Help: FAQs: The DOs and DONTs of MHP

Membership

We expect all members of Mennonite Heritage Portrait to treat each other with respect and kindness. Your name is your identity on MHP. Only you are responsible for your conduct and all content, posts and comments submitted under your name on Mennonite Heritage Portrait.

• By joining Mennonite Heritage Portrait, all members agree to abide by the policies outlined here and in the Terms of Use Agreement.
• You must be at least 18 years of age to open an account on Mennonite Heritage Portrait. If you are under 18, you must have the permission and supervision of a parent or legal guardian; that adult is responsible for the account.
• You may not use profane or racist language or images in your username, avatar and/or public profile.
• Keep your account information updated and accurate. Your account must have a valid email address at all times. Mennonite Heritage Portrait will use the email address on file in your account information to contact you when necessary.
• Mennonite Heritage Portrait encourages all members to resolve their own disputes. As a service, Mennonite Heritage Portrait cannot mediate disputes between members or other parties.

Mennonite Heritage Portrait reserves the right to suspend or terminate a user's access to the site at Mennonite Heritage Portrait's discretion. Breaking any of Mennonite Heritage Portrait's policies may result in suspension of account privileges and/or account termination.

Private Messages

Private messaging is a service provided by Mennonite Heritage Portrait so you can communicate privately with other MHP members. Members may use private messages to build friendly relationships with one another, seek advice or discuss forum and group activities. Please use common sense when giving out personal information to others during private messages.

• You may not use the Private Messages feature to send unsolicited advertising or "spam." If you are suspected of sending spam, your account will be suspended until it is determined that you did not send spam. If it has been determined that you were sending spam, your account will be terminated.
• You may not use the Private Messages feature to harass or abuse another member.

Misuse of the Private Messages feature may result in suspension of account privileges and/or termination of your Mennonite Heritage Portrait account.

Community

Community is the heart of Mennonite Heritage Portrait. We as a community make this site what it is, and we want it to be a friendly and helpful place. If you are a member of Mennonite Heritage Portrait, you are part of our community. MHP has established multiple ways for members to connect and interact with one another on the site, such as groups, forums and private messaging. Please use common sense when sharing personal information.

The role of MHP staff is to maintain an appropriate level of respect, helpfulness and success of the MHP community. MHP has policies and expectations for members' participating in the community to help facilitate the type of helpful and respectful environment we are hoping to create. MHP will help to facilitate this through open discussion and support.

The Groups and Forums are an integral, and public, part of community interaction on Mennonite Heritage Portrait. Please keep the following guidelines in mind when participating in the groups and forums.

• First and foremost, treat each other with respect and kindness
• Make sure your posts are added to the appropriate section of the forums and keep your posts on-topic.
• Harassing, insulting or abusing other members is not acceptable.
• Discussing a specific member or item, overtly or covertly, in a negative way is not acceptable.
• Stay safe; do not publicly post any kind of private information, such as: email, private messages, phone numbers or addresses.
• MHP does not allow spam in the groups and forums.

If there are forum threads in the wrong section, they may be moved to the appropriate place, without notice to you. MHP reserves the right to shut down any thread for any reason. Violating community policies may result in suspension of account privileges and/or account termination.

Moderating

The Mennonite Heritage Portrait community guidelines are meant to facilitate the type of helpful and respectful environment we are hoping to create on MHP. They outline the expected and preferred treatment of other MHP members and behavior in the forums. All MHP members are expected to follow the community guidelines. We want to make sure everyone enjoys their time in the groups and forums, so each group and forum also has a moderator.

There are additional guidelines for group moderators; moderators must agree to and follow these guidelines in order to create and moderate groups on MHP. When you create a group on MHP, you are automatically the moderator of the group and forum. If you are not prepared to moderate your group and the associated forums, do not create a group unless you know of another MHP member that is willing to moderate the group for you.

Please keep the following guidelines in mind when moderating the groups and forums.

Guide Your Group

• Be respectful. You can invite other members to join your group, start discussions to encourage conversation, and participate in discussions. Group creators can also appoint additional moderators to help care for the group and forums.
• Set rules for your groups. Let your members know what kind of language is allowed, what resources and items are appropriate to share, and how you will respond when group or MHP rules are broken.

Lead by Example

• Stay active. Staying active in your group is the best way to encourage others to participate.
• Be fair. Moderators should be objective, especially when issues within the group are apparent. Arguing with group members will only encourage others to do the same. Sometimes arguing back is only an invitation to further discussion.
• Be consistent. As moderator you must treat all group members equally. All of us are members of MHP and we are all real people with real feelings. We all deserve to be treated with respect.
• Be nice. As the moderator, your behavior will be held to a higher standard by your own members as well as non-group members who are reading your group but have not yet joined. Manage your behaviour so you don't do or say anything that you will regret later.

Work Together

• Work with your group members and guests to create a thriving, happy community.
• Work with members to resolve issues. Group issues should be resolved by the group moderator; it is your job to work with members on both sides of an issue to create an outcome that everyone can accept. Moderators must be seen as reliable group members that anyone can go to should a problem arise.
• Work with the MHP staff to help resolve any problems that are related to your group. Please remember we are an impartial and friendly bunch and we need to work together.

MHP group moderators must uphold these guidelines as well as the community guidelines of MHP. In exchange, we are here to help you if you have any problems concerning your group or co-moderators. Moderating a group is a commitment, and a popular and active group can require a lot of work. We appreciate the work that you do every day to help make MHP a fun and exciting resource for all.

Flagging

Flagging is like neighborhood watch; it is your way to alert Mennonite Heritage Portrait's administrators of potential problems. If you come across content in the forums that you believe is inappropriate for MHP or if you find a forum thread that is getting heated leading to potentially abusive online behaviour, you can click the Flag for Moderation link associated with that content or thread to alert the administrator. The administrator will then investigate the cause of your concern and determine whether the content or forum needs to be removed from MHP.

Flagging is a confidential process. Only the forum or group administrator will know who flagged the item; the member responsibile for the item you flag will not know who flagged the item. MHP's investigation will be handled quietly; if a flag is cleared without editing or deleting the post, the reason for clearing the flag will be entered in the forum and you will receive a private message explaining the reason for clearing the flag.

• Flagging should be used to report any comment, content item, or behaviour that violates any of Mennonite Heritage Portrait's policies.
• Do not flag the same violation multiple times.
• Flagging is a private matter; members should not discuss flags in any of MHP's forums or groups.

In most cases, Mennonite Heritage Portrait will work with a member privately to remedy the situation. If a member does not respond to MHP's communication or requests in a timely manner, the offending content or post may be removed and the member's account privileges may be suspended and/or terminated. Abuse of the flagging system may result in the suspension and/or termination of your account.