Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with guidelines

Where's the website Startup button?

Drasher — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:19:10 -0800

I want to create a website and need general and specific guidance. I don't want to give the idea away so the description is a little sketchy. How do I deal with keeping the kids out of the "adult" section? How do I "spread the word"? (to get submissions and readers?; i.e. kickstart) I am considering a WordPress engine and Nearly Free Speech for hosting (at least at the start). Is that reasonable to use? I have not purchased the domain yet.

The website will mostly deal with user submitted documents; I am not really sure I know how to get the submissions: users scan things and email or upload the files. Should I allow submissions to me snail mailed in and I scan them? (I don't want to be required to return them, I think)

I know that some of these things will end up being the "adults only" type (I'm OK with that), but I want to keep the kiddies out of there. Require a registration for that section? What qualifications do I ask for?

Is it reasonable/acceptable/advisable to accept PayPal donations for upkeep? What about advertising? what's the best way? (I don't want to go with the obnoxious popups and horrific banners if I can help it)

Is it possible to make a buck or two if it is popular? I'm not looking to make a real killing, mostly pay for the effort and costs.

How does one select and "promote" moderators that will keep in line with the original concept of the site?

When do I bust the cherry and put it on MeTa's Projects section?

What have I not covered??

Anyone "volunteer" to answer specific questions after I get started?

Profiting from the Feed Icon ?

querty — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:58:54 -0800

Profiting from the Feed Icon ? graphics.design.legal.filter.dot.dot.dot...

If I wanted to do a design that includes the Feed Icon as the main focus (but not as the main subject) and the icon is only seen in less than ~25% of the design as a small element or if the Feed Icon is broken up in half or in a few pieces, would that be "okay" with Mozilla's Feed Icon Guidelines? The design would then be sold for profit of course.

If you read the last 3 answers/paragraphs on their guidelines, it is really loosely written. So what is stopping people from making Feed Icon designs and selling them as t-shirts and mouse pads on CafePress?

If you check iStockphoto, there are people who sell the actual icon file with little to no accompanied designs/artwork: http://www.istockphoto.com/file_search.php?action=file&text=rss+feed+icon

How do I manage my online privacy, when I have friends who blog?

vytae — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:55:08 -0800

As more of my friends take up blogging, it becomes nearly inevitable that I'm going to show up in a blog post somewhere. This makes me somewhat uncomfortable. Is my discomfort justified? And if it is, what guidelines can/should I ask these blogging friends to follow to protect my privacy? Several years ago, a guy I was dating blogged about a date we had been on, using my real first name, and it freaked me out. While first names may not be traceable by strangers on the internet, I expect to eventually come into contact with friends/family/coworkers of my friends who write blogs. I'm not happy about the prospect of a conversation coming to, "Oh, you're the girl he wrote about that one time..." even if the story was completely harmless.

That guy and I had a conversation after I saw the post. He respected my wishes to be left out of the blog from then on, but he definitely thought I was overreacting. Since then several more close friends and family members have taken up blogging, and I feel like it's overkill to ask them never to mention me. I'm just not sure what guidelines (if any) are appropriate. I want to say, "Sure, mention how much fun we all had volunteering last week, but please don't bring my name up in connection with the huge drunken party afterward," but that kind of micromanaging isn't really appropriate or feasible.

So - should I let these people write whatever they want, and ask them to remove something after the fact if it pushes my personal boundaries too far? Should I give them advance warning that I don't want to be in their blog at all? Should I tell them they can only refer to me by a pseudonym? How do I mention my concerns to a blogger friend without coming off as a control freak? Or am I really overreacting?

To Touch a Child

dragonsi55 — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 04:42:00 -0800

Looking for guidelines on physically handling children at school. I recently started being a playground & lunch supervisor at my son's school.
The school system has no set guidlelines for how to handle children.
I have set some self-imposed standards, like not being isolated with a child, touching only hands-arms-shoulders, not initiating hugs, and not yanking a child.
Still, when I pulled a child who was angry and wouldn't stop yelling in the lunchline out of line to talk with her, she complained to the assistant principal.
I have full support of the admin and staff, and want better guidelines.
It is relevant that I'm male, both in that I was told the school needed more males, and in that the children feel it is different.

I've got an internal conflict whether to push officially for better guidelines.
On the one hand, the male teachers at the school do great, and I don't want to interfere with what they do.
On the other hand, I know of a professor at the local college, who worked at a private high school many years ago.
He left after a sex-&-drugs scandal, but hush-hush with no record, and he has run a high-school summer program here.
So the cracks are big for creeps to fall through.

The internets are loaded with opinions.
Has anybody actually studied this?
Do you know where any official guidelines are?

Proper way to describe a URL in print

cowboy_sally — Fri, 14 May 2004 15:00:56 -0800

Editors, tech-savvy folk, and grammar-obsessives, please help. I've been arguing about this with my fellow editors: Is it acceptable, in nontechnical copy, to drop the "http://" from the beginning of a web address that doesn't have a "www" in its URL? Here's the deal. I work for a university. We want to direct prospective students to a particular area of our Web site--foo.university.edu. I'm in disagreement with the rest of the department in that I think that a)young adults are savvy enough to recognize a web address when they see one (the first argument given to me for keeping the "http://") and b)most folks' browsers are modern/intuitive enough that you don't have to type "http://" into the address bar before the web address (the second argument given).

Chicago seems keen on keeping the http off in running text, when one is describing a site but not directing readers to it. However, they seem to use "http://" in all references to URLs otherwise. This would back up my officemates' argument.

Does anyone agree with my stance, that our department needs to get modern? Or am I in the wrong here? I find "http://" pretty damned visually jarring.

Public photography laws

oissubke — Thu, 22 Jan 2004 15:23:17 -0800

I see lots of photographers with candid photos of strangers from the park, on the street, etc., but I'm wary of getting sued just for taking some amateur photos. What laws, guidlines, rules of thumb, etc., should I use when taking photos of people in public?