Guidelines

Guidelines for Online Communities and Social Media

Thank you for visiting Women of the ELCA (WELCA) through the Women of the ELCA (WELCA) websites, online communities, and social media webpages (collectively, websites and social media for gathermagazine.org and boldcafe.org). By accessing, using, communicating and/or commenting through online comments or posts on the Women of the ELCA’s social media platforms (including, but not limited to, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest), you agree to be bound by these Guidelines for the Online Communities and Social Media (“Guidelines”), as well as Terms of Use for Women of the ELCA and websites and Privacy Policy.

Women of the ELCA reserves the right to delete posts from participants who violate these Guidelines and to suspend or terminate the right of any participant for any reason. In addition, comments posted on the Women of the ELCA’s social media platforms may be reproduced in Gather magazine or https://boldcafe.org and/or promotional materials in any medium, including but not limited to print or electronic form. If you have questions about these Guidelines, please contact Women of the ELCA.

The Guidelines

Please do:

  • Share your feedback, questions, relevant observations, and additional information.
  • Engage in collegial discussion or debate about the topic of the post.
  • Keep comments brief and to the point.
  • Flag inappropriate comments, either via the tools provided on the platform or by e-mailing [email protected]

Please do not:

  • Attack other commenters.
  • Use profanity.
  • Use language that is libelous, defamatory, obscene, threatening, offensive, demeaning, derogatory, disparaging, or abusive, or post links to content that contains any of this language.
  • Degrade others on the basis of gender, race, class, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual preference, disability, or other classification.
  • Make remarks that are off-topic.
  • Write lengthy comments beyond the scope of the original post.
  • Post spam.
  • Post commercial messages.

Women of the ELCA reserves the right to delete comments that violate any of these Guidelines. Comments that violate these Guidelines, but also offer valuable contributions may be edited or hidden by Women of the ELCA staff. Keep in mind that information posted on Women of the ELCA social media platforms are available for all to see, and comments are subject to defamation, antitrust, privacy, and other laws.

Women of the ELCA reserves the right to remove any comments for any reason at any time.

Legal Terms

Women of the ELCA is not responsible for the opinions and information posted by third parties on the Women of the ELCA social media platforms. Women of the ELCA disclaims all warranties with regard to information posted on the Women of the ELCA social media platforms, whether posted by Women of the ELCA or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall Women of the ELCA (WELCA) be liable for any special, indirect, punitive, or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data, or profits, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of any information posted on the Women of the ELCA social media platforms by third parties.

Do not post any information or other material protected by copyright without the permission of the copyright owner. In addition, by posting material, you grant to Women of the ELCA the nonexclusive, world-wide, transferable right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and use such information or other material in any way and in any medium, including but not limited to print or electronic form.

Women of the ELCA does not actively monitor all of the Women of the ELCA social media platforms and comments on on-line websites (https://welca.org, https://gathermagazine.org, https://boldcafe.org and Facebook pages and Facebook groups  belonging to Women of the ELCA for inappropriate postings and does not on its own undertake editorial control of postings. Women of the ELCA reserves the right to block any users who do not abide by these Guidelines.