The StartupNation Community Forum went live on April 6, 2006. It has grown to be an extraordinarily valuable resource for the entrepreneurial community. We have made & will continue to make enhancements to increase that value, but we have not updated the forum posting & private messaging guidelines until now. Great thanks to all of you in the community who have contributed posts and helped to suggest & establish updated guidelines. Here they are:

Hey everybody!

Let's make certain that we're all on the same page regarding the purpose of the forum postings and how they can be as valuable as possible to everyone. The official guidelines are posted below so I'll just summarize a bit.

The StartupNation forums & Private Messaging are a place for people to gain value, learn from and mentor others in a positive and encouraging and inspiring manner. 

We’re helping people take control of their lives by building the business of their dreams.  The StartupNation community should be a safe environment for people to connect with like-minded aspirational or existing entrepreneurs.

Blatant advertising & self-promotion without any attempt to offer value in the context of answering another community member's question is not cool on this forum or in private messages.

Advertising absolutely has its place. Please post such listings in the StartupNation Marketplace.

In the meantime, feel free to promote yourself & your business in your personal profile and in the valuable comments that you provide to current topics. That's really the best way to get the community interested in what you have to offer - if they're impressed with your contribution to the community conversation, they'll be more inclined to click on over to your profile & check you out.

You all can help monitor the quality of the posts. There are 2 ways that you can express your opinion on the value of posts.

• Make a public comment (make it a positive critique that ADDS value to the conversation)
• Click on the Report Abuse link available on every topic & comment (confidential)
  
  

If a post is simply advertising, I’ll delete it.

UPDATE:  Article Posting is not appropriate in the Forum

Articles and blogs are wonderful and valuable. They just don’t belong in a forum. We will be introducing the ability to post your own blog here at StartupNation in the near future. That will be the perfect spot for you to contribute in an article format.

Summarizing or referring to an article that exists elsewhere on the internet for the purpose of stimulating conversation & reaction is absolutely cool. By all means use your creativity to bring value to the community in this fashion, and feel free to provide a link to the full article.

Visit this page for a fuller discussion of this philosophy.

Ok – it’s time to get to the official guidelines …

StartupNation Community Guidelines

StartupNation strives to provide a community experience that will allow members to gain value, learn from and mentor others in a positive and encouraging and inspiring manner.  StartupNation provides an active, resource-rich community that will help people take control of their lives by building the business of their dreams.  The StartupNation community will provide a safe environment for people to connect with like-minded aspirational or existing entrepreneurs.

So that everyone can get the most benefit from StartupNation, please heed the following guidelines when participating on the StartupNation site:

• Do contribute interesting posts that stimulate dialogue.
• Do introduce yourself in a brief manner in the New Member Welcome forum.
• Do respond to posts in an encouraging and positive manner.
• Do be honest in offering a differing opinion or perspective, but use your intelligence to do so in a manner that brings value.
• Do be helpful and considerate of other members.  We’re all in this together, and can help each other grow and succeed.
• Don’t harass, threaten or abuse others. 
• Don’t post content that is obscene, otherwise objectionable, harmful to minors, or that violates federal or state laws.
• Don’t spam StartupNation members.  It will ruin your reputation, which is the most important asset you have when you’re starting and running a business.
• Don’t use the StartupNation community for advertising purposes.
  
• Don't post articles or blogs in the forum.
  
• Don’t infringe the intellectual property rights or privacy rights of others, including posting copyrighted materials without permission.  Intellectual property is the great equalizer for small businesses, so let’s do everything we can to support that.
• Don't double-post or cross-post, either within the StartupNation community or across forums/blogs elsewhere on the internet.
• Please take care to post your new topic in the proper forum category.
  
  

Despite these guidelines and the good intentions of most, StartupNation reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to remove content immediately and without notice if StartupNation believes it is in violation of the guidelines above or our Terms of Use  in practice or intended to violate them.  A member may be removed from the community and banned from future involvement at StartupNation's discretion. If you are aware of someone violating these guidelines, please let us know by clicking on the Report Abuse link available on every topic & comment (confidential).