Freedom of Speech is a privilege here, not a right. Recipezaar is not government-owned, it is private. Therefore, we have no obligation to grant Freedom of Speech, just as you have no obligation to allow strangers in your own home say whatever they want. We grant and protect the privilege because we value it. (There are not many recipe/cooking sites owned by a Political Science major, so Recipezaar is a bit different in its respect of free speech.)

However, we do limit this privilege. As one would expect, we do not allow pornography, hateful or harrassing speech or privacy violations. Additionally, to promote a welcoming and enjoyable community, we require that everyone be polite and respectful of each other. This requirement does not prohibit nor inhibit the exercising of Free Speech. Any idea can be expressed in a manner that is not pornographic, hateful/harassing, rude or disrespectful and we condone and defend that expression, even if we don't agree with it.

Related to Free Speech is censorship. Censorship is the act of deleting or otherwise preventing speech from public consumption. Except in extreme cases (pornography, hateful/harassing speech, privacy violations, etc.) we never delete text. Therefore, by definition, we do not censor. Discouraging certain types of speech is not censorship.

What we may do is move any thread in our Forums which has become rude, disrepectful, etc. to The Frying Pan (what is The Frying Pan?).

What does <this abbreviation> mean?

Here's a list of common abbreviations used on the forums:

BBL = be back later
BF = boyfriend
BH = better half
BIL = brother-in-law
BRB = be right back
BTW = by the way
CC = Community Cafe (the Forum of the same name on Recipezaar)
DD = dear daughter
DH = dear husband
DIL = daughter-in-law
DS = dear son
DSD = dear step-daughter
DSS = dear step-son
DW = dear wife
EE = Everything Else (an old Forum of that name on Recipezaar)
FIL = father in law
FWIW = for what it's worth
GF = girlfriend
HTH = hope this helps
IIRC = If I Recall Correctly
IMHO = in my humble opinion
IMNSHO = in my not so humble opinion
IMO = in my opinion
ISO = in search of
JMO = just my opinion
LMAO = laugh my a** off
LMBO = laugh my butt off
LOL = laugh out loud
MERP = Made, Eaten, Reviewed, and Photographed (referring to a recipe)
MIL = mother in law
OAMC = once a month cooking (cooking lots of servings at one time in bulk then freezing for easy meals later)
OMG = oh my gosh
PAC = Pick a Chef (community forum event)
RAK = random acts of kindness
ROFL = rolling on floor laughing
SA = smart aleck
SAHM = stay at home mom
SIL = sister-in-law or son-in-law
SNERT = snot-nosed egotistical rude teenager
SO = Significant Other (boyfriend/girlfriend)
TIA = thanks in advance
TY = thank you
YW = you're welcome

The following sites can be helpful too: http://www.netlingo.com and http://www.acronymfinder.com

If there's any you would like to add or yours is not listed here, please ask.

Is it okay to be rude to people if I believe it's my right to Freedom of Speech to voice my opinion?

No. Freedom of speech does give you the right to voice your opinion, but, as courts have decided time and time again, there are limits. For example, you cannot walk a crowded movie theater and yell "Fire!". You cannot slander or libel others. You cannot infringe on other people's copyrights and more. And in the environment of Recipezaar, we specifically limit Freedom of Speech to only respectful and polite speech.

Related:
How does Recipezaar feel about Freedom of Speech?

Can I post in the Forums about a (bad) review on a recipe?

Yes, if you are looking for suggestions on how to make the recipe better, or seeking a little sympathy. But you must be polite and respectful and you cannot name the reviewer by name or provide any information that would allow others to identify the recipe you referring to. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and you must respect that.

Please do not post at all if you are simply wanting to vent or seeking a little revenge — call a friend or family member instead. Even if you don't mention the name of the recipe or reviewer in your message, people can still figure out rather quickly which review has upset you. No matter how politely you attempt to vent your frustration with a review or reviewer, others will run to your defense and the thread will invariably turn into a witch hunt, which will cut down or humiliate the person that posted the review.

Personal attacks are specifically against our rules and these kinds of threads will be promptly thrown into The Frying Pan (What's The Frying Pan?).

Threads which tear down other people's opinions discourage others from posting honest reviews. Everytime one these threads is posted, we get hundreds of e-mails from people who tell us they will not review recipes on Recipezaar for fear they will be "bashed" for their opinions in the Forums, or folks will otherwise gang up on them. This is a very serious problem for Recipezaar, and we will always protect people's rights to their opinions. Please understand that everyone's taste is different and some people are not as articulate or as thoughtful in their reviews as others; their opinions are still worthwhile.

Note: You may publicly discuss how you personally choose to rate reviews — things such as what things you look for in a good recipe, how you personally interpret the meanings of the star values, etc. You just may not publicly discuss and/or analyze how others rate recipes.

Related:
What SHOULD you do if you have a concern about a review?

Do you ever kick people off the site?

Unfortunately, we have had to do this on very rare occassions.

For serious violations of our Terms of Service Agreement, your account will be removed immediately, any recipes or reviews you have posted will be removed and, depending on the violation, we may turn over any pertinent information to the authorities.

For less serious violations, we like to employ a "three strikes and you are out" policy, but this is completely up to our discretion.

Occassionally, we give "time outs" as well. If someone seems unable to act politely in our Forums, we will temporarily remove their posting privileges.

Isn't it impossible to voice a dissenting opinion without appearing rude or impolite?

