Birding Community Guidelines

Birding Community is an online community in which participants share their bird sightings and other resources. These guidelines are here to help you do your part in making the community a safe and enriching place. We expect each member to conduct themselves with integrity, decency, and respect, and your use of Birding Community is subject to these guidelines.

DOs

1. Share what you know. Birding Community is built on the collective knowledge of people like you. Chances are, someone needs your knowledge, opinions, or personal experiences, so share what you know!
2. Be courteous. Birding Community is a diverse community of people with diverse opinions. It is up to each of us to be polite and treat each other with respect.
3. Be a good citizen. If you see great content, give it a star or thumbs-up. If you see abuse, report it. Before you write anything, ask yourself if your contribution increases the strength and virtue of the community.You make a difference in shaping Birding Community.
4. Categorize correctly. Categorize your question in the appropriate category - you will receive better and more relevant answers.

DON'Ts

1. Use Birding Community as a soapbox to vent your frustrations, rant, or otherwise violate the question and answer format.
2. Exploit, solicit, or harm minors.
3. Post adult, vulgar, or obscene content or use sexually explicit language. Please see "Age restriction" below.
4. Solicit others for any purpose.
5. Incite or advocate violence or harm against a person, group of people, or animals.
6. Harass, threaten, insult, or behave belligerently towards others.
7. Post racist, incendiary, or otherwise objectionable content.
8. Post content that violates federal, state, or local law.
9. Post content for advertising or commercial purposes.
10. Post links to sites that force the download of a virus or malicious program, or in any way interfere with the operation of Birding Community.
11. Create multiple accounts for the purpose of violating community guidelines.
12. Post content for the purpose of gaining points, trading points, or soliciting others for points. Use product features outside of its intended purpose in order to manipulate the point system for yourself or others.
13. Use the report abuse function for any purpose other than reporting community guidelines.
14. Trade passwords, product decryption keys, or programs.
15. Impersonate a third party, or participate as anything or anybody other than yourself.
16. Falsely claim credentials or expertise that you do not possess.
17. Invade the privacy of a third party by posting their personally identifiable information.
    

Also keep in mind...

• Response to violations. Birding Community reserves the right to remove content that we determine to be inappropriate and/or in violation of the Community Guidelines. Depending on the level of offense, you may risk deactivation of your account and consequently everything associated with it, including groups, posts, photos and profiles. If you are unsure whether your content is appropriate or consistent with these policies, please err on the side of caution and do not post it in Birding Community.