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Community Guidelines:

*Disclaimer 1: By posting in the community, you are giving consent to StartupNation to reuse, repurpose, quote or otherwise use information, statistics, articles, etc., at its will.

*Disclaimer 2: This is a free-posting community. The views of StartupNation are not necessarily reflected by the discussions and comments posted from our community members. 

Thank you for taking the time to review the StartupNation community guidelines. These guidelines have been put in place to explain what is expected from our users, to help you become a valuable member and to ensure our users’ experience is positive and respectful. The purpose of the forums is for like-minded individuals – CEOs, small business owners, entrepreneurs, startup founders/employees, managers, marketers and more – to connect with each other, provide valuable insights and learn what it takes to succeed in business. Always keep that in mind. 



1. Keep it professional: Every post should make a positive contribution to the community and should be suitable for all users. The community is open to all opinions and views on each of our business-related topics and subtopics. We encourage mature, polite debate and expect disagreements. However, we will remove any post or reply that includes derogatory, racist, abusive, offensive, obscene, violent or inappropriate content of any kind. Always interact with other users respectfully, as you would in any professional setting. 

2. Stay on topic, post relevant content: Good contributions help the entire community by providing relevant, insightful information or asking important questions related to small business, entrepreneurship, startups, marketing or other related fields. If your post contains anything unrelated to the forum or article topic, it may be removed. If it includes spam, such as irrelevant links, viruses, duplicate copy from other websites or overly self-promoting content, it will absolutely be removed.

3. Banning/deleting users and spam: StartupNation reserves the right to delete a user’s account, as well as ban the user from the forum without warning. If a user posts irrelevant links, links to illegal products or software, derogatory or disrespectful content or another act we deem as inappropriate and/or spam or malware, that user will be banned.


Feel free to share an informative link when services or articles are relevant to the topic and can be helpful. Otherwise, your content should only include your insights, advice, comments or questions related to the topic. There is also a signature option available on your posts, where website links may be placed. The signature space is where we prefer company links to be posted. Please note that a member must reach Bronze Level membership (10 posts) to add a signature. 

We consider spam to be anything that is irrelevant, inappropriate, illegal, malicious or overly promotional. We solely reserve the right to determine what we consider as spam and what we do not. If you think your post may contain spam, chances are it does. 
 Users may report posts with spam by clicking the “Flag” button on the reaction bar. 

4. Honesty is the best policy: The intended use and most basic function of the StartupNation community is to be used for the helpful exchange of information between members. False, inaccurate, or otherwise misleading information is not helpful. Please be sincere in your community participation by only contributing content you know is accurate, and does not misrepresent your identity or your business qualifications. Failure to comply with this guideline may also get you banned or deleted. 

5. Personal introductions to the community: If you would simply like to introduce yourself (and your business) to other members, you may do so in our “New Member Welcome” forum. This is located in the “Lobby” section near the bottom of our forum topics. Please keep introduction-related posts in this section of the community, otherwise they may be moved or deleted by community moderators or admins. 

6. Do not use this forum as a marketing channel: A post or reply with the sole purpose of self-promotion or the pushing of products and links only benefits the person who writes it, not the community as a whole. Likewise, unsolicited advertising adds distracting clutter and irrelevant content to the forums. Please respect the community's mission by not using it as a marketing channel or submitting any content you've been paid or otherwise rewarded by a third party to write or post. The community is not a personal marketing channel for your business, and this would be yet another example of spam. Also, please refrain from directly copying and pasting articles from your website or third party sites into a forum post. 

7. Proper attribution of content: Help us maintain the community's reputation and observe the intellectual property rights of others by only submitting content you have personally written or else properly attributed. When posting content that is not yours, please cite the name of the author, website, publication or entity. The community should not be used to distribute unauthorized copies of any copyrighted material. 

8. Respect the privacy of others: While we would advise against sharing private information, it is your choice, and solely your choice, to decide whether or not to share personal information about yourself or your business. Any post or reply that includes another user's (other than yourself) postal or email addresses, phone numbers, or other contact information will be removed immediately.

9. Posting etiquette: Once again, your posts should be respectful and relevant to the community. When posting, use the English language only. Try to refrain from using internet slang, symbols, special characters, all capital letters or derogatory language. Also, please do not post a link without explaining the source it is coming from and why it is relevant to the forum topic. Please try to follow standard online etiquette. 

10. This is your community. Take care of it: The community is designed for the enjoyment and education of its members. If you notice content within the community that does not abide by the guidelines, please report it to our site moderators or administrators  by selecting “Report," located under the "Flag" option on the reaction bar. Please note that deliberate misuse of the “Report” function can result in your account being banned from the community. 

11. Account Cancellation: While there is currently no charge for any feature of the community forums, StartupNation reserves the right to change this at any time, at which time current users will have 30 days to cancel their accounts or subscribe under the new model.
 If you wish to have your account removed, please contact a site admin. 

Images: 

We at StartupNation encourage our community members to upload a profile picture or avatar to their accounts. We also allow images to be uploaded into posts. With that said, please keep in mind this is a professional community of entrepreneurs, business owners, startup employees, marketers and more. We expect your imagery to reflect that.

StartupNation reserves the right to delete images deemed inappropriate. To ensure your image is acceptable, make certain it does not contain the following: 

Copyright Infringement: Any images that do not belong to the member cannot be used unless that member was given permission to use it. Please use original images if possible. An example of a copyrighted image would be using the likeness of the Nike logo or a photo of Batman.


Obscenity, Nudity or Vulgarity: Any image that is explicit, pornographic, or obscene will not be tolerated. For instance, a nude person, or a person with their middle finger raised. 


Violent, Illegal or Inappropriate Behavior: Any image that depicts violence, illegal activity, self-harm or similar content depicting inappropriate acts. For instance, drug usage or a person holding a gun pointed at himself/herself or another person.


Impersonation: Pretending to be a celebrity or famous person, such as the president of the United States, or another well-known public figure. This can also be the impersonation of a StartupNation staff member or community member. For example, pretending to be a StartupNation community moderator or official of StartupNation, LLC., or another StartupNation community user. 

Racism, Discrimination or Hate Speech: Any offensive imagery or words directed toward other members of the community. Examples include images that are derogatory based upon skin color, disability, ethnicity, gender, nationality, race, religion, or sexual orientation.