Veg Friend Board Guidelines:

Main Chat:

1. All members have equal rights to enjoy chatting in the chat rooms!

2. You may express yourself freely in the main chat so long as you do not incite any illegal discussion which compromises the safety or well being of others.

3. Use the chat facility to be as open and honest with your feelings as you want to be without also discouraging other members' right to participation by spreading gossip or false rumors maliciously. Use the private chat feature if you have more confidential chatting with another member so that it does not cause harm or strife for other members of Veg Friend.

4. Please avoid sending intrusive private messages to other members that you have had no previous contact, communication or friendship with.  If you do not want to accept a private message from another member, please just ignore the message by not replying.

5. If you have any more serious problem with another member's private messages or public chat, then you may block them from contacting you and/or make an appeal to the forum conflict resolution procedure so that the forum staff may assist you further in mediation.

Discussion Forum:

1. All members have equal rights to enjoy discussing in the discussion forums!

2. You may express yourself freely in the discussion forum so long as you do not discourage another member's rights as described in the Veg Friend Community Values.

3. Use the forums to discuss topics in general. Do not discuss information with or about other members that you may have received through private messages or main chat. 

4. Please try to self manage any conflicts with other member's through healthy discussion which strives to clarify or resolve misunderstandings or disagreements due to different views.

5. If you have any more serious problems with another member's forum posts, you can make an appeal to the forum conflict resolution procedure so that the forum staff may assist you further in mediation.

Blogs:

1. All members have equal rights to enjoy blogging in the blog post section!

2. You may express yourself freely in the blog section so long as you do not incite any illegal discussion which compromises the safety or well being of others.

3. Use the blogs to express yourself uniquely which are more oriented to your personal views where you may not want to invite discussion from other members such as found in the discussion forums.

4. You may control comments in your blog by using the blog controls and also invite members privately to your blog without allowing others to participate.

5. If you have any more serious problem with another member's blog content, you can make an appeal to the forum conflict resolution procedure so that the forum staff may assist you further in mediation.

Groups:

1. All members have equal rights to enjoy establishing groups in the group creation section!

2. You may express yourself freely in the groups so long as you do not incite any illegal discussion which compromises the safety or well being of others.

3. Use the groups to organize your unique interests where you can share with other like minded members freely.

4. You may control posts and comments in your group by using the group controls and also invite members privately to your group without allowing others to participate.

5. If you have any more serious problem with another member's group content, you can make an appeal to the forum conflict resolution procedure so that the forum staff may assist you further in mediation.

Forum Conflict Resolution Procedure

1. All members have the right to govern and defend themselves autonomously on Veg Friend according to common sense and the stated Community Values and Board Guidelines.   Oppressive views, expectation, or mandates toward other members are not encouraged, nor is bullying, harassment or the instigation of any unreasonable conflict which may arise from a simple misunderstanding or difference of opinion on some issues.

2. If a member cannot self manage the situation of conflict with another member, then either member can seek mediation from the forum conflict resolution procedure to apply for assistance where the conflict cannot be solved through normal dialogue in the public forum or through private messages between members.

3. Members should at first in a private message to any forum staff, state clearly, with who, what, where, when, how and why some type of conflict has taken place with as complete information as possible regarding the matter.  One can also do this with more detail if possible by delineating as much as possible of the following:

• Describing the chronologic history related to and leading up to the conflict at hand.

• Showing the precise history of conflict by copying and pasting any relevant data from the chat, messages, discussions, blogs, or groups which also includes some url links to the data so the forum staff can find the data themselves directly.

• Show clearly the action that you have taken yourself to resolve the matter and also state clearly what action you are looking for to resolve the matter with your personal reasons.

4. As that all members have the right to participate in Veg Friend, so long as they abide in the Community Values and Board Guidelines, the conflict resolution procedure cannot attempt to restrict another member's participation due to the personal wish of another member.  The conflict must first be observed and validated by forum staff before taking action so the member appealing for assistance may make as strong a case as possible for the forum staff to review and investigate.

5. Member's who are engaged in discussion with a forum staff about an alleged conflict such as may also appeal with their own line of reasoning and defense presenting an outline of the conflict with another member as stated in point 4.  If a resolution is reached quickly between the members themselves or between the members and the forum staff, the member may opt to delete the content from their group or blog that is causing the conflict or the forum staff may delete the content which cannot be controlled by the member, such as in the discussion forum.    

6. Conflicts between members may be addressed publicly or privately between members according to their wish and by forum staff publicly or privately depending on when the conflict has been detected and properly understood.  Veg Friend will address any mistaken conduct that is inconsistent with the community values and board guidelines for up to three incidents.  If the situation cannot be adjusted and the conflict is deemed to be at the fault of the member in question, then the member will be suspended temporarily from the forum until a solution to the conflict is reached.  Permanent suspension will only be applied in cases where no resolution can be reached between the members involved as facilitated by the forum staff.

7. The number of incidents of abuse or conflict refer to the number of incidents between two members and not to unrelated incidents on the forum between various members. Disagreements between different members may be triggered independent of one another and may not show a reliable intent to cause conflict by a particular member.  Each situation should be dealt with first by members' rights to manage and self govern conflict in the forum if they choose to do so and secondly by forum staff facilitation as when requested by the members themselves.  The forum staff however by their own discretion may intervene when they notice a potential misconduct and violation of Veg Friend's Community Values and Board Guidelines.  As much as possible, the forum staff will let the members sort out discussions or conflict on their own unless formally requested by members.