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Blog Guidelines

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Creating a safe and friendly blog community

Things to stay away from:

  • Excessive use of foul language, profanities, obscenities, or vulgarities.
  • Harassing, threatening, degrading, intimidating, victimizing, or abusing any individual or group. This includes hate based on a member’s age, gender, ethnicity, disability, religion or sexual orientation.
  • Interrupting or repeatedly posting a lot of off-topic comments that disrupts the flow of conversations.
  • Selling, advertising or posting ads or making solicitations, including URLs for other sites.
  • Posting any URLs, no matter what the intent or content, except in the places where it’s otherwise noted.
  • Posting any personal contact information. This includes email or instant messenger addresses, phone numbers, etc.
  • Posting copyrighted material or anything that’s protected by intellectual property rights. This includes text, photos, images, sound, and video files.
  • Posting instructions or information on how to do anything illegal, such as shoplifting, hacking, etc.
  • Any attempt to collect or post any other member’s username, password, or other private, personal information, such as telephone number, email/instant messenger addresses, home address, etc.
  • Starting or allowing arguments that escalate into threats, harassment, or violence. Feel free to argue and defend your opinions, but keep it civil.
  • Flooding a Blog. This means you can’t continuously post the same blog title or comments over and over again to disrupt a conversation or the community.
  • Transmitting or attempting to transmit a virus to other members.
  • Impersonating or trying to pass yourself off as an employee of our site, its parent company and/or affiliates or subsidiaries.
  • Making defamatory statements about our site or any of its affiliated sites.
  • Unless we mentioned it above, anything you post to your blog or anyone else’s must comply with our site Terms of Use.

Multiple violations will result in deletion of accounts and any other accounts connected to this member. Previous violations will result in future violations being treated more swiftly and severely. If you need to file a complaint against another user, contact customer service using the Help Form.

Blog Advice & Etiquette

  • Check comments regularly. Don’t respond to mean or embarrassing comments — delete them and block offensive people from commenting further.
  • Post often. Once you get members hooked on your blog, they’ll want to keep coming back for more. Give it to them!
  • Use your sense of humor. We’ve noticed that the most popular blogs tend to be honest and humorous. You don’t have to be a comedian, but everyone has a unique way of expressing themselves through humor. Find yours and use it, and you’ll get more people reading your blog.
  • Post your blog on public forums. The best way to reach a wider audience with your blog is by posting it on our numerous public discussion forums. Just pick which topics your post touches on, and whether it would be appealing to the members discussing that topic.
  • Connect with other bloggers. One of the most amazing things about the blogosphere is how it has created a tight-knit community that supports one another. Developing relationships with other bloggers will lead more people to your blog, and give you a better sense of what appeals to members. Which makes your blog even better!
  • Learn more at the blogging FAQ. And most of all — have fun out there!

Tips for Blog Safety

Be careful about giving out your personal information to anyone online. Our employees will never ask you to post personal information or account details, like your email address or password. If anyone asks you for this kind of information, report it to our Abuse Team. The rule of thumb is: Don’t post any personal information in your blog. It’s just good common sense and will make your blogging safer, more secure and, in the long run, more fun.

  • Be anonymous. Avoid postings that make it easy to locate you. That includes your last name, your employer, any clubs or affiliations, the town you live in, and where you hang out.
  • Protect your info. Use the Blog filter feature which allows you to control who can visit your blog. Allow only people you know and trust. Remember — if you don’t use privacy features, anyone with an Internet connection can read your blog.
  • Avoid in-person meetings. Don’t get together with someone you “meet” in a blog unless you are 100% certain of their actual identity. If you do meet the person, be smart about it. Arrange the meeting in a public place and bring a friend along.

Viewing other member Blog Posts and Polls

The Member Blogs page provides a summary of popular blog posts and polls as well as blogs you have decided to watch. Hover over the Community menu and click on “Blogs” to view the Member Blogs page.

You can also view another members’ blogs by clicking on the “My Blog” tab on the members’ home page.

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