We have enough people here to make rules fair for everybody and it's time for a new start for every member.

I copied these from another forum, it's simple and to the point. I want your opinions and suggestions. OH and MOD volunteers but we'll get to that later.

1. No personal attacks or Flaming.
2. No politics or religion. Everything is political these days but Please refrain from starting or replying to posts that are controversial. IF it affects you personally and you feel the need to share Please be sensitive to everyone else. You always have the option of discussing it in PM's.
3. No racism or sexism. Also applies to PM's and remember this isn't a dating site.
4. Do not post Members personal details including but not limited to phone numbers, address, email, social media or websites without prior and explicit permission.
5. Do not mention, post or discuss confidential conversations with other members.
6. No obscene pics. Jokes can get dirty so use good judgement. Kids may be learning from us so keep it clean.
7. No derailing of threads especially with negative comments.
8. Do not respond if it upsets you, just scroll on. Don't ruin everyone's day because you're having a bad one.
9. Threats will result in an immediate permaban.
10. Do not cross post, post in the appropriate topic and wait for an answer. Someone will respond.

These rules are based on common sense and will be lightly enforced. We are all adults, respect everyone even if you disagree.

If a moderator or admin finds you have crossed the line, you'll get a warning or banned.
The result is at the discretion of the moderating team. It can be from one month of not allowed to post or permanent, you decide when you click that mouse.


Speaking of Moderators!!! I want 3-5 to monitor the site. You can be anonymous if you wish. I don't think we need someone to babysit full time, it's more of "if you're online and see something that needs to get deleted type thing. Spam, negative post, inappropriate post or pics, use your judgement to keep the site family friendly. I'll give you ban permissions but If you don't want to be the bad guy, no worries. I'll do all the banning.

I know many of you are online a few times a day so it's easy and you don't have to make it a job. We need a few people that can delete threads that cause problems before it gets out of hand. It's good for the community!

PM me if anyone is interested.


OK, let's here some feedback!!!

#4 seems kind of vague...by personal details are you meaning phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses...?

#8 is especially important, as I think a lot of conflict resolves itself after a cooling off period, as once it has been posted it hangs around until it is deleted.

These rules make sense to me. They are all basically common sense and no one should have issue with them!

I agree All it takes is a little common sense!

I think the set of rules is very adequate. Remember: We're here for Tomatoes!!

Possible typo in #6. "leaning from us" should be "learning from us"?

Other than that, the list seems sufficient. Thanks, Rajun, for this and all else!

Rajun, where should sales and bargains be posted?
In the meantime SeedsNow has free shipping no minimum purchase thru this weekend. Code is on homepage.

I think only you the administrator should have the ability to ban someone.
Unless I read that wrong.
It is early in the morning.

One way to stop some controversy is to ask questions not make accusations.
And or call people names.
In this way you open up a dialog and not perpetuate an argument.
Sometimes a simple I'm sorry or I didn't realize is good enough for most people.

pondgardener wrote: ↑Wed Dec 11, 2019 10:44 pm #4 seems kind of vague...by personal details are you meaning phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses...?

#8 is especially important, as I think a lot of conflict resolves itself after a cooling off period, as once it has been posted it hangs around until it is deleted.

Thanks for pointing that out, we all read things different and I read that as personal problems, health issues and family problems. We need to rewrite that to include contact info too.

This is a hard one because I know most people here are friends and we get worried if someone has't posted in a while only to find out they've been in the hospital or something.

What say Ya'll?

PhilaGardener wrote: ↑Thu Dec 12, 2019 5:19 am Possible typo in #6. "leaning from us" should be "learning from us"?

Other than that, the list seems sufficient. Thanks, Rajun, for this and all else!

Good Catch! It's ironic learning would be spelled wrong.

greenthumbomaha wrote: ↑Thu Dec 12, 2019 5:36 am Rajun, where should sales and bargains be posted?
In the meantime SeedsNow has free shipping no minimum purchase thru this weekend. Code is on homepage.

Where does everyone want it posted? How about I make a new topic in the Seed section so it doesn't get lost in the post section?

I agree on defining personal details. If it means addresses, emails, phone numbers and urls, that should be made clear. As far as one's own health issues, that ought to be allowed. We've had discussions about how to garden when in a wheelchair, going blind, gardening when one is in pain, etc, in an enlightening way. Telling about others' issues without their expressed permission is a different thing altogether.

For the most part it's common sense. If you think it approaches the line then you probably shouldn't post it.

I edited #4 and added #10. Take a look Please.

That's nice & clear.

Fair rules. Well done!

There was a rule on the old site disallowing the exchange of money for seeds. Idk if that is necessary here, up to you.

Regarding bans, do they work? By that I mean, can the banned user just re register? From what I understand, static IP addresses are a thing of the past.

Also, the USDA just passed some ridiculous rules about the importation of seeds. If this site facilitates any international swapping, then we should disclaim all the legal risks involved. The official policy should be something like, "those seeds are just for research purposes, to store until the rules change."

I interrupt our regular scheduled programming to announce we now have over 100 members.

Cole_Robbie wrote: ↑Thu Dec 12, 2019 11:25 am There was a rule on the old site disallowing the exchange of money for seeds. Idk if that is necessary here, up to you.

Do you think we need a vendor section and allow them to post sales/seeds/offers/new varieties? Fred comes to mind.

Cole_Robbie wrote: ↑Thu Dec 12, 2019 11:25 am Regarding bans, do they work? By that I mean, can the banned user just re register? From what I understand, static IP addresses are a thing of the past.

The site records IP's of banned users but you can still get around that if you wanted to. We'll just have to monitor new users the best we can.

Cole_Robbie wrote: ↑Thu Dec 12, 2019 11:25 am Also, the USDA just passed some ridiculous rules about the importation of seeds. If this site facilitates any international swapping, then we should disclaim all the legal risks involved. The official policy should be something like, "those seeds are just for research purposes, to store until the rules change."

Do you have time to write the statement about that? It would help and you know more about it than I do.

Common sense. I'm in.