us and explain what it is you want to do. You may be surprised what we will allow.
If you are respectful and active on this site that will bring more attention and activity to your page that any amount of unsolicited promotion. It then comes down to how much work you put into your page.
If you have genuinely shown your talents, offered valuable information, and added a little product promotion, visitors to your page will want to know more about you and then continue to your external site or blog.
Respect for Others
Respect for others is the cornerstone of a great community, online and off. We hold respect for others as an essential part of this community.
This is your page. A page you can customize to reflect your personality. You can also customize it to reflect your commercial operations, maybe a logo etc., but keep it to a minimum. We want your page to be interesting and somewhere that members will want to go, as should you. We want you to have a connection with your page.
We really don't mind what you use. We prefer a photo of yourself as it identifies you more as a real person, but recognize that for some this is maybe too personal. But do keep in mind this site is about you and your work. However, keep it respectful and almost anything goes.
The main Photos area is only for showcasing your finished work. The main Videos area is also only for stitching related videos, such as tutorials etc.
A blog is a personal log, and as such can contain posts of almost any nature. However, this website is not a general social network. It is stitching related. We therefore ask that you keep your blog primarily stitching related.
All blog posts are shown on our home page for a period, until other blog posts replace it. Because of this we don't want the home page content to be a series of blog posts that have nothing to do with stitching, or are no more than advertising for products and services.
As already mentioned, Group and Forum discussions are not for commercial promotion. However, if a member asks you about something you have made or a service you provide then, of course, you should talk about it. You can also add a link to it if you wish.
If you sincerely believe that you have, or you know of someone that has, a product a member has been looking for, due to something the member has said, you can direct them to the product or service. You can also include a link to the product or service.
Private messaging is for just that - talking privately with another member. It is great if you want to pass on personal contact details that you don't want made public. What it is not for is unsolicited promotional activities - SPAM in other words.
Our Events Calendar is for posting stitching related events open to the general stitching community.
You must have legal rights to all material you add to this site. Our Terms of Service has more information on this and other subjects.
If a member reports an issue to us that concerns another members behavior or content, we will only proceed if we believe that there has been a breach of the guidelines. If the situation is unclear we may contact all members for further information.
I stress that we do not do this for any other reason than to keep Stitcher's Showcase a great place to be. Our inquiries or comments should never be taken personal in any way. We do not personally single out members for any reason.
If, after repeated efforts on our part, a member continues to ignore our guidelines and are uncooperative, as a last resort we will ban the member from Stitcher's Showcase.
Our Goal
Our main goal is to provide a venue for all Stitchers to interact, share experiences and other information related to stitching, and to showcase their work and talents.
To achieve this we have a set of guidelines that we ask all members to adhere to. These guidelines apply to your personal page, your blog, the comments you make throughout Stitcher's Showcase, the discussions you start, the information you add to photos and videos, the private message you send to Friends. In fact, to all activity on Stitcher's Showcase.
To hopefully make it clear what you can and cannot do I will first deal with some general statements to do with activity on this website. I will then talk about more specific areas of our community.
This may sound like a lot of YOU CAN and DO NOT's, but this is for everyones benefit and I hope you do understand.
General Guidelines
This site is for stitching artists, beginner or experienced, casual or professional. It is not a general social network open to anyone. If you are not a stitching artist this is not the place for you.
- YOU SHOULD clearly indicate in your profile that you are in fact involved in stitching in some way.
This is not a venue for commercial promotion.
Sure, we know a lot of our members actively sell their work, and to some it is their living. We don't have a problem with some promotion on your page. We do have a problem with excessive promotion on your page and a big problem with spamming other members in content off your page about your products and services, and an even bigger problem with adding links, banners and other sorts of promotional material for your affiliate programs, stitching related or not.
There are plenty of other sites for this sort of activity.
Having said that, we reserve the right to decide what activity is excessive and what activity is blatant unacceptable commercial promotion.
The best approach all members should take is to never include promotional material in content they post off their page, and to limit it on their page. If you want to include something that you believe may not be acceptable please contact us and explain what it is you want to do. You may be surprised what we will allow.
If you are respectful and active on this site that will bring more attention and activity to your page that any amount of unsolicited promotion. It then comes down to how much work you put into your page.
If you have genuinely shown your talents, offered valuable information, and added a little product promotion, visitors to your page will want to know more about you and then continue to your external site or blog.
Respect for Others
Respect for others is the cornerstone of a great community, online and off. We hold respect for others as an essential part of this community.
- YOU SHOULD respect everyone's right to an opinion, and to express that opinion in a respectful way. By that we mean, have your say, but don't include in that any comments, words or imagery that will offend and is intended to offend. If you are incapable of expressing your opinion in a respectful manner then don't.
- DO NOT upload any photos, videos or music, or make comments that will offend other members. Remember, others can view what you say and post.
- DO NOT upload any photos, videos or music, or post any other material that is promoting or inciting any unlawful act. We will remove all such material and ban members that continue to post such material.
