This is a Civilized Place for Public Discussion

Please treat this discussion forum with the same respect you would a public park. We, too, are a shared community resource — a place to share skills, knowledge and interests through ongoing conversation.

These are not hard and fast rules. They are guidelines to aid the human judgment of our community and keep this a kind, friendly place for civilized public discourse.

Improve the Discussion

Help us make this a great place for discussion by always adding something positive to the discussion, however small. If you are not sure your post adds to the conversation, think over what you want to say and try again later.

One way to improve the discussion is by discovering ones that are already happening. Spend time browsing the topics here before replying or starting your own, and you’ll have a better chance of meeting others who share your interests.

The topics discussed here matter to us, and we want you to act as if they matter to you, too. Be respectful of the topics and the people discussing them, even if you disagree with some of what is being said.

Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree

You may wish to respond by disagreeing. That’s fine. But remember to criticize ideas, not people. Please avoid:

  • Name-calling
  • Ad hominem attacks
  • Responding to a post’s tone instead of its actual content
  • Knee-jerk contradiction

Instead, provide thoughtful insights that improve the conversation.

Your Participation Counts

The conversations we have here set the tone for every new arrival. Help us influence the future of this community by choosing to engage in discussions that make this forum an interesting place to be — and avoiding those that do not.

Discourse provides tools that enable the community to collectively identify the best (and worst) contributions: bookmarks, likes, flags, replies, edits, watching, muting and so forth. Use these tools to improve your own experience, and everyone else’s, too.

Let’s leave our community better than we found it.

If You See a Problem, Flag It

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. Replying encourages 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; the moderators and site operators take no responsibility for any content posted by the community.

Always Be Civil

Nothing sabotages a healthy conversation like rudeness:

  • Be civil. Don’t post anything that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or hate speech.
  • Avoid Politics. While some things may unintentionally drift into political territory, this is not the place to intentionally discuss politics, social issues, etc. There’s plenty of places out there for that.
  • 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 a major news site.

This is a public forum, and search engines index these discussions. Keep the language, links, and images safe for family and friends.

Keep It Tidy

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; please read the category definitions.
  • 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.

Contribute, Don’t Just Promote

We love it when members share their knowledge and expertise. This is how we all learn and grow together. To ensure that all shared content is valuable and fosters great discussion, we’ve put together a few simple guidelines.

Our core philosophy is “Contribute, Don’t Just Promote.” We want you to establish yourself as an expert by providing value to the community, within the community.

Here’s how to share successfully:

  1. Value First, Always. Your post must be valuable on its own, without requiring a click-out. Instead of just posting a link to your blog post, share the key insights, a summary, or the full text directly in the post so we can discuss it here.
  • Good Example: A post that teaches a full, self-contained lesson on pivot tables, with screenshots and a detailed explanation.
  • Bad Example: A post that says, “I wrote about pivot tables on my blog! Check it out here [link].”
  1. Make it Standalone & Substantive. We encourage long-form content! Share your tutorials, case studies, detailed opinions, and frameworks. A great post should be able to generate conversation and learning on its own. If it’s just a “teaser” for content elsewhere, it will be removed.
  2. The 90/10 Guideline. A good rule of thumb is to have at least 90% of your post be pure value (education, information, discussion) and no more than 10% be promotional. A brief mention and a link to your business, service, or paid course at the end of a valuable post is perfectly acceptable.
  3. No Direct Solicitation. Do not post direct ads for your paid products or services. Let your valuable contributions speak for themselves. Members will find their way to you when they see the expertise you share freely.

By following these guidelines, you’ll not only contribute to the health of our community but also build your reputation as a trusted expert. Thank you for helping us make this a premier place for learning and connection!

Post Only Your Own Stuff

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.

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This site is operated by your friendly moderator team and you, the community. If you have any further questions about how things should work here, open a new topic in Feedback & Support and let’s discuss! If there’s a critical or urgent issue that can’t be handled by a meta topic or flag, contact the moderators.