Community Forum Guidelines

Be considerate.
If you have a pattern of dishonoring or disrespecting people because of who they are and what they do, rather than honoring them in spite of who they are and what they do, this forum may not be the best fit for you.
Positive encouragement goes a lot further than criticism. Destructive criticism is not acceptable in our forums.
Do not gossip, defame, lie, make unsubstantiated claims, slander, or question motives. Speculation, trolling, or suggesting or propagating rumors will not be tolerated.
Do not share private communications publicly without the author’s permission. This includes copying and pasting/paraphrasing emails, text messages, private messages (PMs), or other private communications.
Do not post profanity, vulgar material, or material intended for adult or “mature” audiences.
Do not conduct yourself in a way that intentionally causes distress, embarrassment, unwanted attention, or other discomforts to any other individual.
Backcountry Foodie strives to promote a culture of inclusion. Do not discriminate, harass, use names or slurs, or engage in other types of behavior that can be construed as discrimination or harassment, on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, marital status, citizenship, national origin, or any other characteristic.
Do not post chain letters, spam, advertisements (except for commercial postings that are specifically allowed in selected forums), or other types of promotional material.
Do not deviate from the primary topic of the forum thread.
Do not discuss politics, religion, and other identity-based subjects within the forums and/or threads. Such posts are subject to removal without notification.
Do not “bump” threads.
Your membership does not entitle you to the right to post whatever you like. Rather, it comes with posting privileges and responsibilities. You are an honored guest in our forums. Have fun with each other, but act in a way that brings honor to yourself and builds up our community.
Sarcasm and satire do not translate well in written communications. Err on the side of sincere communications rather than hidden meanings that have the potential to offend or hurt somebody. Moderators and others will receive your communications literally, so write carefully and with intentionality.
Doxing will result in your account being terminated and a permanent ban from our forums.

This list is not necessarily exhaustive. We reserve the right to prohibit any type of conduct that we feel may be harmful to any of the members of our community.

How to Report a Concerning Post to Moderators

If you discover a post that you feel violates any of these guidelines, please contact the moderators via [email protected].

How to Address Moderation Issues

Other feedback regarding more systematic abuse of forum guidelines by a particular user, questions about moderation, or other moderation issues should be emailed to the moderators at [email protected].

Please do not email moderators personally. This is to ensure consistent communications about moderation issues between users and our moderation team. Our moderator team includes the following people: Aaron Owens Mayhew, MS, RDN, CD (Forum Admin, Owner/Founder) and Kellan Morgan, RDN (Moderator, Staff Dietitian).

Moderation issues will not be discussed publicly in the forums, and posts/threads about moderation are subject to deletion or closure.

Moderation Practices for Violations

Consequences of violating these forum guidelines will result in one or more of the following, depending on whether or not the violation is a repeat offense and the severity of the offense.

Deletion of the violating post (or entire thread) by a moderator. Violations usually result in deletion without communicating with the poster. What constitutes “severity” is at the sole discretion of the moderator. Reasons, why a particular post was deleted, will generally not be communicated in the forums. If a post was deleted, and the user desires further explanation, they are welcome to contact the forum admins within 72 hours. Deleted posts are permanently removed from the database after 72 hours in order to keep our databases clean and queries running smoothly.
Editing the violating post with a note that the post was “Edited by mod“, usually with a reference link back to this document. More detailed explanations will not be given in this context in order to protect the confidentiality and not embarrass the post author.
A private message may or may not be sent to the author of the violating post with an explanation/warning/reference/suggestion. We are unable to do this for all violating posts, depending on moderator workloads.
*Partially locking the user’s account to prevent them from posting (temporary or permanent), with or without preserving their posts in the forums; a full refund of membership fees may or may not be issued if the ban is permanent, and remains at the sole discretion of the Moderator.
*Completely locking the user’s account to prevent them from logging in and accessing member services and privileges (temporary or permanent), with or without preserving their posts in the forums; a full refund of membership fees may or may not be issued if the ban is permanent, and remains at the sole discretion of the Moderator.
Moderation of users who post under an alias tends to be stricter and comes with fewer (or no) explanations than moderation of users who use their real identities.
Users who violate forum guidelines repeatedly may be subject to having their posts enter a moderation queue for approval prior to being displayed publicly. This is a permanent action and not subject to reversal.

