Our Forum is a Civilized Place for Public Discussion

Please treat this discussion forum with the same respect you would a public park. We, too, are a shared community resource — a place to share skills, knowledge and interests through ongoing conversation.

These are not hard and fast rules, merely guidelines to aid the human judgment of our community and keep this a clean and well-lighted place for civilized public discourse.

Tips and Tricks

Check out our Tips and Tricks post to learn the basics about the forum, features, and all of the little icons you see bopping around here.

Improve the Discussion

Help us make this a great place for discussion by always working to improve the discussion in some way, however small. If you are not sure your post adds to the conversation, think over what you want to say and try again later.

The topics discussed here matter to us, and we want you to act as if they matter to you, too. Be respectful of the topics and the people discussing them, even if you disagree with some of what is being said.

One way to improve the discussion is by discovering ones that are already happening. Spend time browsing the topics here before replying or starting your own, and you’ll have a better chance of meeting others who share your interests.

Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree

You may wish to respond to something by disagreeing with it. That’s fine. But remember to criticize ideas, not people. Please avoid:

• Name-calling
• Ad hominem attacks
• Responding to a post’s tone instead of its actual content
• Knee-jerk contradiction

Instead, provide reasoned counter-arguments that improve the conversation.

Your Participation Counts

The conversations we have here set the tone for every new arrival. Help us influence the future of this community by choosing to engage in discussions that make this forum an interesting place to be — and avoiding those that do not.

Discourse provides tools that enable the community to collectively identify the best (and worst) contributions: bookmarks, likes, flags, replies, edits, and so forth. Use these tools to improve your own experience, and everyone else’s, too.

Let’s leave our community better than we found it.

If You See a Problem, Flag It

Moderators have special authority; they are responsible for this forum. But so are you. With your help, moderators can be community facilitators, not just janitors or police.

When you see bad behavior, don’t reply. It encourages the bad behavior by acknowledging it, consumes your energy, and wastes everyone’s time. Just flag it. If enough flags accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by moderator intervention.

In order to maintain our community, moderators reserve the right to remove any content and any user account for any reason at any time. Moderators do not preview new posts; the moderators and site operators take no responsibility for any content posted by the community.

Always Be Civil

Nothing sabotages a healthy conversation like rudeness:

• Be civil. Don’t post anything that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or hate speech.
• Keep it clean. Don’t post anything obscene or sexually explicit.
• Respect each other. Don’t harass or grief anyone, impersonate people, or expose their private information.
• Respect our forum. Don’t post spam or otherwise vandalize the forum.

These are not concrete terms with precise definitions — avoid even the appearance of any of these things. If you’re unsure, ask yourself how you would feel if your post was featured on the front page of the New York Times.

This is a public forum, and search engines index these discussions. Keep the language, links, and images safe for family and friends.

Keep It Tidy

Make the effort to put things in the right place, so that we can spend more time discussing and less time cleaning:

• Please keep the discussion on the topic of crafting. Off-topic discussion is allowed in the Lounge (available to Trust Level 3 members). Off-topic discussion outside of this specific board may be subject to moderator edits or deletion without warning.
• Please post your thread in the appropriate category.
• Don’t cross-post the same post in multiple topics, or the same thread in multiple categories. Choose the single most appropriate place and post it there. The exception to this is posting in a swap gallery or in a craft-a-long, and also giving the project its own full project thread. PLEASE DO THIS. Post project threads and share project details there, too.
• Don’t “sign” your posts — every post has your profile information attached to it.

Rather than taking an existing topic in a radically different direction, use Reply as a Linked Topic to start a new thread.

Don’t use the forums for self-promotion

Lettuce Craft is a community where crafters can freely share ideas and inspiration. We do not allow self-promotion. When you post subtle or blatant advertisements, or use the forum with the sole intention of driving traffic to your social media channels, it dilutes the usefulness of the Lettuce Craft community.

Don’t post just to promote items or services you are selling

Please don’t post text that is blatantly trying to get someone to buy items or services you sell. Messages that are blatantly advertising will be deleted without notice. Furthermore, please don’t post hints or subtle statements in hopes that someone will see your item and purchase it.

