Blog Comment Guidelines


Comment Guidelines:
1) This is my little corner of the internet. While I would hope that we can all play nice (and 99.9% of people can), this is to protect all of us from the bullies and trolls that do roam the internet, and the rules I’m setting down are an attempt to do just that. I’m writing these rules in the hopes that I never need to enforce them, and to use them as a guide for a safe and supportive community for absolutely everyone.
2) This is a decidedly non-comprehensive list. So yes, if you act like a jerk, I can ban you for something that isn’t on this list.
3) That said, if you screw up once, please, don’t worry, I’m not going to drop a banhammer on you. Everyone makes mistakes, (including me)!  I’ll tell you why. If I delete or don't approve a post, I’ll make every effor to tell you why. If I do do something and you’re honestly not sure what you did, reach out by a civil PM on Ravelry, or e-mail or on Facebook, to talk to me. I’ll do my absolute best to explain.
4) I’m also not trying to censor conversations. Some of the most meaningful, emotional conversations on incredibly intense and mature topics can happen in an online forum. But I do want to protect members who might not have the lived experience to understand such things, and members who may not want to be exposed to certain content.  So I might reach out by e-mail rather then approving your comment.
5) I don’t have time, patience or spoons, for trolls or bullies. If you purposefully try and troll or bully within these comments, I will report you. Oh, and concern trolls count as trolls.
6) What happens if a comment doesn't appear within 2 business days?  It likely means that I just missed it while moderating.  Send me an e-mail and I'll let you know what happened.


Group Rules:
1) No direct personal attacks/harassment/hate speech.  No posting private communication without consent of the other parties.
2) No body shaming, mental health shaming, healthy/unhealthy eating debates, shaming of gender roles or anything else that isn’t covered in this little list. All bodies and minds are awesome and wonderful, and this space is going to reflect that.
3) No slurs/denigrating slang or phrases. This includes obvious insults, but also comments around mental/physical health, weight, body expectations, gender identity/expression, race, and religion, and anything else.
4) No Yarn Snobbery.  You may not agree with using a particular yarn or fiber, but do not attack someone for the crafting tools they use.
5) Civil disagreement about a topic is fine (the world would be boring if everyone agreed with everyone); attacking someone (for any reason) is not, and -will- get you reported.
6) Limited profanity. Think of this space as being mostly PG-13 rated.
7) Massive Comment Thread De-Railing.  While I don’t mind getting off-topic occasionally, and I don’t mind chatter, I do reserve the right to ask completely off topic conversations to be taken off of the blog comments to another online forum.
9) Spam. Posting something you want to show off/are proud of/want to share is all well and good. Flooding the comments with it isn’t. I reserve the right to determine what is and isn’t spam, but a few guidelines:
  • Has this been posted once in the comments before by you? Yes, then it is spam, unless someone specifically asked for the link or more information
  • Does this contribute to the thread where you’re posting it? If it’s completely irrelevant, then it’s spam.
10) Charity Requests. Fiber people are generally an awesome, generous bunch. That being said, we can get inundated in requests for charities. If you’ve got a request for charity stuff (either as knitted/crocheted/woven things, or as monetary donations), please only post it to the comments if it's relevant to the conversation.  
11) Self-promotion. Self-promotion is fine (goodness knows it’s hard to get your blog/website/business/etc out there!). But please, like charity requests, don't post them to the comments, unless your material is specifically relevant to the conversation (and then, please, post away!).