Code of Conduct

The Specifics

To help everyone enjoy our community, we ask that when you post, you keep in mind the following:

Have fun! This is a special place and we're stoked you've joined us!

The #intros channel is the place to make your first impression

• It is not the place to promote your new widget or software. Shameless plugs belong in the #share-promo channel

Expect to be immediately removed from the community the following:

The following extend to on and off the platform:

• Defamatory, indecent, offensive, profane, discriminatory, misleading, unlawful or threatening comments.
• Personal attacks, name-calling, trolling, subtweeting, coordinated attacks and abuse.
• Spamming: promoting your widget, linkbuilding services, or guest post opportunities.
• Direct message outreach. Unsolicited promotional outreach via direct messages. Consent must be granted in the context of a public thread before starting a private promotional conversation.
• If you experience any of these behavior please forward screenshots immediately to @Noah.

We lead with kindness, respect, and humor

• Don't post targeted memes. This includes of individual SEOs, SEO Tool Company employees or search engine employees inside the community.
• No politics.

We're all here to learn and grow.

Everyone learns different things at different times; there's no such thing as a dumb question. Therefore, we ask that you:

• No self-deprecation needed, e.g. "forgive the dumb question, but..." (you're not dumb, and other people wondering the same thing aren't either.)
• Likewise, this is a beginner friendly space – don't make another poster feel small or dumb for asking a question.

We're here to foster an environment of learning for everyone – and if we're scared to admit what we don't know, we'll never get better.

Use Slack etiquette

Use recommended Slack etiquette, especially using threads when participating in a conversation or answering questions in a live event.

• Respond to conversations in Threads
• Post in the appropriate channel
• Keep it real – use your real name and a profile picture.

If you are confused about which channel to post in, click on the All Channels link in the top left of the screen. You will then see a list of all the channels to pick from. Still not sure? Feel free to ask a channel's moderator if it's the right place to post. If there is a more appropriate channel for your post, we may ask you to move it or delete it.

Signal over Noise

Our Slack group is special because the conversations are rich, technical, and transparent. We ask you not to cross post, bump, or tag John Mueller without context.

Keep questions short

Put in the work to craft a short question. Others shouldn't have to work too hard to read or understand it.

We value our global perspectives

Respect that other people in the community have had different life experiences and may have a different perspective to yours. We welcome different viewpoints.

We will remove content that is deceptive, misleading, or goes against any other of our codes of conduct.

SEO tools rules

1. Posting negative comments about SEO tool companies and / or competitive SEO companies will not be tolerated and will lead to being kicked out of the community.
2. SEO tool companies are run by passionate folks who are working hard to produce useful tools.
3. If you don't have something constructive to add, then consider not adding anything to a dialogue.
4. No SEO tool company threadjacking. If a post is about tool A, employees from tool B shall not post in the thread to say how tool B works / is better.
5. If you work for a tool company and you reply in a conversation about your tool's features, you have to disclose that you work for tool X.
6. If you want to suggest your tool as a viable solution to the poster's problem, feel free to share about your tool in a non salesy, promotional or aggressive way. (please focus on the poster's question and please don't abuse this!!!)
7. If folks ask you a question about your tool, then have at it.

Our community is a public place

Don't post personal information that you would not be comfortable sharing with a stranger. We recommend that you don't post any information that may identify you or anyone else, such as your clients, your address, email address or phone number.

Do not tag @channel or @here in posts

The admins use this as little as possible and reserve it for key information sharing.

Jobs

• If you're looking for a job or are hiring, please post in the #jobs channel.
• If you are pitching your services / looking for more clients, post in #shameless-plug.

This is a beginner friendly community; the place for beginner questions is the #seo-for-beginners channel