Reef2Reef is welcoming, family friendly and flame free! Just a reminder and thank you!

revhtree

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Hello Reef2Reefers!

Here at Reef2Reef we are very proud of the positive, friendly, and welcoming community we have. It has always been our desire to set the bar for being a forum that is a place where hobbyists of all ages, backgrounds, and levels of experience can feel included and accepted. We started out small, but over the last 13 years we have grown to be the largest saltwater aquarium community on the internet. With that growth, we are more diverse than ever with members from all over the world in all walks of life. However, even with our growth, our values remain the same.

As of late, we have seen an uptick in negativity around the forum, and so we are writing to ask for your help as a member of our community to help us keep Reef2Reef the awesome and welcoming place it has always been. Now, most of our membership has continued to stay positive and is still very helpful, encouraging, and that's why R2R is a great place to be! However, this post is to ask for your help in continuing the climb to keep R2R awesome and make it even better! We take our "Be Nice" rule very seriously...in fact, we've even placed it in our site policies! For those who may be unfamiliar with our Terms of Service or maybe who haven't reviewed them in a while, here's a LINK to review those. Here are some of the most important parts regarding this particular issue:

Be Courteous:

  • We aim to ensure that the forum is an enjoyable place that you want to visit time and time again. Our underlying philosophy is that the strength of the member relationships we build here is what sets us apart from the other boards - we are friendlier, more civil, more insightful, more mature and more fun.
  • R2R encourages the beneficial exchange of information, ideas, and opinions and we expect members to do so respectfully and thoughtfully. Personal attacks on others will not be tolerated.
  • Do not post unsubstantiated gossip, libelous remarks or directly misleading information.
  • Trolling or cyber-bullying are NOT allowed and are grounds for account restriction or banishment. Harassment, stalking or predatory behavior will result in account suspension.
  • Be mindful of yourself and others. This forum is not a democracy; it is privately owned. If rules are violated we retain the right at our discretion to remove, edit or delete posts and, if necessary, ban or remove members. Any abuse toward our staff may/will result in immediate suspension of your account. Complaints about moderator decisions may not be made in posts; instead send a private message to a moderator. If a moderator deletes or edits one of your posts and you disagree with the action, contact the moderator concerned. Do not repost deleted material.
  • We take the "be nice" rule VERY seriously! We do not tolerate ANY rudeness.
Be Appropriate:

  • Please don't post it here if you wouldn't say it to your grandmother. Posts containing explicit, obscene or vulgar language, images or links to websites with adult content/images or punctuation marks designed to "trick" our obscenity filter will be removed. There is a zero tolerance of profanity, vulgarity and masked vulgarity; any posts which contain such are subject to deletion. R2R prides itself in being a family friendly and work safe website and we ask that members keep it that way. Posting of topics containing situations or products that are not family and under age friendly is not permitted. Political discussions, statements, or rants are strictly prohibited.
Be Welcoming:

  • Welcome newcomers to our growing community. Many of our community's members have a wealth of knowledge and much to share. Please help new members learn about how to find information and resources and how to get involved in the Community.

Starting today, we are beginning an initiative to specifically re-energize the positive, friendly culture we value here at R2R and to turn back from the negativity that has been slowly creeping in as of late.

PLEASE KNOW we are not opposed to friendly, healthy, and even intense debate of hobby issues. In fact, we value these types of discussions. It is healthy debate and pushing the limits that actually has led to many of the great breakthroughs and innovations in this hobby. However, we believe that even in disagreements, we can all treat each other respectfully and civilly. In fact, it's mutual respect that is at the foundation of any healthy debate around an issue. However, when any of us resorts to insulting or attacking one another, we have immediately left the importance of the issue and fallen into a level of arguing that isn't healthy and isn't tolerated here.

So we are asking all of our members to:

  1. Continue to focus on sharing your experiences and enjoyment of this great hobby of ours! We love seeing you post about your reef, your learning, your questions, your innovations, and your struggles in this hobby. We love to enjoy reefing together, and we love to help one another with questions and issues in the reef journey.
  2. Be encouraging to one another! A kind and encouraging word goes a long way and is helpful!
  3. Avoid negativity. If you find yourself getting heated in a debate, maybe take a step back. Read what you're writing and ask how you might receive it if it was sent to you. Let's all follow the Golden Rule and treat each other as we want to be treated.
  4. Report issues as you see them. Sometimes we can get sucked into debates that turn sour and we're tempted to respond to negativity with negativity. Don't fall to it! Instead, please report it so that our staff can review and address it. There is a small report button at the bottom of every post.

Thanks to all of you for taking the time to read this. We appreciate the way that most of you continue to embody the values of R2R! Please help us to keep making this forum one of the greatest places on the internet! You guys rock!

R2R Staff
 

Peace River

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Thanks for re-sharing these boundaries! Just one more thing that makes R2R a special place!
 

sghera64

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What about adding a new kind of “like” button? I would put a halo on it. And I would award the “halo button” to those posts that bring calm, peace, focus or order to a thread that begins to unwind, melt down, or spin out of control. Just a thought.
 

Dempsey941

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The only flame we should see.
1572316700034.jpeg
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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Good job

Also still preserved, hearty battles on procedure X efficacy practicality etc

the passion doesn't have to leave in order to continue being the best reef forum available. How we treat each other interpersonally needs to remain in the highest regard. The mods set a perfect unison here about how to treat posters, and regulate when needed.

That 100% consistency among managers here is what's growing us and setting this site apart.

Hobby evolution is sometimes in deeply hearty borderline back and forth, pages of science debates. It's nice these tend to self regulate here, and still get some calories burning too. That's good energy it doesn't have to always be 100% roses, I like this balance we have. Haven't seen a hearty debate thread in a while but do recall some nice ones like typewritten coliseum action, all participants willing and having fun.

There needs to be accountability for poor science conveyed, but finding a balance always seemed pretty natural for r2r
 
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erk

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@revhtree thank you for posting this. I really hope it helps. I've noticed the negativity has been increasing and for the first time in 5 yrs of being on this site I've had to ignore users. I've been visiting the site less and less each day. I've even stopped checking new threads and just view the few threads I follow due to the increased toxicity and over opinionated individuals that seem to constantly lurk on here now.
 
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revhtree

revhtree

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Thank you everyone for the affirmation. There is already so much negativity in the world we don't need it mixed in our hobby! I understand people get passionate about things but no need to get personally at any level. I've been there and made the mistakes of getting sucked into arguments so no stones being thrown here. Just a reminder that we're going to continue to be the most friendly forum on the planet! :)
 

ScottR

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Thank you everyone for the affirmation. There is already so much negativity in the world we don't need it mixed in our hobby! I understand people get passionate about things but no need to get personally at any level. I've been there and made the mistakes of getting sucked into arguments so no stones being thrown here. Just a reminder that we're going to continue to be the most friendly forum on the planet! :)
I used to frequent guitar forums back in the 90’s as I was just beginning the hobby. The big heads there kept me away from forums forever. I actually had been on R2R reading stuff for the longest time, geeking out on hitchhiker threads and finally decided to join earlier this year. I felt like I knew a lot of the people here, although I had never directly interacted with them. I then decided to join and also got a few of my local friends on here as well. Never regretted it once.
 

MrWheelock

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Great place, love the forum! Honestly wont go anywhere else. Keep up the great work! Thanks for all you do Rev, and #MODS even you @Brew12 for the forum and the community. God Bless,and happy reefing!
 
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