No one likes rules, but here are some guidelines to make this community the best it can be.
Be Kind
As stated in our terms of service, no hateful, untruthful, or private info should be posted in this community. This won’t be tolerated. We’re always up for a good debate, but when it starts to get to the name calling level that you see in the Facebook comments or on Twitter often, that’s not at all what this community is about.
No Blatant Spam
Spam is really good in Spam Musubi, but not so good here. We definitely want to help promote surfing entrepreneurs, but there’s a right way to do things that are subtle and not in-your-face spam and UNSOLICITED pitches for your product or service. A shout out here and there for something you’re proud and could be helpful to the community is perfectly fine, just balance that with the other activity you contribute to the community.
We’re working on some ways to allow those who are active in the community (including blog contributors) to place free advertising messages within it as well as offer supporting member type sponsorships, but for now, you can always advertise on our site via Google ads and use us our website a placement (it costs money to build, host, maintain, and moderate the site).
In addition, if no group has been created, feel free to create one and have an opportunity to manage promotions how you see fit. For example, if you create a surf gear group, that is a natural place to promote products in an organic way from those asking questions about surf related gear.
If people ask for info, provide it to them, if you can help, that’s a no brainer! Now I know there’s people who will plant people to ask questions so they can be the solution, so we’re onto that tactic and it’s fine, as long as it seems authentic, but we just want others to know we’re onto it ?
Blog Post Contributions
As a unique feature to our community, our members are able to post their own blogs for deeper articles on surf related topics. Although this is allowed, we approve all articles for submission and are focused on publishing content that provides value to surfers worldwide and is unique.
Our initial focus is to offer local surf spot guides from locals in your area, stories from surf trips, or other surf training/gear/surf life advice. We allow links back to your site if the article is unique and provides value beyond the link/products you are promoting.
Group Creation
We want groups to be unique so they will be permitted to be created on a first come first serve basis. For example, we don’t need two San Diego Surfer Groups. Unlike Facebook, there’s also the opportunity to have sub groups within one overall group.
For example, you can create a Tourmaline Surf Spot crew sub group and assign it under the overall San Diego surfer main group. To keep people active and since we’re just starting out, we recommend you require membership to the top level group in order to be able to be a member of a sub group. You might have a better chance to grow your group at first if you start big and can always narrow it down once your group grows.