Goa Gardeners Community Guidelines

Updated December 15^th 2011

Welcome to the neighbourhood!

The Goa Gardeners would like to welcome you to our forum! Goa Gardeners hail from different parts of Goa, and have different interests, but we all share a common love for organic gardening. We want Goa Gardeners to be a fun and friendly place for everyone and want our users to be kind and respectful to each other.

Do you need to tell somebody about a problem?

Please send the Moderators an email about any problem with posts, your membership etc…

· Arati Das: arati05@gmail.com

· Miguel Braganza: braganza.miguel@gmail.com

· Yogita Mehra: yogitamehra@gmail.com

Do you have questions or concerns about these guidelines?

We welcome your posts on Goa Gardeners.

Items marked with rule are firm policies. By using Goa Gardeners, you agree to follow these rules and guidelines. Moderators, and members of Goa Gardeners will enforce these rules. Goa Gardeners is at its best when people are civil and respectful toward one another and these rules are meant to help our community grow and stay healthy. Repeated or egregious violations of Goa Gardeners rules will lead to being blocked from the forum, having messaging privileges revoked, or being banned from Goa Gardeners.

All the rules are also applicable to the Moderators and Moderators are to strictly follow and enforce the above guidelines in the interest of keeping discussions meaningful and relevant for the group.

How to post a message to the group…
You can post a message to the group by either using your email account or by logging into Google Groups and choosing to start a “New Post” or replying to a relevant one.
When using your email account:

· To send a message to the whole group, mail goagardeners@googlegroups.com

· To send a message to any one or few persons, paste/type their personal email addresses into the “TO:” or “CC:” fields

Be respectful

Respect people's personal space. If you have negative comments about someone's personal projects, gardening techniques etc., keep them to yourself.

· rule Personal attacks, harassment, and personal threats are not allowed on Goa Gardeners. Attacking or harassing any person through the posting of links to other websites are also not permitted.

· rule Hate speech and hateful imagery is not permitted on Goa Gardeners.

· rule Respect the privacy of others. Do not post the contents of private messages or personal information about other Goa Gardeners members that cannot be found on their profiles without permission. You may not link to off-site privacy violations.

Be constructive with your feedback

Many members are beginners and are here to learn and enjoy organic gardening. They are your neighbours too - treat them with respect.

· rule Libellous comments are not permitted. Back up your claims with facts.

· rule There is no place for vendettas on Goa Gardeners. If we suspect that your goal is to cause harm to a fellow Gardener that you disagree with, your posts will be deleted and your posting privileges may be affected.

· There will be Goa Gardeners with opinions that oppose yours. Do not use groups as a way to harass individuals. See the rules about personal attacks and harassment above.

· rule All moderators are required to uphold these guidelines to the best of their abilities.

Goa Gardeners is for all ages

Refrain from adult language on the forum.

· rule No adult language in avatars or usernames.

· rule Nudity in avatars or other photos is not permitted.

Don’t spam

There is sharing and then there is spamming. Think about the place, context, and time when you post something that is self-promotional, irrelevant.

· rule Posting the same message to more than 2 boards without permission from the group owner/moderators is not permitted. Unreasonable cross-posting is considered spam!

· rule Unsolicited promotional private messages are considered spam. You will be warned if we receive complaints about spammy private messages.

A place for exchange…

Goa Gardeners is a place to exchange information, knowledge, ideas seeds, saplings and produce.

· Feel free to do any/all of the above but please keep personal/private exchange personal and private – Please stop and ask yourself, “Is this information relevant/important to EVERYONE in this group?” If the answer is “NO” – then please send a private mail to the person(s) concerned.

· While it is OK to announce sale/trade/exchange of seeds/saplings/farm produce, it is NOT OK to make this a space for commerce.

Other things…
‘A place for everything, and everything ONLY in its place’. Please do talk about coconuts when the discussion is about mangoes – it makes it difficult to go back and search for information later as well as affects the continuity of the discussion at hand.

· When you are starting a new topic, think (at least thrice) about the subject line. That’s how people will find it later, and searchability is very important for your message being useful.

· When you reply to a post, check the topic (at least twice) to see if it’s relevant to what YOU'RE saying. Else start a new topic.

· If you are replying also check whether what you are saying is relevant to the whole group or just the author. When in doubt, reply only to the author.

And please remember, we are all trying to learn and promote organic gardening, so keep suggestions about using chemicals out!

Thanks! Happy gardening & posting!

Capsicum seedlings

Arati Fernandes