Minor modifications to Member Agreement

[Dave the Cook]

We've done a little fiddling with the Member Agreement. More specifically, we've tightened up a few things in the section dealing with avatars, signatures and member bios. Here's the old version:

 

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A Society member's avatar, signature and member biography (“bio”) reflect not only upon the individual member but upon the entire Society membership and the Society itself. All avatars, signatures and member bios should therefore demonstrate the highest levels of decorum and consideration.

Avatars and Personal Photos

• Avatars and personal photos must conform with the copyright guidelines with respect to images, and all other Society guidelines with respect to images. Animations are not permitted.

Signatures

• Signatures do not have to be about food, but they must be respectful and nonconfrontational, and must otherwise comply with all Society guidelines.
• Signatures may not contain religious references or remarks, any statements which mention a political party, entity, organization or individual, including activist groups, or which may reasonably be construed to make a comment either pro or con about such parties.
• Quotations should be attributed, and quotations from other Society members may only be used with permission from that member.
• Signatures may be up to five lines of standard eG Forums text as displayed in a browser set to no more than 800 pixels wide, or may occupy the equivalent space. Images are not permitted in a signature.

Member Bios

• Member bios may include any information that might be interesting to eG Forums readers. While member bios do not have to be about food, they must be respectful and nonconfrontational, and must otherwise comply with all Society guidelines.
• Member bios may not contain religious references or remarks, any statements which mention a political party, entity, organization or individual, including activist groups, or which may reasonably be construed to make a comment either pro or con about such parties.
• Member bios may be up to 4,000 characters in length, which is a little over 500 words on average.

Definitions

• Avatars and personal photos. Participating members and Society donors have the ability to upload "avatars" and "personal photos." An avatar is a small image that appears to the left of each one of a member's posts. To upload an avatar, go to Options > Edit Avatar Settings. A personal photo is a larger image that appears in the public portion of a member's profile. To upload a personal photo, go to Options > Change Personal Photo.
• Signatures. Participating members and Society donors have the ability to specify a "signature" for eG Forums posts. A signature is a small amount of text that appears below each one of a member's eG Forums posts. To create or edit a signature, go to Options > Edit Signature.
• Member bios. Participating members and Society donors have the ability to create a "member bio." A member bio is a short personal history that is part of each member’s profile. Unlike other parts of the profile, such as each member's personal contact information, which is confidential, the member bio is viewable by the public. To create or edit a member bio, go to Options > Edit Profile Info.

This policy, which is incorporated by reference in the Society for Culinary Arts & Letters member agreement, was last updated on 14 May 2006.

 

and here's the revision:

 

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A Society member's avatar, signature and member biography (“bio”) reflect not only upon the individual member but upon the entire Society membership and the Society itself. All avatars, signatures and member bios should therefore demonstrate the highest levels of decorum and consideration.
 

Avatars, Signatures and Personal Photos

• Avatars, signatures and personal photos do not have to be about food, but they must be respectful and nonconfrontational, and must otherwise comply with all Society guidelines.
• Avatars, signatures and personal photos may not contain:
  • Statements which mention or allude to a political party, entity or organization, or a non-culinary activist group, individual or issue; or
  • Statements or symbols which may reasonably be construed to make a comment either pro or con about such matters.
• Quotations should be attributed, and quotations from other Society members may only be used with permission from that member.
• Signatures may be up to five lines of standard eG Forums text as displayed in a browser set to no more than 800 pixels wide, or may occupy the equivalent space. Images are not permitted in a signature.
• Animations are not permitted.

Member Bios

• Member bios may include any information that might be interesting to eG Forums readers. While member bios do not have to be about food, they must be respectful and nonconfrontational, and must otherwise comply with all Society guidelines.
• Member bios may not contain: 
  • Statements which mention or allude to a political party, entity or organization, or a non-culinary activist group, individual or issue; or
  • Statements which may reasonably be construed to make a comment either pro or con about such matters.
• Member bios may be up to 4,000 characters in length, which is a little over 500 words on average.

Definitions

• Avatars and personal photos. Participating members and Society donors have the ability to upload "avatars" and "personal photos." An avatar is a small image that appears to the left of each one of a member's posts. To upload an avatar, go to Options > Edit Avatar Settings. A personal photo is a larger image that appears in the public portion of a member's profile. To upload a personal photo, go to Options > Change Personal Photo.
• Signatures. Participating members and Society donors have the ability to specify a "signature" for eG Forums posts. A signature is a small amount of text that appears below each one of a member's eG Forums posts. To create or edit a signature, go to Options > Edit Signature.
• Member bios. Participating members and Society donors have the ability to create a "member bio." A member bio is a short personal history that is part of each member’s profile. Unlike other parts of the profile, such as each member's personal contact information, which is confidential, the member bio is viewable by the public. To create or edit a member bio, go to Options > Edit Profile Info.

 

This policy, which is incorporated by reference in the Society for Culinary Arts & Letters member agreement, was last updated on 19 April 2018.

 

If the changes seem minor, it's because they are, and they're entirely in keeping with the spirit of the Member Agreement, and won't affect the overwhelming majority of our members.

 

We've combined the first two bulleted sections, and made the rules for avatars, signatures and personal photos identical. We've tweaked the language in that section and the section on bios to clarify what is and isn't allowed in these areas. Especially, please note that we allow references to culinarily-related activist entities and issues, but not to other activist causes. It's also worth noting that non-compliance with this rule is also likely to trigger an instance of confrontation (the previous rule), though that's not to say that the two are inextricably linked.

 

If you're logging in from Facebook, or using Gravatar, you are not relieved of the responsibility to comply with these rules.

 

We don't edit the Member Agreement lightly. We've done this in the interest of keeping the forums as free of non-food politics as possible.