Content Guidelines
Self Promotion: If you are a professional/contractor, it is against Hometalk’s guidelines to post pure, unsolicited advertisements of your services or products in the Activity feed. You can address a specific question with some useful feedback and then offer further help. You can also mention your services in the context of a posted picture showcasing a job you’d like to share so that the community can see your work. We consider “here’s what I did” photos to be useful, thought-provoking and appealing. Frankly, the most productive way to get visibility on the site is to post useful answers to members’ questions. This will give your Profile page a much better ranking and better exposure. As more users are drawn to your Profile, they will see the information you posted about your business, including your phone number and website.
Copying Content: All content in your post must be original. Neither the text or photos can be copied from a web site that does not belong to you. You can make mention of content on another site, but it cannot be the subject of the post, and full credit must be attributed to the source, including a link.
Giveaways: Hometalk posts cannot be promotions for giveaways on your site.
Linky Parties: It's okay to post about a linky party provided that the post includes content - photos and meaningful text about the projects being featured. You cannot just post a link or generic invitation to a linky party.
Questions: In order to help others, both now and in the future, it’s important to keep every discussion thread focused and on topic. If you have a related question, please create a new thread — don’t just ask a new question that is only somewhat relevant to the current one. When asking, please be as specific as possible and if you can, share a picture! The more information you add, the better it will help people understand exactly what you mean, and help them respond. It’s always great to acknowledge the users who helped you out by marking their answer as “Useful.”
Answers: We think of Hometalk as a community, not simply a Q&A site. When answering a question or commenting on a picture, even if you have a critique, your tone should be friendly and constructive. Try and be as specific as possible and provide a picture if applicable. Once you respond to a post, it’s always appreciated if you respond again, should the asker request more information.
Reviews: Hometalk offers you the ability to review contractors who have recently completed work for you. While naturally we hope that you’ve had a positive experience and wish to share the details, sometimes a review must include negative comments to serve as warnings for potential future customers. This honesty is an important part of our review structure, but we ask that all critique be specific, detailed and direct, so that should the contractor wish to clarify, he/she can address the specific issue fairly.
Pictures and Videos: When you upload, please add useful text within the caption and description. It will help all of us understand what you’re showing us. Obviously, Hometalk will not allow lewd or inappropriate images and these will be removed at our discretion.
Closing threads: Be sure to “close” your thread, marking it “Resolved” when you’ve received a satisfactory reply (you also have the option not to close it and request more information). This allows other Hometalkers to move on and help answer other open questions. We’ll sometimes send you a note to remind you about these “open” questions.
Inappropriate content: Name-calling, personal attacks, using offensive graphic imagery or an overly aggressive or harsh tone or other inappropriate behavior will not be tolerated and may result in the cancellation of your account.
Private Messaging: We provide a messaging system to contact other Hometalkers directly. Please do not use it to harass, promote or send inappropriate content. The same rules that apply to public postings apply here.
Privacy: Posting pictures of other people and/or their personal information without permission is strictly forbidden.
Copyright: You may only post material and content that you own. Posting copyrighted material, trademarks and other violations of the DMCA is prohibited.