The Watercooler Connections Facebook Group Guidelines
Welcome to the Montclair Watercooler on Facebook. We’re glad you joined us! Here are the rules of the road... short and sweet.
Focus on Issues, not People
We're all entitled to our opinions on local topics. But don't let it get personal.
Be Civil
Please play nice in this digital sandbox. Refrain from divisive or hateful posts or comments.
Limit Commercial Posts
Limit commercial posts (see details below - once a month). Please do not take advantage of the group by over-posting advertisements.
Stay Local
Local boundaries do not apply strictly here, but we do prefer Montclair topics. Please maintain a local context.
If posts violate the above guidelines, the BDs (Benevolent Despots) will send a warning and /or may delete the offending post. Continued violations may result in termination of membership.
Joining:
Please see http://www.mtcwatercooler.org/help.html if you need help joining.
PLEASE NOTE - Our Blocking Policy: we appreciate strict security settings, but if you block one or more of the Admins for any reason, we will remove you from the group. If you unblock that person(s), you will be welcomed back.
Your Issues with Group administration:
Discussion of WC Connections admin policies and/or actions on the group are not acceptable for the group and will be deleted. We welcome your comments and issues, including challenges to administrator actions; however, these should be communicated to the administrators directly via a personal message (PM) or email.
Who are the group Administrators (BDs)?
Cary Africk
Jon Bonesteel
Teri Gatto (Classic Yahoo group)
Mary Krugman
Robin Kulwin
Marc Slutzky
The Fine Print - Additional Guidelines as the Group has grown.
General Usage and Tips:
Thank you,
The Group Admins
Welcome to the Montclair Watercooler on Facebook. We’re glad you joined us! Here are the rules of the road... short and sweet.
Focus on Issues, not People
We're all entitled to our opinions on local topics. But don't let it get personal.
Be Civil
Please play nice in this digital sandbox. Refrain from divisive or hateful posts or comments.
Limit Commercial Posts
Limit commercial posts (see details below - once a month). Please do not take advantage of the group by over-posting advertisements.
Stay Local
Local boundaries do not apply strictly here, but we do prefer Montclair topics. Please maintain a local context.
If posts violate the above guidelines, the BDs (Benevolent Despots) will send a warning and /or may delete the offending post. Continued violations may result in termination of membership.
Joining:
Please see http://www.mtcwatercooler.org/help.html if you need help joining.
PLEASE NOTE - Our Blocking Policy: we appreciate strict security settings, but if you block one or more of the Admins for any reason, we will remove you from the group. If you unblock that person(s), you will be welcomed back.
Your Issues with Group administration:
Discussion of WC Connections admin policies and/or actions on the group are not acceptable for the group and will be deleted. We welcome your comments and issues, including challenges to administrator actions; however, these should be communicated to the administrators directly via a personal message (PM) or email.
Who are the group Administrators (BDs)?
Cary Africk
Jon Bonesteel
Teri Gatto (Classic Yahoo group)
Mary Krugman
Robin Kulwin
Marc Slutzky
The Fine Print - Additional Guidelines as the Group has grown.
- The author of a post or comment is responsible for its content. The Administrators of the Montclair Watercooler accept no liability for information or opinions expressed in this forum.
- Since we've seen an uptick in posts for your commercial enterprises, we post this reminder. Such commercials posted in this group are limited to one a month. Those who violate this policy will receive one warning. Additional such posts after that are grounds for removal from the group. This includes "bumps" BTW, and any business that is not a 501(c)3 is considered "commercial". Commercial enterprises include commercial news organizations. Thanks for your understanding.
- Please note that the Watercooler Connections Group is not a “For Sale” or “Swap” group. If you have things to sell, we will generally in the spirit of community allow a couple here or there, and we certainly encourage you to post your Yard/Garage Sale notices. If you have multiple items you wish to sell, by all means put multiple photos in an album and post that once. If you take advantage of the group and post multiple messages or bump existing ones, you er… bump up against our non-commercial policy, and we’ll ask you to post elsewhere.
- About contractor recommendations: Given that we have seen many commercial entities or agents of them recommend their own or related services, we remind everyone to do your due diligence and not rely solely on a recommendation here for obtaining a contractor. Another suggestion is to ask the member who recommended the contractor specifics about the work that was done for them. Please do this with a personal message (PM) off the group page.
- Questions for things that you may easily find online elsewhere (e.g. municipal services, bus schedules, cell phone plans, etc.) or are not public information yet (e.g. school closures prior to BOE announcements) will be deleted or comments closed if not appropriate for the group. Please use your favorite search engine (Google, Bing, Yahoo) for things that are general inquiries. Travel information for destinations outside our local area is also not supported. If you want to book a meal or hotel for a vacation, please use sites specific to that need. We think you get our point, the Watercooler is not a personal online valet. If you have questions on this policy you may contact the moderators directly.