- DO NOT upload any photos, videos or music, or post any other material that is promoting violence, to others or to oneself in any way. Again, we will remove all such material and ban members that continue to post such material.
This is your page. A page you can customize to reflect your personality. You can also customize it to reflect your commercial operations, maybe a logo etc., but keep it to a minimum. We want your page to be interesting and somewhere that members will want to go, as should you. We want you to have a connection with your page.
- YOU CAN use the website link provided on your page to link to your own website or blog, or if you don't have one to a non-profit charitable organization.
- YOU CAN include one (1) Etsy Mini widget on your page. Contact us if you have a similar widget you would like to use. We will decide if it is acceptable.
- YOU CAN use the RSS feed for your own personal external blog only, but only if it is NOT predominantly for advertising your products or services.
- YOU CAN add personal photos and other information to your page, as long as your page is still primarily stitching related.
- DO NOT use your website link to link to any website or blog that is not yours personally, except for a charitable organization.
- DO NOT add any banners, links, photos, comments or anything whatsoever that advertises anything that is not a product you personally have created, and not stitching related.
- DO NOT include an RSS feed for any thing of any advertising nature for anything other than your own external blog.
- DO NOT post any personal information that you are uncomfortable with.
We really don't mind what you use. We prefer a photo of yourself as it identifies you more as a real person, but recognize that for some this is maybe too personal. But do keep in mind this site is about you and your work. However, keep it respectful and almost anything goes.
- YOU CAN use a photo of yourself, our preference, or your pet, work etc.
- DO NOT use any disrespectful or inappropriate image for your profile photo.
- DO NOT use your profile photo to promote sales etc.
The main Photos area is only for showcasing your finished work. The main Videos area is also only for stitching related videos, such as tutorials etc.
- YOU CAN upload photos of your personal work only. See notes on The Law below and our Terms of Service for further legal information.
- YOU CAN upload stitching related videos of your own, or link to external stitching videos as long as it adheres to all legal requirements.
- YOU CAN in descriptions talk about the work in the photo or video.
- DO NOT upload any other types of photos or videos to these areas, including photos of your work area or incomplete work.
- DO NOT include in titles, descriptions, tags or any other properties any promotional content.
A blog is a personal log, and as such can contain posts of almost any nature. However, this website is not a general social network. It is stitching related. We therefore ask that you keep your blog primarily stitching related.
All blog posts are shown on our home page for a period, until other blog posts replace it. Because of this we don't want the home page content to be a series of blog posts that have nothing to do with stitching, or are no more than advertising for products and services.
- YOU SHOULD post regularly about any non-promotional stitching related topic. Show how you do things, show us your work area etc.
- YOU CAN post less regularly about more personal matters or off-topic matters.
- DO NOT make posts that are simply promotions of your products or services, or anyone else's.
As already mentioned, Group and Forum discussions are not for commercial promotion. However, if a member asks you about something you have made or a service you provide then, of course, you should talk about it. You can also add a link to it if you wish.
If you sincerely believe that you have, or you know of someone that has, a product a member has been looking for, due to something the member has said, you can direct them to the product or service. You can also include a link to the product or service.
- YOU CAN include links and content if it is in response to a members inquiry and you sincerely believe you are helping that member.
- YOU SHOULD limit links embedded in posts to a minimum. Links become outdated and can render the information useless. Broken links are detrimental to our sites value and hence to the value of the content you post.
- DO NOT discuss your products and services, suppliers or any other promotional subject where the purpose is purely promotional in nature.
- DO NOT include links to your page. Your post already has a link to your page.
- DO NOT include links to any of your external products or services, or any other products or services, unless another member requests it.
- DO NOT include links to any of your affiliate sites, ever.
Private messaging is for just that - talking privately with another member. It is great if you want to pass on personal contact details that you don't want made public. What it is not for is unsolicited promotional activities - SPAM in other words.
- DO NOT use the messaging system to send anyone unsolicited promotional content.
Our Events Calendar is for posting stitching related events open to the general stitching community.
- DO NOT post events you have not been given express authority, by the event holder, to post.
- DO NOT post events on the Events Calendar that are not true community events. The Events Calendar is not your private reminder system, so don't post dinner with your parents next Sunday...unless we are all invited.
You must have legal rights to all material you add to this site. Our Terms of Service has more information on this and other subjects.
- DO NOT post anything that you do not have the legal rights to post.
If a member reports an issue to us that concerns another members behavior or content, we will only proceed if we believe that there has been a breach of the guidelines. If the situation is unclear we may contact all members for further information.
I stress that we do not do this for any other reason than to keep Stitcher's Showcase a great place to be. Our inquiries or comments should never be taken personal in any way. We do not personally single out members for any reason.
If, after repeated efforts on our part, a member continues to ignore our guidelines and are uncooperative, as a last resort we will ban the member from Stitcher's Showcase.
Last updated by Jeff Feb. 6, 2009.
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