The way you interact and participate in Social Edge will shape the community. In order for us to be the most valuable online forum for social entrepreneurs and their allies, we ask participants to understand and observe the following guidelines. These guidelines were developed to foster frank dialogue, mutual respect and a sense of community among all in the sector.

Creating a congenial, professional community.

All members have their name displayed at the beginning of each post. In addition, there is a "Lounge” forum, where participants can introduce themselves, their work, their organization and their constituencies or just hang out to discuss any issue.

Fostering a useful and spirited discussion.

Feel free to express differing points of view, post a nascent idea or reflect on broader issues.

Your posts will be read by a number of people over time. Please be thoughtful in your communications. Please pay careful attention to how you wield your words. Teasing and sarcasm, for example, often don't travel well which is why people sometimes type emoticons such as :-) (look at it sideways) when they want others to know a statement is meant to be humorous.

You may, find yourself in disagreement with someone on Social Edge. At times like this, keep in mind that it's safer, more polite, and more persuasive to take issue with that person's comments, rather than attacking them personally.

Computer conferencing is quite different from face-to-face communication. Only your words are reflected on the screen - the facial expressions, tone of voice, and other live conversational nuances are completely absent from discussions on Social Edge.

Owning your own words

You are responsible and liable for your own posts. The Skoll Foundation and Social Edge are not the publisher or author of the words posted by members and neither the Skoll Foundation or Social Edge are liable for material posted by members. We do not prescreen postings and will rarely remove messages. We do, however, reserve the right to do so. Inappropriate posts include, but are not limited to, those containing advertising, copyrighted materials used without permission, libel or obscenities. If posts are off topic, moderators may move your post to a more relevant forum or help you create a private conference.

Fashioning a community that is useful for you

Don’t be shy. If there is something you want to talk with other members of the community, start a topic. Social Edge is YOUR community. If an existing discussion engages you, jump in. If you have questions, don’t hold back. If you have any questions or comments or need additional assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact the Community Manager at socialedge@skollfoundation.org or the forum moderator.

Building the community spirit you can be proud of.

You should keep in mind that adding a post is like walking into a room where conversations are underway. Ordinary behavior in such a situation is to listen to the conversations in order to determine the subject matter and context, join the conversations that interest you, introduce a new topic if you find the don’t find the conversations compelling.

Respecting the role of the Conference Moderators

Forums and Events on Social Edge are each tended by one or more moderators.

The moderators' role is to help facilitate your discussion. These professionals may, in the community interest, delete a comment. However, they may not edit it. The Social Edge community manager does not, and will not, impose explicit rules on moderators governing such deletions. To do that, we think, would undermine the freedom of moderators to exercise creativity in handling their conferences.

And finally and most importantly, moderators are there to help. Ask for it.

We hope that you find Social Edge to be your community. If you have questions or suggestions about the Community Standards, please let us know. Thank you for your role in creating a space that allows us to bring our individual best words and works to better the collective community.