Moderators will take action on messages that appear to be subtle or blatant advertising. If you did not mean to subtly advertise, please don’t take offense to these actions. We have developed these rules to be as fair as possible to all members. Out of fairness to the entire community, action will be taken in all instances, regardless of intent.

How is a post determined to be subtle or blatant advertising?

When you post something you have made:

• Do not mention that it is, was or will be for sale (online, locally or otherwise)
• Do not include a link to where this item, or other items of yours, are, were or will be sold
• Do not edit your image(s) to indicate this item, or other items of yours, are, were or will be sold. This includes, but is not limited to pricing information or full URLs to product listings. Subtle copyright information is permitted on images.
• If you adhere to rules (a), (b), and (c,) but have a link to your sales website in your User Card or profile, you must attempt to share information about your project in a way that indicates you are sharing with others in the community and not posting here solely for the purpose of fishing for sales or website traffic.

In an effort to ensure Lettuce Craft remains a dedicated source of craft-related information, some rules have been established regarding members posting in a way that directs people to their own blogs, websites, and other endeavors.

Including blog or website addresses in your posts

If you post a project on Lettuce Craft, and include a link that directs members to your blog or other non-sales website for more information, please read the following:

1. Projects posted on Lettuce Craft must include pictures and project details. Projects posts should not consist solely of a photo or a message directing people to your blog or website for more information. External blogs and websites may expire over time (PBucket, we’re looking at you, kid). Including pictures and details on your Lettuce Craft post will ensure that project information is always available to the community.

NOTE: If your account is not permitted to upload photos yet, it simply means you have not earned that trust level yet. As you spend time reading and interacting on the forums, the system will automatically grant your account additional features and privileges.

For example, posts like this are not permitted:

No photos:

Hey, guys! I made a vase from candy. I call it pile of candy. Check it out! IT’S SO COOL.
http://yoursupercoolwebsiteblogwhatever/yoursupercoolcandyvaseyay

No details, story, or community sharing:

Hi! Look what I made. http://yoursupercoolwebsiteblogwhatever/yoursupercoolcandyvaseyay

2. If you do include a link for additional information, you must provide a link that goes directly to the blog entry or website page that contains additional project information. Do not link to the main landing page of a blog or website.

DON’T: http://yoursupercoolwebsiteblogwhatever/
DO: http://yoursupercoolwebsiteblogwhatever/candyvasepost

Post Only Your Own Stuff

1. Don’t hotlink to an image from another site without that site’s permission. It is using their bandwidth without their consent. Post a link to the image or page instead.
2. You may not post descriptions of, links to, or methods for stealing someone’s intellectual property (software, video, audio, images), or for breaking any other law.
3. Meme at your own risk. We are not responsible for your actions. One more time for those in the back – Meme at your own risk. Great excerpt from Intellectual Freedom Blog:

Image-based memes are easy to create and easy to spread, though whether they will go viral is never a given. If you create or post one, remember to pay attention to the source of the image. Your best bet is to start with an image or clip that is already labeled for reuse or is in the public domain, meaning out of copyright protection altogether. Google Images search tools provides such a filter, or try the Creative Commons search for work licensed for reuse via Creative Commons licenses. When you see a meme going around, give a thought to the subject of that meme image, whose life may forever be changed.

And again, moderators reserve the right to remove any content and any user account for any reason at any time. Moderators do not preview new posts; the moderators and site operators take no responsibility for any content posted by the community.

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This site is operated by your friendly local staff and you, the community. If you have any further questions about how things should work here, open a new topic in the site feedback category and let’s discuss! If there’s a critical or urgent issue that can’t be handled by a site feedback topic or flag, contact us via the staff page.

Terms of Service

Yes, legalese is boring, but we must protect ourselves – and by extension, you and your data – against unfriendly folks. We have a Terms of Service describing your (and our) behavior and rights related to content, privacy, and laws. To use this service, you must agree to abide by our TOS.