The Alliance Community Forum Rules & Guidelines

Alliance for Nonprofit Impact believes in constructive dialogue. Every participant has a role in fostering that through monitoring and engaging with posts.

Should any user violate or allow another user to use their account to violate any of the rules, Alliance for Nonprofit Impact reserves the right
to move, edit, or delete posts.

• Posts that violate Alliance for Nonprofit Impact's values.
• Posts that are defamatory, deliberately antagonistic, or disruptive
• Posts that are obscene, abusive, harassing, or threatening
• Posts that are inappropriate or off-topic as determined by the group moderator
• Posts that are submitted repeatedly without any bearing on the discussion topic or meant to purposefully disrupt the forums (spamming)
• Posts that include viruses or other destructive feature that could damage another user’s computer
• Posts that violate copyright rules
• Posts that violate Rhode Island state and federal laws

Alliance for Nonprofit Impact reserves the right, in our discretion, to freeze a user’s posting privileges or permanently deactivate user accounts for:

• Violating the posting rules above
• Fraudulently representing another user
• Theft of another user’s account or password
• Using an invalid email address to set up your profile

Dos

• Post in the right place. Check the specific forum you're posting in before submitting. If a post is in the wrong place, we might move or remove it.
• Use the search feature to see if there's already a post for your question. If there is, use that thread instead of making a new one. Try to include all your points in a single post.
• Be descriptive. Give us as much information as you can at the beginning of your post and in the subject line (ie, "Question: I need a sample conflict of interest policy").
• Link to first-party sites when you're helping with tech issues. If someone needs help with their salesforce product, link to the Salesforce website. That way we know we can trust the source of the info.
• Keep your posts and responses on-topic.
• Be polite and kind. Respect others even if they have a different opinion. If you disagree with someone, you are free to do so politely, but please don't make it personal. Respect also means you never harass, embarrass, or threaten other members.

Don'ts

Doing something on this list often can get you suspended, or sometimes even banned.

• Don’t abuse the formatting options. Nobody likes being YELLED AT!!?!? This means, don't overuse:
  • ALL CAPS
  • Extra-large fonts
  • Repeated symbols
• Don’t post personal information. Forum posts are visible to all members and can show up in search results. Protect the privacy of yourself and others.
• Don’t be inappropriate. No obscenities (including using symbols in place of letters), other explicit posts (i.e. sexting), etc.
• Don’t impersonate anybody.
• Don’t spam or flood the forums. That means don't post the same message in multiple forums, send the same DM multiple times or post disruptive numbers of memes/gifs/images. Spamming can include:
  • Bumping posts: Doing this once or twice is fine. Multiple bumps in a short period of time is considered spamming. Use your bumps wisely.
• Don’t bully. Online bullying is prohibited. Bullying will result in immediate banning, and your organization account will also be reviewed. Bullying can include:
  • Personal defamation
  • Naming and shaming
  • Gossiping about other people
• Don’t make false claims.
• Don’t advertise products, services, etc. In forums, except for the Alliance Marketplace Forum. And posts in the Alliance Marketplace Forum are limited to products and services offered by nonprofits. There is no advertising for for-profit products and services in the Alliance Marketplace Forum.

Don'ts Treated With Zero-Tolerance

These are more serious dont's. That means if you do something from this list, we might ban you right away.

• Don’t link to or discuss pirated and/or harmful content: Such as Trojan horses. That's not allowed and will result in account action.
• Don’t troll. - These forums are for good-faith dialogue. Baiting, playing devil’s advocate, and other rhetorical strategies meant to agitate or derail constructive conversation will
  not be tolerated.
• Don’t do anything illegal. That includes:
  • Identity theft
  • Identity fraud
  • "Swatting"
  • Doxxing
  • Stalking
  • Making personal threats
  • Blackmail and extortion
• Don’t discriminate or demean others for anything. That means respecting identities, pronouns, etc. And no sexism, racism etc.
• Don’t post copyrighted material without permission. This includes images as well as text. If you don't own it, don't post it.
• Coin Buying / Selling / Promoting / Gambling
• Don’t post threats.