Community Guidelines

Site Meta

Lowcarbeating.com (LCE) is a very friendly, diverse and supportive online community for those interested in a low carb lifestyle. Over the years, we've found certain practices help keep the community running smoothly; the guidelines below articulate those practices, along with specifying expectations for community involvement. Understanding how our community works will help you make the most out of your experience. Thank you for taking the time to review this info!

Please note: These guidelines are updated as the need arises, as reality is an ever-fluctuating condition. Be aware.

We're glad to have you with us!

Registration
- Emails
Forum Etiquette
Getting Help
Linking Guidelines

Registration

We invite any adult interested in receiving support for any low carb eating program to register for our community. (We are not associated with any specific low carb plan.) Registration is free, and allows for participation in site discussions. Members must be of legal age in their community and are responsible for knowing and following laws applicable to themselves.

We do NOT welcome registrations for the purpose of promoting any other sites, projects or agendas. (See Spam Policies.)

We allow only ONE user account per member, so please contact us if you have difficulty signing in instead or would like to change your username instead of trying to re-register. Attempts to register more than one account may result in limited or blocked access to the site.

Emails

A valid email address is required for registration. (For our purposes, throwaway email accounts that do not require prior setup to accept email are not considered "valid.") If you get a new email address, please change your email in your member profile as well.

If you add the email address "forums@lowcarbeating.com" to your trusted senders list or "whitelist" in any spam software you use, you can be sure you'll receive your LCE email.

Your email address is NEVER sold or shared with any outside party. (See our Privacy Policy.) We hate spam at least as much as you do. Probably more.

Therefore, we strongly recommend you do NOT share your email address in any publicly accessible area of the site, as spammers routinely use automated tools to harvest addresses from websites like this one.

We also don't want to send you unwanted email! You may opt-out of site emails in your user control panel in the forum area. Site email often will have unsubscribe links at the end of the message as well. Please opt-out instead of reporting LCE emails as "spam" to your email provider, as spam reports impact our ability to send messages to others who want to receive them. If you have difficulty managing your site email, contact any Staff Member for assistance.

Forum Etiquette

Respect

With a community as large and diverse as LCE, differences in perspective are inevitable. We ask that members interact respectfully at all times, regardless of personal differences. This helps maintain a friendly, supportive environment for everyone. If you have concerns about another member, we encourage you to contact a Staff Member for assistance.

Trolling

Introducing controversial topics to provoke others, intentionally disrupting the community, or interfering with the site's objectives, also known as "trolling," is NOT tolerated.

Adult Content/Language

While LCE is an adult community, limiting adult content and language allows us to assist the widest possible audience. We thank you for keeping that in mind when contributing to discussions.

Off-topic Posts & Crossposting

Please post in the area that best matches your topic, and please do not post the same question or comment in multiple forum areas (also known as "crossposting"). Off-topic posts and crossposting makes participating in discussions difficult and confusing for others. If you're unsure where to put your post or would like a post moved to a different area, contact a Staff Member for assistance.

Copyrights & Content

We do not allow material on LCE that infringes on others' legal rights! By using the site, you are agreeing that your contributions do not infringe on others' rights, and you take full responsibility for any and all content you make available throughout this site.

When you post or submit content, you are also granting LowCarbEating.com a world-wide, royalty-free, non-exclusive and irrevocable license to use, distribute, modify, adapt and publish that content, in whole or part, in any medium and in any work, at any time. If you don't agree with these terms, do NOT submit content to any area of this site.

Reminders

Members may occasionally receive a "Reminder" or "Alert" message regarding community guidelines. These are intended as friendly nudges to help folks understand and follow those practices that we've found help keep the community running smoothly for everyone. Thanks for your help!

Getting Help

Advice

We take the responsibility of helping others seriously at LCE. While posts represent the thoughts of the poster and not LCE, we reserve the right to remove any content we consider inaccurate, misleading, or we feel is not in the best interest of the community for any reason, without notice.