No. Lawyers do it all the time. So do politicians. So do many people on this site. It can take practice, but everything can be worded politely and respectfully no matter how strongly you disagree with someone. For example, I don't believe that the Earth is flat, but if I were discussing this topic with someone who does believe that the Earth is flat, I could respond in two ways:

"You are a complete moron! Everyone knows that the Earth is round!"

This may be a true statement, but it is neither polite or respectful.

"I see what you're saying, and I agree that the Earth does appear flat when you're standing on the surface, but that's because it is so large. I've also seen pictures of Earth from space, and it's definitely round in those pictures."

This is polite and respectful because it acknowledges their point of view, e.g., it is respectful, and states my point-of-view in a polite and respectful way.

What do I do if someone is acting inappropriately in the Forums?

Let us know by clicking the "Notify us of inappropriate posts" at the bottom of the particular thread. This is the best way to let us know. Often the worst thing you can do is "attempt to put them in their place."

I'm proud that I'm not politically-correct! Why do people get angry with me?

It's fine to not be "politically-correct". However, if you are just using that as a euphemism for not being polite or for being rude (or both), it won't be tolerated. Say what you want, just do it with politeness and respect for others.

Is it okay to "hijack" a thread and change the topic?

Taking control of a thread for the purposes of changing the subject or ending the discussion is neither polite nor respectful to the people participating in the thread. We understand this happens accidentally at times, but "Hijacking" threads purposefully is rude and we will issue warnings to those who practice this.

If you do not have an interest in a topic, we suggest you participate in topics in which you have an interest.

What do the "chef titles" mean under the names in Forums?

They are simply cute names indicating how long you have been posting in the Forums. They are based solely on the number of posts you've made and go in this order:

Newbie Fry Cook
Regular Line Cook
Semi Experienced Sous Chef
Experienced Head Chef
Recipezaar Groupie

You move up the ladder by posting on the boards in "Talk". The more you post, the faster you move up!

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Zaar and have a wonderful time!! Happy Posting!

How do I use your Chat Room?

You can enter the Recipezaar Chat Room using the link at the top of the Forums page. This will load a Java applet with the Chat controls — this takes a little while to load, please be patient. You will get a page where you should type in your nickname, no password is necessary.

There are many fun commands you can use in chat. By typing commands that start with "/" in the message field you can do fun stuff, e.g.

/nick IronChef

would change your nickname to "IronChef" If someone on the chat server is already using the name that you wish to use, the server will let you know and you will have to chose a different name as it only allows one person at a time to use that name.

If you prefer a chat program with a bigger screen, colors, music, comic mode and many other options then you may wish to download the Microsoft 2.5 chat program. One of the advantages to this chat program is that you never again have to wait for the java to load. After you have it installed, go to start/programs and look for Microsoft chat or Microsoft 2.5. For your chat server use: chat.annexcafe.com Select "Show all Chat rooms". You will get a list of all rooms; scroll down to find #Recipezaar_Chat and select it. When you get there, be sure to save the room to favorites which is at the top of your chat screen; this will make it easy to return to the room next time.

A big thanks to the folks at AnnexCafe who host this chat room for Recipezaar!

How do I make those automated greetings and things in Chat?

These instructions are for using the Microsoft Chat client:

Go to View > Macros > Define Macro
Click on the "Rules" Tab
Click on Add Rule button
Event = A User joins a room
Nickname = Anyone but me
Room = My activated room
Action = Play a Sound on Your Machine
Sound File Name — choose from your set of .wavs

You can also make the Action to Execute a Macro, and you can automatically welcome anyone entering the room with a hug or a hello.

Related:
More Chat Commands...

Special Recipezaar Lingo

Here are the specialized phrases we have developed over the years:

bump = posting in a topic to get it to "bump" to the top of the list of topics in the forum, to bring it to everyone's attention again
CC = an abbreviation for the Community Cafe Forum
elves = the "elves" are the special little people that run Recipezaar, who toil long and hard into the night making Recipezaar better with surprise features and fixes
newbie = a new person on the site, especially as related to the cute little titles under people's posts in the Forums
sticky = the topics that management sticks to the top of the forum for everyone to see
zaar = shorthand for Recipezaar
cookathon = a Recipezaar community organized cooking event where participants cook Recipezaar recipes from a particular theme during a set time period (usually a weekend) and post lots of recipe reviews
RSC (Ready Set Cook) = a Recipezaar recipe contest where the previous winner selects a set of ingredients and participants create original recipes using at least 5 ingredients

Is it safe to post personal information in the Forums or My About Me page?

Many more people read Recipezaar and our Forums than actually participate here, so although you may feel it is a small community you never know who is watching and you will want to take steps to protect your personal information.

When posting your email, it is a good idea to have a junk email account and to write out your email address so spammers cannot automatically scan the forums for addresses to add to their junk mailing lists. For example, write your email as johndoe at hotmail dot com and not johndoe@hotmail.com

You should never post your home address in the Forums (or anywhere publicly). The best idea if you want to swap something with another Recipezaar member is to get an anonymous mailbox or post office box.

Recipezaar can also help you to get in touch with another member privately, by forwarding your e-mail address to another member. Use the Contact Us Form and include the name and chef ID # of the person to whom you would like us to forward your e-mail.

Related:
Safety Guidelines for Internet and Message Board Use

Is there something we should be answering here, but don't? Let us know in the Suggestions and Comments Forum.

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