Community Standards

 

The purpose of the Hometalk community is to bring together DIY enthusiasts who are bloggers, homeowners, and/or professionals of all skill levels and to provide a platform for this community to exchange ideas and to support, empower, and inspire one another.

 

The following guidelines were developed by the Hometalk team in order to help us create an environment that is kind, resourceful, handy, helpful, clever, and creative. We ask that you join us in our mission by reviewing and complying with our community standards.

 

We love your comments on Hometalk projects, but we do not tolerate disrespect, criticism that is not constructive, profanity, discouraging comments, racism, or hate speech of any kind. Please use kind and appropriate language when you address your fellow Hometalkers. We think of Hometalk as a ‘home’ for DIYers; in order for us all to feel comfortable and supported at home, we need to interact with each other in the most encouraging and supportive way possible.

 

 

Simply Put: If you see a project that isn’t your taste or style — move on. Unless you have a specific, constructive tip that is useful to the author or to other readers and delivered in the kindest way possible, it is unlikely that a comment expressing dislike will fall within our guidelines.

 

 

The proper way to deal with violations of our community guidelines is for them to be handled by the Hometalk Team. Even the most well intended comments reminding others to be polite can unintentionally fuel negative comments. If you notice a comment that does not fall within the guidelines for any reason, please refrain from responding and ‘flag’ it by clicking the flag icon in the upper right hand corner of a post or comment. This will alert our team and we’ll take appropriate action.

 

We do not tolerate obviously commercial content or spam. Hometalk is a place for DIYers to share, instruct, and inspire. If your post or comment does not do so, it will be removed.

 

 

Simply Put: If you see spam or other commercial content on a Hometalk post, please bring it to our attention by clicking the flag icon in the top right hand corner of the comment or post.

 

 

Hometalk reserves the right to remove any and all content from the site that violates one or more of these guidelines, with or without warning to the user. We reserve the right to ban members from the site who consistently and/or severely violate these guidelines.

 

Hometalk is a destination for DIYers because of you. We value your contributions, your thoughts, knowledge, and creativity. Please partner with us in building and maintaining a community that we all want to be a part of.

 

 

 

Posting Guidelines

 

Inappropriate content:

Name-calling, personal attacks, the use of graphic, political, or offensive imagery, an overly aggressive or harsh tone, or other inappropriate behavior will not be tolerated and may result in the cancellation of your account.

 

 

Constructive Criticism:

We encourage users to share information and experiences on Hometalk. Differences of opinion are welcome, provided they are expressed in a respectful, constructive, or kind way. Non-constructive, mean-spirited criticisms, such as expressing dislike or distaste or any other uncalled for, negative and subjective opinions or sentiments regarding another user's project, will result in a warning. Continued failure to comply with our standard can ultimately lead to the cancellation of your account.

 

 

Self Promotion:

If you are a professional/contractor, it is against Hometalk’s guidelines to post pure, unsolicited advertisements of your services or products in the Activity feed. You can address a specific question with some useful feedback and then offer further help. You can also mention your services in the context of a posted picture showcasing a job you’d like to share so that the community can see your work. We consider “here’s what I did” photos to be useful, thought-provoking and appealing. Frankly, the most productive way to get visibility on the site is to post useful answers to members’ questions. This will give your Profile page a much better ranking and better exposure. As more users are drawn to your Profile, they will see the information you posted about your business, including your phone number and website.

 

 

Misuse:
Hometalk is a platform for sharing your original ideas and inspiration. Projects that are not of this nature and are geared solely towards driving traffic, improvingSEO, or general content writing are not allowed. Violation of this rule may result in the deactivation of your account.

 

 

Copying Content:
All content in your project must be original. Neither the text or photos can be copied from a web site that does not belong to you. You can make mention of content on another site, but it cannot be the subject of the project, and full credit must be attributed to the source, including a link.

 

 

Giveaways:
Hometalk projects cannot be promotions for giveaways on your site.

 

 

External Links within Hometalk Projects:

Hometalk is a source of information, and a community of experts. To this end, Bloggers and other professional Hometalk users are encouraged to link to their own site, only after providing a sufficiently informative and detailed project on Hometalk.com. We also welcome all users to provide a link to the original source of their project, if relevant.

We have identified the optimum location for such external links, and have provided a specific text field for your desired URL. To maintain consistency across all Hometalk projects, we ask that you please use this designated URL field, and refrain from publishing desired URL in the main text fields of your Hometalk project. Do note, any links used in the description or caption text fields will not hyperlink.

 

 

Linky Parties:

It's okay to post about a linky party provided that the project includes content - photos and meaningful text about the projects being featured. You cannot just post a link or generic invitation to a linky party.

 

 

Questions:

In order to help others, both now and in the future, it’s important to keep every discussion thread focused and on topic. If you have a related question, please create a new thread — don’t just ask a new question that is only somewhat relevant to the current one. When asking, please be as specific as possible and if you can, share a picture! The more information you add, the better it will help people understand exactly what you mean, and help them respond. It’s always great to acknowledge the users who helped you out by marking their answer as “Useful.”

 

 

Answers:

We think of Hometalk as a community, not simply a Q&A site. When answering a question or commenting on a picture, even if you have a critique, your tone should be friendly and constructive. Try and be as specific as possible and provide a picture if applicable. Once you respond to a post, it’s always appreciated if you respond again, should the asker request more information.

Pictures and Videos: When you upload, please add useful text within the caption and description. It will help all of us understand what you’re showing us. Obviously, Hometalk will not allow lewd or inappropriate images and these will be removed at our discretion.

 

 

Closing threads:

Be sure to "close" your thread, marking it “Resolved” when you’ve received a satisfactory reply (you also have the option not to close it and request more information). This allows other Hometalkers to move on and help answer other open questions. We’ll sometimes send you a note to remind you about these “open” questions.

 

 

Private Messaging:

We provide a messaging system to contact other Hometalkers directly. Please do not use it to harass, promote or send inappropriate content. The same rules that apply to public postings apply here.

 

 

Privacy:

Posting pictures of other people and/or their personal information without permission is strictly forbidden.

 

Copyright:

You may only post material and content that you own. Posting copyrighted material, trademarks and other violations of the DMCA is prohibited.