Business.gov - The Official Business Link to the U.S. Government
Community Rules of Conduct and Disclaimer
Community Overview
The Business.gov Community site provides open, publicly accessible forums and communication tools for entrepreneurs and small business owners to learn, share and discuss practical solutions to everyday business problems with each other, industry experts, and experts at government agencies.
By registering as a member of the Business.gov Community, users may post to forums, blogs, and use other online resources for sharing information with other members. They may also share information about themselves and their businesses in their user profile.
These member-contributed resources and user profiles are moderated by the Business.gov team, which includes employees and contractors of the U.S. Small Business Administration and partner agencies.
Rules of Conduct
All member-contributed resources and user profiles are post moderated by the Business.gov team. Any contribution that does not meet these rules of conduct will be removed.
1. Comments and contributions should be descriptive, succinct, and relevant to discussion or forum topic. Responses to forum threads or blog posts should be on topic and pertain to the discussion. You may start a new discussion that would otherwise be off-topic in a current thread. Moderators may move an off-topic thread to another appropriate forum, close threads or delete off topic posts at their discretion.
2. We encourage community members to have open and candid discussions and debates. We will not censor members for expressing an opinion within the limits of these Rules of Conduct. However, all communications should be civil and polite. Community members should treat each other with respect and consideration for all points of view. Please remember that this is a public venue read by many people of all ages, from around the world, spanning all walks of life.
3. The Business.gov Community may not be used to post, transmit or provide hyperlinks or pointers to material that is knowingly false and/or defamatory; contain ad hominem attacks, misleading, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening or invasive of a person's privacy; that otherwise violates any law; or that encourages conduct constituting a criminal offense.
4. Nicknames that might be deemed abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise inappropriate are not allowed and will be removed.
5. Nicknames that are intended to mislead others will be removed. Such nicknames include but are not limited to using nicknames that impersonate competitors, other community members, government employees , elected officials, or any other individual or entity.
6. Sock puppet accounts are not permitted. A sock puppet is an account made on an Internet message board by a person who already has an account for the purpose of posting anonymously or as a different user. Please use your own account for posting personal opinions. Posts from known sock puppet accounts will result in deletion of the posts and sock puppet accounts.
7. Advertising: The Business.gov Community may not be used to advertise or promote businesses, products or services. However, Community members may user their profile page to share information about themselves, their businesses, products, services and personal and professional background.
8. The Business.gov Community may not be used to post, transmit or provide hyperlinks or pointers to press releases, newsletters, websites, or any other type of content that aims to solely promote one’s business, product or service. However Community members may use their profile page to share information about their business, products, or services, including hyperlinks to their commercial websites.
9. The Business.gov Community may not be used to post material that is protected by copyright, trademark or other proprietary right without the express permission of the owner(s) of said copyright, trademark or other proprietary right.
10. Email excerpts of any type or length are not allowed to be posted in community forums, blogs or other tools.
11. To protect the privacy of community members, and the privacy of others, Community members may not include anyone’s personal information or personally identifiable information such as names, addresses, phone numbers or e-mail addresses, or social security numbers in any forum, blog, or other member contributed area. By default, personal information (except e-mail addresses) you choose to include in your user profile can be viewed by the general public. However, you may choose to make your personal information private so no one can view it; or you can choose to share personal information only with certain members of the Community.
12. Spam: Posting the same message, or an unsolicited commercial message, to one or many topics or boards is considered spam and will be removed . Duplicate messages may be deleted or consolidated by a Moderator.
13. Access Permissions: Abusive and harassing behavior or any actions that violate these Rules of Conduct may result in suspension of your ability to post to forums and other member-contributed areas. Account suspensions may be appealed to a Moderator.
14. Private discussions: Sometimes, a discussion thread strays off into a friendly dialogue or a heated debate among a very small number of users. For these exchanges, we ask that you take these discussions outside the Business.gov Community.
User Profiles
Community members may create personalized profiles, and opt to include personal identifiable information about themselves to everyone who visits the Business.gov website or select members of the community. Except for email, by default any information you supply about yourself is publicly viewable by anyone who visits Business.gov. You may change who can view your personal profile or portions of your profile. Except where noted above, the content of personal profiles is subject the same Rules of Conduct as the forums, blogs and other member contributed content.
Guest Contributors
Occasionally, the Business.gov team will invite guest bloggers from industry and government to contribute their expertise. Please read the disclaimer below concerning the views expressed in contributions from guest contributors.
Moderators
The Business.gov Community is moderated by the Business.gov team, which includes employees and contractors of the U.S. Small Business Administration and partner agencies.
We recognize that the Web is a 24/7 medium, and your comments are welcome at any time. Given the need to manage Federal resources effectively, however, we will generally review comments and contributions from 9:00 a.m—5:00 p.m Eastern Time, Monday through Friday. We will read and respond to comments submitted after hours, on weekends, or on holidays as early as possible the next business day.
Privacy Policy
The privacy of users and members of the Community is very important, and we encourage you to read the Business.gov Privacy Policy.
Disclaimer
Except when specifically noted, any views or opinions expressed on the Business.gov Community forums, blogs or member-contributed resources are those of the individual contributors. The views and posted comments do not necessarily reflect those of the Business Gateway Program Office, the U.S. Small Business Administration, partner agencies, or the Federal government.
Information on the Business.gov Community site is provided as a service to the Internet community, and does not constitute legal advice. Business.gov aims to provide quality and accurate information, but we make no claims, promises or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained in or linked to by Business.gov. Since laws and regulations change frequently, nothing provided herein should be used as a substitute for the advice of an attorney.
Additional Documents
These Rules of Conduct are published and updated simultaneously on the Business.gov Community site in the guidelines and help area.
This document was last updated on February 27, 2009
