Sample Online Community Guidelines

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Sample Online Interaction Guidelines,
Rules and Policies

Last edited: 8/2003
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The most important expression of these rules is the behavior and role modeling of the hosts. Many people never take the time to read the rules, but they read their manifestation every day in group behavior. Bottom line: live by your stated rules and guidelines! (small side note: note the legal language for commercial sites)

SchwabLearning.org's member agreements.
Social Edge online community guidelines.
WebMD's "A Moderator's Guide to Netiquette".
Disney's "House Rules".
WorldsAway Guidelines for Community-Oriented Behavior. (Reprinted with permission from Fujitsu on Bruce Dammer's site)
http://www.fullcirc.com/community/emindror.htm - The Electric Minds community rules developed by the community's original founder, Howard Rheingold. Central to the rules are two tenets: "You Own Your Own Words" and "Assume Good Intent."

LambdaMOO Takes A New Direction, by the Wizards of LambdaMOO

How Did the Moderation System Develop? from the slashdot FAQ. (found via Clay Shirkey at Shirkey.com)

Our Replies to Our Critics from the Wikipedia FAQ(found via Clay Shirkey at Shirkey.com)

Radio Free Monterey FAQ from Barbara Steinberg

http://www.naima.com/community/policies.html - a collection of user agreements from Amy Jo Kim

http://www.awakentech.com/AT/Awaken1.NSF/8796ff01afed38b788256487007339f2/eac0748b7e29764d8825649c007414ec!OpenDocument - Awaken.com's community covenant.

http://women2women.com/cgibin/WebX.cgi?98@@rules.html - Women2women's user agreement.

EdNA Policies - Going far beyond interaction agreements, this is a very thorough and well thought out set of policies and procedures for an Australian education organization.

http://www.emoderators.com/moderators/DEOSad.html - An example of a policy on advertising in an email listserv.

http://www.emoderators.com/moderators/ipctpol.html - A listserv set of guidelines. Note the section on copyright.

http://www.albany.edu/cpr/gf/group_facilitation_FAQs.html - From the Group Facilitation listserv. Click on "what are the ground rules for this discussion."

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?StoneSociety and http://home.san.rr.com/merel/ss.html - Sites describing an online "society" game that can serve as a set of rules. More abstract reading for those very interested in alternative approaches to online interactions.

http://www.smithweaversmith.com/rules.htm - SmithWeaverSmith's (a consulting oganization) online interaction rules of the road.

http://www.well.com/member_agreement.html - The Well's member agreement.

http://club.golfweb.com/reg/agreement.html - GolfWeb's member agreement.

http://tabletalk.salon.com/webx?13@@.ee6e411 - Salon.com's community standards.

http://www.shpm.com/ppc/distance/ - The DistanceLearning List guidelines.

Some Related Articles:

Online Communities and The Law by Jim Cashel

Membership Agreements by Ivan Hoffman, B.A., J.D.

Full Circle Associates
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Seattle, WA 98105-5021
(206) 517-4754
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