Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

- Please treat other members courteously, as though you were a guest in their home
- We would like new members to post a very short intro on the Introduction thread and participate in the discussion of one selected book per year
- Welcome new members to the group once they have introduced themselves; it makes everyone feel more comfortable
-Conduct both civil and respectful conversation
-Be responsive to moderators in terms of event notifications (3 this year) with either a yes, no or a maybe so we do not have to chase you down
-Be responsive to voting and polls
-Be able to post on any one of the threads or in the Coffee, Tea, Conversation topic threads at least once or twice a month
- Participate in a buddy read, spotlighted read or any series read or discussion at least once per year
-Please read and follow the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Terms of Use document and the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Guidelines especially for user content. We take these very seriously.
-When recommending or posting information about any books, all members must add the book cover and the author's photo and the author's link, if available. When citing just an author, add the photo if available of the author and always the author's link. This allows the goodreads software to access helpful information regarding both the book and the author as these links populate fields across the group's location. A very useful tool for group members.
-Nobody has the right to abuse anyone verbally, to spam the forum, or make offensive remarks, including but not limited to posts that include racism, sexism, or comments derogatory to another’s sexuality, religion or ethnic background. We ask that group members refrain from hate speech, gratuitous rudeness, threats, self-promotion, and spam. The moderators of HBC reserve the right to remove posts in violation of these guidelines at their discretion, and to remove offenders from the group. Everyone is welcome here.
-Arguments are a part of the forum experience. Opinions on The History Book Club site are diverse and sometimes directly polarized. We all love reading threads where there are many opposing ideas, but any differences must be addressed with respect.
- We will not tolerate when individuals go beyond these boundaries� it’s not fun to read and destroys community atmosphere. Keep the arguments restricted to books and ideas, please don’t attack any group member or the moderators. Any attacks on any member of the moderation team is an automatic warning. If it persists, you will be a group short.
- We have zero tolerance for flaming, flamebaiting, spam, bookspam, self promotion, ads, marketing, attempts to sell something, use of our membership list for self promotion of any kind, trolls or trolling. There are serious repercussions for any of these practices or posting styles. We also do not allow any posting of links or self promotion of other goodreads sites, other external sites, or other urls used to promote the member in "any" way.
- Remember no marketing; no posting the same post all over the place announcing you are an author, a writer or a publisher and how many books you have written or published. We do not want to be sold to, marketed to, nor is our site a platform to advertise your books or anything else you may be marketing. So please be careful even in your intros and contact one of the mods if you are in doubt "before you post". We delete all such posts immediately. See the thread - How to Get Started - our Orientation thread - for additional details. We take spam seriously. NO SELF PROMOTION PERIOD. Do not tell us about your books at any time. Also, make sure that if you want to talk about a book, post your thoughts here - we are not interested in your trying to gather numerous "likes" for your personal reviews. We are interested in hearing your thoughts about a book on our site; we are not interested in getting directions to link to your blog, your reviews, your profile elsewhere. It would appear to us that you are using our thread to promote something else that you have done or doing somewhere else rather that contributing to the camaraderie here at the HBC.
- All of the moderators are unpaid volunteers and are working hard to provide an environment of respect, civility and comraderie. All group members must follow the lead of the moderators if they make a recommendation for the group on a thread. They make these suggestions to keep discussions moving and to provide a proper environment for civil discourse. If a member purposely disrupts the community atmosphere or challenges the recommendations of the moderators who are just trying to instruct and assist with the implementation of the group's rules and guidelines; it is at the discretion of the moderator team or group leader whether the member is removed immediately. We are most concerned for the well being and atmosphere of the group and the safety and security of our members.
- Membership is at the discretion of the leader in all instances - disrupting the community atmosphere, morale and/or team spirit by challenging the guidelines, leader, moderators, group rules or policies and procedures, or challenging any directives for personal reasons or just simply because you do not want to follow specific group rules or guidelines are just some examples of situations where it is best for all concerned that the member moves on. Additionally, if we discover that we cannot even send you a message regarding our rules and guidelines or to discuss various situations - then we do not continue to offer membership. We need to be able to reach our members by PM. We are volunteers and we want members who do not mind being contacted when necessary by the moderators and leaders of the group regarding rules, guidelines, procedures, etc.
If a member persists in not following the moderator's guidance on any thread - all such posts may be deleted. Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ is a vast environment of various groups and we want you to find what you are looking for. Also, each group has different rules and guidelines. We are a happy group and we like steady, stable, calm, considerate, kind and civil, respectful, mature discussions and behavior as well as considerate interpersonal, non threatening interactions.

- REGARDING SET UP OF THREADS OR FOLDERS:

- Please do not set up random threads or folders or use the discussion question feature in the HBC. We welcome suggestions and the moderators do discuss all suggestions to see if they fit in with the direction and focus of the group while at the same time avoiding any duplications. Use of our suggestion box is encouraged and recommended. Some groups on goodreads may use and allow this feature, we do not.

- Any arbitrary or ad hoc threads, discussion questions, or folder etc. set up in violation of our guidelines will be deleted. This is nothing personal. We only allow moderators to set up new threads and folders to avoid potential duplication of threads, folders, spam, self promotion, flaming, trolling, or marketing. If you set up one of these, it will be deleted automatically; we will not send out any PMs regarding any of these deletions.

- REGARDING PRIVATE FOLDERS - IF YOU HAVE ONE - READ THIS:

This is the link: /topic/show/...

- MODERATORS OF OTHER GROUPS - A MUST READ:

This is the link: /topic/show/...

- WARNINGS AND REPERCUSSIONS

- Some abuses to the above guidelines result in an immediate warning. Continued abuses will result in a second, and final, warning. Persistent abuse after the two warnings will result in a ban from The History Book Club. However, some abuses may be so flagrant and disruptive that a ban may result immediately for the safety or morale of the group. We do not allow ads, marketing, spam, self-promotion, flaming, flamebaiting, trolls and/or trolling, disruption of morale or group camaraderie.

- Because we want a friendly atmosphere where everyone will be able to enjoy themselves including the moderators, we have felt the need to post the guidelines for all new and old group members. There are always some who disregard the needs of others; so unfortunately we must define what the guidelines are up front.

- Additionally, here are the links to the goodreads terms and a link to the author guidelines:

http://www.goodreads.com/about/terms

http://www.goodreads.com/author/guide...

- If you have problems with the mechanics of the board and need more detailed tips of how to add book covers, photos of the author when available and the author's link..please go to the Mechanics of the Board thread:

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...

- We look forward to your participation and have these rules and guidelines to maintain the high standards of the group and to protect the membership, its moderators, admins and leaders. During the thirteen years that the History Book Club has been on goodreads - 99% of the time - everything goes smoothly and there are no issues - the group members are knowledgeable, helpful, respectful of each other and we have had great discussions. However, the rules and guidelines are for the 1% - virtual environments have anonymity and things that would never be said or done face to face are sometimes posted in the internet world. These rules and guidelines are for that 1%. We are happy to welcome you to the group and being a global group we have members from 171 different countries.

- All are welcome.

Bentley