Community Guidelines

1. Be Supportive.

There's a single reason we're members, because we recognise that working for yourself can be challenging, and we want to support each other in doing that. Regardless of your type of employment, the purpose of our group is support, to both offer and receive it.

All of our groups are open-channels, there is no membership criteria. We do not have groups which are only for certain sub-groups of our community (i.e. by gender or by interest). This is intentional.

2. Listen before you post.

Spend some time in the community before you post. Browse the channels, read others messages, understand the tone and intention of the content before you start posting - it'll help you get better responses to your requests and comments. Of course, you're welcome to introduce yourself at any time, and there's no obligation to ever post - we are very happy for people to lurk, listen and like as long as they wish.

When you do choose to post - please select the appropriate channel for your message, i.e. #lounge for general chat, #askanything for advice. You might be asked to repost in a different channel if your message is not in the best place - this helps our members find relevant content.

Please don't post the same message in multiple channels.

3. No judgement. No shoulds.

What works for you might not work for others, please don't make judgement calls on anyone's behaviours, decisions or actions - as it is entirely possible you don't have the whole story.

Ask questions, try to understand, but don't ever say something is right or wrong. If you're offering advice, please don't say "you should...", try starting with sharing what has worked for you, or things that you've tried in the past, and offer it up as experience, rather than advice.

And remember - nuance, sarcasm and humour doesn't isn't always obvious, be mindful in how you're saying things that could be misunderstood.

4. No marketing, selling or soliciting.

Marketing is not allowed inside Leapers.

Please do not post any messages which are selling or offering your skills, services, products or that of a third party you're connected to. Within #findafreelancer - you are allowed to respond to requests for services if people have asked for those skills. We may delete or ask for you to edit or remove your message if you are marketing within the community.

Please do not PM/DM other members of the community with unsolicited messages. This may include (but not limited to) offers of services, marketing, gathering insight or personal/private introductions.

Wherever possible, keep your conversations in public spaces. We're completely happy for our members to continue a conversation offline/in private if appropriate, but unsolicited / initiating private conversations without invitation should be avoided.

The exception to this is where you wish to talk to a Community Host.

5. No insight gathering.

Please do not post requests for market research, research, insight gathering, product validation, feedback on a product or service, or to gather the experiences and opinions of our members for commercial benefit. Whilst we welcome individuals asking for the experience and wisdom of others, Leapers is not a source of market research for your product or service. If you're unsure, please ask a community host before you post.