These rules are disclosed to clarify the various responsibilities of all community members here on Friends Of Brunswick County.. They shall be adhered to by everyone to ensure that our board runs smoothly and provides a fun and productive experience for all of our community members and visitors.

1. No Drama or Personal Attacks

   1. This is to be a happy place to share and celebrate Brunswick County, North Carolina. There will be absolutely no gossip, drama or personal attacks allowed! If you can't be a nice person, go to facebook. #

2. Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree

   1. You may wish to respond to something by disagreeing with it. That’s fine. But, remember to criticize ideas, not people. Please avoid:
      
      Name-calling.
      Ad hominem attacks (explained here: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ad%20hominem).
      Responding to a post’s tone instead of its actual content.
      Knee-jerk contradiction.
      
      Instead, help improve the conversation. #

3. If You See a Problem, Report It

   1. Moderators have special authority; they are responsible for this forum. But so are you. With your help, moderators can be community facilitators, not just janitors or police.
      
      When you see bad behavior, don’t reply. It encourages the bad behavior by acknowledging it, consumes your energy, and wastes everyone’s time. Just flag it. If enough flags accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by moderator intervention.
      
      In order to maintain our community, moderators reserve the right to remove any content and any user account for any reason at any time. Moderators do not preview new posts in any way; the moderators and site operators take no responsibility for any content posted by the community. #

4. Always Be Civil

   1. Nothing sabotages a healthy conversation like rudeness:
      
      Be civil. Don’t post anything that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or hate speech.
      Keep it clean. Don’t post anything obscene or sexually explicit.
      Respect each other. Don’t harass or grief anyone, impersonate people, or expose their private information.
      Respect our forum. Don’t post spam or otherwise vandalize the forum.
      
      These are not concrete terms with precise definitions — avoid even the appearance of any of these things. If you’re unsure, ask yourself how you would feel if your post was featured on the front page of the New York Times.
      
      This is a public forum, and search engines index these discussions. Keep the language, links, and images safe. #

5. Keep It Tidy

   1. Make the effort to put things in the right place, so that we can spend more time discussing and less cleaning up. So:
      
      Don’t start a topic in the wrong category.
      Don’t cross-post the same thing in multiple topics.
      Don’t post no-content replies.
      Don’t divert a topic by changing it midstream.
      Don’t sign your posts — every post has your profile information attached to it.
      
      Rather than posting “+1” or “Agreed”, use the Like button. Rather than taking an existing topic in a radically different direction, use Reply as a Linked Topic. #

6. Post Only Your Own Stuff

   1. You may not post anything digital that belongs to someone else without permission. You may not post descriptions of, links to, or methods for stealing someone’s intellectual property (software, video, audio, images), or for breaking any other law. #

7. Powered by You

   1. This site is operated by your friendly local staff and you, the community. If you have any further questions about how things should work here, open a new topic in the site feedback category and let’s discuss! If there’s a critical or urgent issue that can’t be handled by a meta topic or flag, contact us via the staff page. #