Ultimately, however, you are responsible for making your own decisions. LCE assumes no responsibility, express or implied, for your decisions regarding the information or advice you find or receive anywhere on this website. Please use your own best judgment and seek professional support as appropriate in making decisions that impact your health and well being.

Medical Advice

LCE may NOT be used to either request or provide medical advice. Members are welcome to ask questions or share personal experiences regarding health issues. However, those needing specific medical advice will be directed to consult with a qualified medical professional. Posts requesting or providing medical advice will be closed or removed.

Personal Assistance

LCE Staff CANNOT provide one-on-one support for an individualized low carb eating plan, medical concerns, or any other personal issue, so please don't ask. Instead, post your questions to the forums, where you have a entire community of helpful and knowledgeable folks to assist you, and others can benefit from the discussion as well.

Email Buddy Requests

Please do not post your email address requesting "email buddies." That puts your email address on the spammer-list faster than you can say Oh %*^(!. While we love it when our members make friends, the best buddies can't be requesitioned. They're discovered, through interaction and sharing! So if you'd like to make friends, be one. In particular, the Journaling Forum or Member Blogs are well-suited for this type of ongoing encouragement and support, and it's a great place to make friends on the site.

And don't forget...one of the strengths of the community support model is collective wisdom. By posting in the forums, you also allow yourself to benefit from the entire group's expertise and make your own contribution with discussions that can help others as well as yourself. And you can make friends in the process. How cool is that?

The Magic of Search

While we welcome participation from all our members regardless of low carb experience level, we encourage you to supplement your knowledge by reviewing past discussions as well as starting new ones. Many topics, such as Atkins-allowable foods, meal ideas or suggested supplements, have been frequently discussed over the years. Full site search, site-content-only search or forums-only searches are an important part of making the most of your community experience.

Challenge Guidelines

Our Challenge Clubs allow members to challenge themselves and one another to improve their LC lifestyle in some way. Some things to remember while creating challenges:

Challenges should encourage moderate, healthy and sustainable behaviors, consistent with a long-term low carb lifestyle.
They may be specific or general in nature, but try to keep it "doable."
Challenges should be open to the entire LCE community.
There should be no money or prizes involved. Improving one's health is its own reward.

Top of Page

Linking Guidelines

Links must be relevant to the discussion. New members may be restricted from posting links or images for their first few posts; this helps us keep the forums spam-free. LCE assumes NO responsibility for the content of offsite links. Members are encouraged to critically evaluate all information they find online in making their own decisions.

Spam

LCE has a zero-tolerance SPAM policy: All commercial content will be deleted immediately and the poster may be permanently banned from our community.

Registering for the express or apparent purpose of promoting another site, project or agenda WILL be considered SPAM. If you're unsure about the appropriateness of any contribution to LCE, please feel free to contact a Staff Member for clarification.

We do, however, welcome paid advertisements.

Advertising

LCE is supported through advertising revenue. If you would like to promote your product, service or website to our Members, you're invited to contact us regarding advertising rates. Please note: Much of our advertising is automatically selected based on our content, and as such, we do not personally endorse or recommend every advertisers products or services.

We are NOT responsible for the actions of any other site or company, including advertisers, and will NOT intervene or become involved in any way in disputes between members and sites linked from LCE. You're invited to share your experiences with us as we periodically review our relationships with other companies, but please understand we assume no responsibility for your interactions with other companies or the products or services provided.

Personal Sites

Established members may link to personal or business sites in their profiles and signatures, whether the sites are related to low carb or not. Linking may be restricted for new members to discourage spammers. We appreciate your understanding.

Affiliate Links

Affiliate links provide a small commission to the poster when someone makes a purchase through the link. Members may not post affiliate links anywhere on LCE, including otherwise allowable, personal links in user profiles or signatures. Only affiliate links financially contributing to LCE are allowed on the site. LCE may add affiliate links to posts or other content (either manually via automated means) to help support the site. If you're unsure if a link is allowed, please contact a Staff Member for assistance.

Thank you so much, both for taking the time to review these guidelines and for helping us keep this community a friendly, helpful place. We appreciate you!