Community Rules

By visiting and participating in the "Community" or "Share" sections of the MSLO websites ("Community/Share"), you agree to follow these rules and guidelines. Our Community/Share managers are charged with enforcing these Community/Share Rules & Guidelines (“Rules”). Repeated or egregious violations of these Rules by a participant will result in that participant’s loss of Community/Share privileges, including but not limited to loss of posting privileges, being blocked from the discussion boards or other areas of Community/Share, and/or being banned from participation on MSLO websites completely. Please note that these rules are in addition to, and not a replacement for, our Terms of Use.

MSLO websites include, but are not limited to: MarthaStewart.com, MarthaStewartWeddings.com, WholeLiving.com, Community.WholeLiving.com, and Dreamers.MarthaStewart.com

Be respectful.

1. Personal attacks, harassment, and personal threats are not allowed.

Some examples of personal attacks are:

• Racial, sexual, homophobic, ageist, sexist, religious, political, ethnic, or other epithets (such as against people with disabilities) directed against another user;
• Accusations about the characteristics and/or private behavior of another user;
• Threats of violence or negative actions of any kind are serious and will result in immediate banishment from the discussion boards and/or the sites. MSLO shall have no affirmative obligation to monitor threats of violence or negative actions made on Community/Share, and shall have no obligation to report any such threats.

Some examples of constitute harassment are:

• Posting comments or engaging in discussions in such a way as to threaten or insult other users;
• Linking to the discussions of another user or to the off-site blog posts or information of another user with the intent to insult or ridicule.

2. Hate speech and hateful imagery is not permitted. These include words, phrases, or images deemed by MSLO to express, either deliberately or unknowingly, hatred or contempt towards a person or a group of people, based on characteristics such as ethnic, cultural, religious or sexual identity, gender, socio-economic class. These also include postings that are derogatory or make unpermitted reference to the physical and/or mental health of another. Posts, discussions or imagery deemed by MSLO to be hate speech will be immediately deleted by our community managers, possibly without warning, and additional penalties or other consequences may apply to the offending user.

3. Respect the privacy of others. Do not post the contents of private messages or personal information about other users that cannot be found on their public profiles or within the discussion boards without that user’s permission. Also, you may not link to off-site privacy violations of a user on other websites other than MSLO websites.

4. MSLO works hard to update and improve the Community/Share experience, and we appreciate helpful ideas and feedback from our members. When MSLO is made aware of issues or problems, MSLO will attempt to rectify or resolve such issues and problems in a manner that is fair to all users. Similarly, MSLO requires that Community/Share users interact with MSLO in a respectful manner, and abuse of MSLO employees, as determined by MSLO, will not be tolerated. MSLO reserves the right to block access to users who abuse MSLO employee(s) at any time.

Be constructive with your feedback.

1. If you have negative feedback about a business or vendor to share, share it with the owner or business first. When posting reviews that contain negative feedback about a business or vendor, remember that you are talking about somebody's livelihood.

2. Stick to the Facts. Personal vendettas and comments of a personal nature are not permitted. Back up your claims with factual information relevant to the feedback you are providing.

3. If MSLO suspects that your goal is to cause harm to a business or person, your posts will be deleted and your posting privileges may be affected.

Keep it clean.

1. No profanity or patently adult language is allowed in avatars, usernames, postings or discussions.

2. Nudity in avatars or other images is not permitted.

Don't spam.

1. MSLO does not permit spamming of any kind.

2. Know the difference between “sharing” and “spamming”. Think about the context and timing of posts that are self-promotional. MSLO community managers will decide what content is “sharing” and what amounts to “spamming”. Users will be warned if MSLO community managers determine that their postings and discussions amount to spam before any disciplinary action is taken against that user.

3. Duplicate postings in more than 2 topics or discussions are not permitted, and an unreasonable amount of cross-posting will be considered spam.

Other rules.

Faux members are not permitted. A faux member is defined as an alternative MSLO Community/Share account that is used in a deceptive, dishonest and/or inappropriate fashion. Examples of the inappropriate uses of alternative accounts are using an alternative MSLO Community/Share account to (a) make postings regarding another user account in order to deceive readers or affect public opinion of the other user account; (b) make postings about a business or entity that you are affiliated without disclosing that affiliation; and (c) impersonate another Community/Share user or another person or entity.