Land Surveyor United's mission is to connect land surveyors with other land surveyors to improve the surveying industry as a whole. We are the ONLY surveying related network which has at its core the concept of integrity and professionalism. We thrive on being able to connect professional land surveyors in such a way that one's experiences and expertise comes attached to a real face and a real name. Because our focus is Surveyor2Surveyor Support, it is important that we maintain a communal attitude which is positive, helpful and supportive. Since its inception, LSU members have engaged one another in a spirit of openness, transparency and collaboration. Along the way, members like you provided feedback regarding community ettiquette and the type of engagement that you'd like to experience on LSU. The Community Engagement Guidelines shown below were created and agreed upon by members. If you have any questions about them, please do not hesitate to contact us:
DO:
1. Fill out your profile. Post a picture. We all want to see you smile at work. Nobody likes those limited profiles.
2. Join the conversation. Start one surrounding a topic related to land surveying. We want to hear your ideas. Yes, really. We do!
3. Treat others as you want to be treated. Simple rule. But makes sense always.
4. Spread the word about LSU. Don't keep it secret. If you think it rocks, tell your friends.
5. Focus on improving surveying industry - share your ideas/best practices. Anticipate questions which other surveyors may be having and answer them in advance!
6. Be generous and give back - comment as much (or more!) on others' content as your own!
7. Join groups, because somebody went to the trouble to create and, hopefully, seed, each one.
8. Before starting a new group, check for existing ones where you can join and start/contribute to a discussion. We're getting a lot of groups with one member and/or no comments. The groups work best when used for active discussions not suitable for the forum, blogs or user pages. Consider before creating and talk to a current group moderator if you would like to learn more! Also, you might find it helpful to take a look at groups which already exist in order to gain tips and insight on group facilitation.
9. Ask to be added as a friend, and add a note of interest to your request.
10. Check out the profile of those asking to be added as your friend.
11. Read and add comments to blogs, forums, discussions, and member pages.
12. Have fun!
Read: Knowing the Difference between Groups,Forums and Blogs
DON'T:
1. Try to sell your wares/company/product/etc. without prior agreement with LSU Justin, our creator and administrator.
2. Promote your event too much - post it up on the events calendar and that will get word out.
3. Spam people (i.e. posting the same message to multiple people or groups).
4. Excessively criticize an idea/person. Constructive debate is good. Name-calling is no good.
5. Be afraid. We are a friendly bunch. Ask questions. Connect. Help another surveyor in need. Be Merry.
6. Outright promote just your company and nothing else. Be part of the conversation and add value and other surveyors will notice and naturally want to know more about you and what you do.
7. Use it as a dating site. Look around and you will see that there is absolutely no dating activity on LSU. It will forever remain this way.
8. Post inappropriate photos or link.
9. Feel like you must add every requestor as your friend. Add only those who you can either learn from or have something you might be able to teach.
10. Try to game the points system - quality of engagement is often more important than quantity.
11. Feel like you must respond to every comment.
12. Feel personally slighted if not everyone responds to your friend requests.
13. Feel personally rejected if not everyone responds to your comments.
14. Forget that Land Surveyors United is an open forum and that your comments may be viewed by members of the press, your peers and/or supervisors and the public you serve.
15. Create a Group for your company if you are not participating in our Partner Program.
Private Sector Partners
Individuals and groups must make their commercial interests clear in every piece of content posted, if possible, and particularly if those interests are not clear in their profile. The purpose of the site is to share knowledge, solve problems, and make connections...not to directly promote your products or services. We want LSU to be a safe space for professional land surveyors to collaborate and connect with one another without experiencing a barrage of people making pitches. The most important goal of all is to collectively create a informative databank for future surveyors to reference from anywhere to solve surveying related tasks. Thank you for respecting this
Below are some additional principles that guide our approach to community management:
- We encourage and support content that fits with the mission of LSU.
- We reserve the right to remove content that does not follow the guidelines above that have been created and agreed upon by the community.
- We reserve the right to move or deemphasize content that does not fit into a certain part of the site.
- We may revoke member privileges for members that continually ignore these community engagement guidelines. Generally, we will use a three strike policy (first infraction results in coaching, second in additional guidance and third time will lead to a temporary or permanent ban from the site).
- We will remain open to feedback and tell members when we have adjusted content they have posted.
- We reserve the right to delete members that do not maintain up-to-date profiles.
- We may encourage deletion and/or consolidation of groups that overlap in their membership or objectives.
- We may delete an inactive group after consulting with its creator.
In addition:
While many surveying related activities and discussions have an inherently political element, LSU would prefer that members designate specific groups or forums to engage in this dialogue and asks that blog posts not include inflammatory or incendiary remarks based on partisan viewpoints.
Thank you for being a member of Land Surveyors United and for your ongoing contributions to its mission: to connect surveyors under the name of social support and improve land surveying professional for the future!
This topic has been posted in the forum section of the site because it is up for discussion. Please share any thoughts you may have below.
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