Temporary bans may result in a private email explaining the reason for the ban (using the email address that the user maintains in their user profile). The user will usually be offered the opportunity to have the ban lifted if the conflict can be privately resolved between Forum Admins and the Forum User. Permanent bans are usually made when the user has been subjected previously to a temporary ban and is either unwilling or unable to resolve conflicts privately with Forum Admins, or the user’s temporary ban has been lifted and the user continues to violate forum guidelines. Permanent bans may result, with no further communication provided to the user, especially if the user has been warned repeatedly.

Bans may result in the publicly-visible status of a user’s forum role from “Participant” to either “Spectator” or “Blocked”.

Confidentiality Will Be Maintained

During the process of resolving conflict with forum participants, we will be communicating directly and only with that person that we won’t be discussing the issue publicly (e.g., in the forums) or with other members so as to protect the confidentiality and integrity of the relationships for those involved in the conflict. Exception: see #2 above under “Reporting Forum Posts”.

Commercial Interests Must Be Disclosed

Any postings regarding commercial deals or product announcements must be approved by moderators in advance and must include a full disclosure of any vested interest the poster may have in the product.

Any post that “reviews” or otherwise “promotes” a brand, product, or service by a user who has any type of affiliation with the brand/manufacturer of that gear (including but not limited to sponsorship, affiliate marketing, employment, public relations, etc.), must include a disclosure of the relationship between the post author and the company that identifies the commercial interest. Links posted to other websites must be “clean” links – they may not include affiliate, conversion, or other types of tracking codes.

Links in posts promoting monetized content (e.g., via advertising and/or affiliate marketing) where the poster of the link is also the owner of the content will be considered “commercial” posts and are prohibited in the Backcountry Foodie forums.

Disclosure: Backcountry Foodie is engaged in affiliate-merchant relationships (notably, with Amazon, outdoor retailers, and food production companies). If you visit a merchant website via one of our affiliate links and subsequently make a purchase with that retailer, we receive a small commission. This helps support our ongoing product development, platform maintenance, and forum moderation – thank you.

Expectations of Moderator Behavior

Moderators shall adhere to the following behavior:

All communications with users shall be professional, sincere, and formal, and will communicate clearly, concisely, and objectively.
Moderators shall be even-tempered, patient, and fair-minded.
Moderators shall commit the necessary amount of time required to effectively and carefully review and moderate their assigned forums, and are expected to monitor their assigned forums daily. If the moderator is unable to do so temporarily, they will be expected to find a substitute moderator to cover for them during their absence.
Moderators shall delete or move off-topic posts from threads, move off-topic threads to the appropriate forums, edit or delete posts that violate forum guidelines, close threads that are subject to repeated incidences of violating posts, and communicating with users who do not adhere to forum guidelines. Neither moderators nor admins will be expected to communicate to users who have a habit of posting content that violates forum guidelines, including trolls, spammers, or members who repeatedly violate forum guidelines.
Moderators are free to perform #1, #2, or #3 above in “Moderation Practices for Forums” without consultation with other moderators or the Forum Admin. Posts that are edited by a moderator must contain the moderator’s comments in the post edit log. When a moderator deletes a post, it shall be placed in a temporary holding “trash can” until the Forum Admin approves either its permanent deletion, full restoration, or restoration of an edited version. #4 and #5 shall not be permitted without consultation and approval from the Forum Admin.
Moderators shall be discreet and honor the confidentiality of all users. However, moderators are expected to communicate in a way such that if their responses are made publicly available, their communications will be perceived as fair and respectful.
Moderators are expected to protect the best interests of all users, and take aggressive action against users who verbally abuse, belittle, threaten, criticize, or bully other forum members.
Moderators shall not be timid, nor shall they abuse their privileges in a way that threatens the well-being of other members.
Moderators shall agree to the vision, policies, and guidelines of forum moderation as outlined in this document, as well as abiding by the Terms of Use of Backcountry Foodie LLC.

If you observe a violation of behavior by a Forum Moderator, please contact the Forum Admin at [email protected].