Crochetville Community Policies

[Crochetville LLC]

Crochetville Community Policies
Revised: July 19, 2019 (previous version: April 7, 2013)

 

Crochetville: a cozy little village for crocheters everywhere!

Amy and Donna are happy to welcome you to Crochetville. If this is your first time here, you've found a wonderful, friendly place to talk about crochet. If you've been around for a while, thanks for stopping by for a refresher on our policies and our vision for Crochetville.

 

Crochetville Vision

Crochetville is a warm, welcoming, friendly community for people everywhere who are interested in crochet. Our policies are designed to help keep our large, ever-growing community happy and healthy.

By participating on this forum, you agree to abide by these policies and our Terms of Use (via any service provided through our site).

Posting Etiquette

• Please treat Crochetville owners, volunteer staff, and each other with respect at all times.
• Remember that we have members from all around the world. Be respectful of cultural differences and the fact that English is not the primary language of all members.
• Flames (personal attacks), threats, harassment, and hate speech are not allowed.
• Respect the privacy of others. Please do not post emails, private messages, or any personal information about another member that they haven't included in their Crochetville user profile. Please do not link to or discuss any off-site information about another member without their permission.
• No political discussion nor religious debate/argument/evangelism allowed as those subjects frequently cause drama. Help us keep Crochetville a positive place!

Remember Our Younger Visitors

• The Crochetville forum is a family-friendly zone.
• We comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and we do not accept registrations from children under the age of 13 although they may visit the site.
• Please refrain from using profanity.
• No sexual/adult language in usernames, avatars, profile pictures.
• Nudity and provocative photos are not allowed in any image posted on Crochetville.
• Please remember the presence of young visitors and write your posts accordingly.

Advertising and Spam Management

• Indie businesses may post about their business on Crochetville following our Free Advertising for Indie Business Policies.
• Members may list personal (non-business-related) stash items they no longer need in the Destashing forum.
• Please do not PM or email other members with unsolicited business information or offers for any reason.
• Spammers (post, signature, profile, PM, etc.) are banned and messages are deleted with no notice.

Copyright and Trademark

• You are welcome to post patterns (complete instructions) that you have designed yourself in our Free Original Patterns forum. Patterns you post should not infringe on another party's copyright or trademark.
• You may not post patterns that heavily incorporate or reference another person's design. If the intent was to copy or duplicate someone else's work, you shouldn't post your version here (in Free Original Patterns) or link to it elsewhere on Crochetville.
• If you post a pattern, you retain full rights to your design. If we wish to use your design in any way beyond sharing photos and a link to the thread on other areas of Crochetville's web presence or on other social media sites, we will request permission first.
• When asking for help with a pattern, please do not post the entire pattern. You may post the one line of instructions with which you need help, although we encourage you to post a link to the pattern or provide information about where it was published whenever possible.
• Patterns and posts found to be infringing upon another's copyright or trademark are subject to removal. Click here for instructions on reporting copyright and trademark infringement. We act on reports as quickly as possible in compliance with the DMCA.
• Do not provide information on how to obtain copies of copyrighted patterns without permission of the copyright owner.
• Links to sites that encourage or allow posting of infringing material are not allowed and are subject to removal.
• Please only post photos to which you own the copyright or which you've been given permission to post by the copyright owner. If the photo copyright belongs to someone else, please credit the original photographer and post a disclaimer such as "Used with permission."
• If you post a pattern or a link to a pattern you have designed that features a popular game, TV, or movie character, sports team or corporate logo, etc., without stating that you have received proper permission from the intellectual property owner, your thread will be archived without notice (although we may choose to notify you) and further action may be taken as necessary on a case-by-case basis. Thank you for understanding our need to keep our site free from legal troubles related to contributory trademark and/or copyright infringement.

 

Social Media Sharing

• In an effort to promote Crochetville and discussions taking place on the forum, we may share some of the contributions you've made to our community in other areas of Crochetville's web presence or on other social media sites.
• By posting any content on Crochetville, you agree that Crochetville, our members, and forum visitors may share it on social media sites such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and other similar social media outlets that may come into existence.
• Any member or visitor who shares Crochetville content on another social media outlet should provide a link back to the original Crochetville thread and give proper credit to the original poster.
• Complete patterns posted by a Crochetville member are not to be shared in their entirety or posted in their entirety outside of Crochetville without that member's express written permission. Obviously, you may post links to the pattern.

Customer Service Disputes with Other Businesses

• Please do not use Crochetville to attempt to resolve customer service disputes with other businesses. The proper thing to do is contact the business owner first.
• Please be respectful when discussing crochet- and fiber-related small businesses. Remember that what you write here is public and that the owner or employees of the business may be reading your posts.
• If you must post a review that contains negative feedback, please remember that you may be affecting someone's livelihood. Please post appropriately and constructively.
• Libelous comments are not allowed, and could result in legal action being taken against you by a business owner. Factual statements that you can back up with evidence are not libelous.
• If you are mad at a business, its owner, or an employee for some reason, you may not use Crochetville to attempt to do harm. Attempts at doing so (our call) will result in deletion of posts, possible loss of posting privileges, and potentially being banned from the site.

Financial and Safety Information

• Fundraising is allowed only with prior approval. Please Contact Us before posting about any fundraising efforts.
• Financial transactions: Crochetville is not responsible for any trade/sell/purchase arrangements members make with other members. Enter into such arrangements at your own risk.
• Exchanging personal information: We encourage all members to use caution when exchanging personal contact information with other members.

Miscellaneous

• Signatures are limited to a maximum of 10 lines. No content that is sexual, political, or designed to be controversial is allowed in signatures.
• Members are allowed to register only one account.
• In general, please do not cross-post (cross-posting is starting the same thread in more than one forum or subforum). However, if you are participating in a CAL or other ongoing thread, we strongly encourage you to cross-post your finished projects in one of our Show-and-Tell forums.

 

Reporting Problems

Please report any problems or concerns you have to Crochetville rather than to the member in question. Correcting another member's behavior (either in forum posts or via private message) tends to further escalate situations; such forum posts may be subject to removal without notice.

You may use the "Report post" link (found in the dark bar above each post) to let us know about any posts or PMs of concern so we can review the situation. You may use the Contact Us form to let us know of any other issues of concern.

We regret that we cannot respond individually to each person who reports an issue, but please be assured that we read each message and will take whatever action we deem appropriate.

Repeated and/or blatant violation of Crochetville's policies may result in temporary or permanent loss of various forum privileges or in being banned from Crochetville, with or without notice. Such actions are always a last resort to enable us to maintain a pleasant forum experience for the vast majority of our members. We prefer to talk things out with members and come to a mutually agreeable solution to any issues that may arise.

We can't predict every situation that might occur. We reserve the right to handle some situations on an individual basis.

Questions/Concerns about our community policies?
If you have general questions or concerns about any of our policies, please post a message in Forum Help & Suggestions. If you have questions or concerns about a specific situation related to our policies, please use the Contact Us form, although member privacy concerns may prevent us from discussing certain details. Discussion of specific situations or administrator actions does not take place on the forum. Such posts will be removed and a member's ability to participate on the site may be affected.

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Thank your for helping us keep Crochetville a positive place full of sunshine and rainbows!