- Please note all, the Watercooler is not a commuting status site. For real time updates on buses and trains, please see other services such as the Clever Commute or the service provider specific site.
- When your inquiry or the discussion of it becomes a personal exchange not of general interest, we ask that you take the discussion off the group using personal messages so that the group may be freed up for other discussions of "things Montclair".
- If you have an opinion about someone's personal behavior which violates public policy or offends you, we ask that you find other forums for such posts. To repeat, personal shaming (general or specific) is not allowed in this group. Please do contact the appropriate authorities or post on your own wall as much as you wish.
- The Watercooler Connections group is NOT the clearinghouse for issues with local businesses or to share complaints about them. Members should contact merchants directly to sort out your issues. This group is for establishing connections and sharing information, but not attacking people or businesses that are not here to defend or explain themselves. See the bullet below for more detail on this policy.
- The Watercooler supports local nonprofits and fund raisers for them. However, we do not support individual "gofundme" requests. This applies to all asks for funds for individuals regardless of the site or type of request being made.
- On joining, in order for the admins to be able to contact you, we do not allow members to join if they have blocked any of the admins. We appreciate your choice to be private, but if you make this choice, we can not support our group effectively. Also, we do not allow adds of others by you. Please have your friends join themselves. We will welcome them.
- If you cite or publish content originally posted on the Montclair Watercooler, we would appreciate the reference/hat tip. We are completely nonprofit/volunteers.
- Why are threads closed or posts/comments deleted? The benevolent despots (the admins) have the authority to do this if the group guidelines are not being adhered to. If threads have become too personal, too commercial, or too repetitive comments may be turned off.
- On member removal or blocking - If a member violates WC policy they will generally receive a warning via personal message (PM). Additional violations after a warning may result in removal from the group and blocking from it. In such cases members may contact an admin to inquire or explain the issue. We're happy to reinstate members where appropriate.
- In regard to negative comments on local businesses, we would like to share our philosophy and guidelines as a reminder for you all. We understand that in the course of using local merchants or restaurants you may have a bad experience. That is the nature of business and our experiences. There are matters of personal opinions, ours as consumers, and issues that businesses face as well. No one is perfect, and businesses may experience factors that impact their ability to deliver the goods or services that they want or expect to. Online groups like the Watercooler face the challenge of providing information to its members from each other, but we also seek to be fair to businesses who are not in the group to explain or defend themselves. Another factor to consider is that each of our opinions is subjective. A bad experience for one may not be such for another. Therefore, we have long supported a policy of no business shaming or attacks here on the Montclair Watercooler. This begs the question, “How do we share these sorts of issues that may indeed be legitimate?”. We support the following approach:
Firstly, we ask that you take the time to communicate with the merchant directly. Please do this first before you consider any online post about them. We find that our local merchants are eager to remedy any issue and we encourage you to support them. If you still wish to share a bad experience with a merchant, please post a general message that indicates you had a bad experience and ask that other members contact you directly for details. Communicate these details and issues off the group. This applies to threads you begin or any comments you may make in an existing thread. Thanks for your understanding and please let the admins know if you have any questions about this policy.
General Usage and Tips:
- Once the information on your post has changed, please update it in the original post by editing the post. For example, if your pet escaped and you posted on the 'cooler looking for help to return them home, please update your post once he or she has been returned home safely. It will make others feel good and will keep everyone from looking through all the comments for a resolution. Use the "edit" option to do this.
- You may also turn off commenting on your thread if your query has been answered or the issue is closed (e.g. the above pet example). Similarly, if you don't like how the discussion has progressed (or degraded), it's your choice if you want it to continue. We'll cut the thread if it violates our policy or if it's reported, but on your posts, you can do the same.
- When comments become of a personal nature, it's generally best that these be communicated via a personal message (PM) using the FB messenger application. For example, if you are negotiating the price on a for sale item, this is best done OFF the group/directly. The rest of the membership need not see this.
- Most everything has been posted about before. Please, please, please use the search option to find previous threads on your topic. If you find an earlier thread and comment on it, that discussion will then be restarted.
- If something newsworthy or dramatic (such as it is) has happened in or around Montclair, someone else has most probably already posted about it on the Watercooler (we're pretty good on this front). Please comment on the existing open thread instead of creating a new thread on the same topic. Your comments are just as good as a new post and it allows us all to interact better.
- Questions easily answered by a Google search or a phone call should be done using either of those options, not by asking the Watercooler.
Thank you,
The Group Admins