A key part of any online community is the ability of its members to communicate with each other. Of course, since we are a Meetup, we do that a lot in person at our meetups. Still it is nice to know that meetup.com staff members have worked hard to provide us with the resources we can use right now. Like what?

Well we have a mailing list and a forum. Check them both out to learn more about how you can communicate with other members of The Cleveland Web Design and Development Meetup.

What kinds of things can you post on these? Well, we have a lot of professionals in the group, and it is a web design and development group right? So of course we'd probably expect to see topics related to that. You know things like questions, suggestions, neat sites you've found that teach incredibly techniques.

What about debates? Is this language better than that? Shouldn't this method be used over that? Sure why not? We're ok with it.

Hmm but what about off topic posts? You just got engaged? Your about to give your kid a new baby brother or sister? You dug this really great concert? Hey have a ball. Because while we are professionals, most of us, (ok some of us) have lives too. And learning about each other, becoming friends, is as much a part of networking as posting anything technical.

Can you post about job requests or job offers? If they are SQL or COBOL Related the answer is no. Those most only go to our Meetup Organizer (evil laugh). But any other Job Offers or Requests, sure....Ok my conscience just interrupted here and it insists that I say SQL and COBOL offers are allowed to go to others as well. Dangit!

Ok so if off topic things are allowed what about....gulp, reliigion, politics, adult ideas, porn? Ok as we all know, these kinds of topics start to move into a realm that some do not appreciate. So do we forbid them then? Well we are hard pressed on the one hand to say no you cannot, but on the other hand we want to respect all of our members. So what solution have we come up with?

Well, if you are posting on a topic that generally is a cause of some controversy, then please label your post appropriately. This way, those that want to avoid it may do so. If its a religious post or link please preface Religion:. The same with Politics:. Lastly if it is any kind of Not Safe For Work (Or Church) Please preface with NSFW:. Also if you do get into a heated debate, while name calling is of course always frowned on, we ask that you preface the post with Fight Club: Following these standards will allow all of us the freedom to post as we desire AND the freedom to only read what we are interested in. However, please do not send any of these controversial topics to the mailing list. Lots of our members use their work emails and it would be unfair to subject them to scrutiny from their employers. Non-controversial topics, social events, off topic posts, job offers and so forth may still be sent though.

Lastly please keep in mind with the forums and mailing list that they are not categorized at the moment. So as much as possible, if a topic already exists for what you want to say, please post there, rather than posting many many new topics and making it harder for folks to find the topics they were interested in. Basically if you can please keep from flooding. If a topic is of interest to only a small handful, it's not actually a bad idea to move it to a forum. Or if its a topic about another group.

Please remember these are not rules, simply requests, and we hope that all understand the reasons we are making them.

So off now to the forums and mailing list.