Community Guidelines

We are an inclusive and encouraging place to support and share your fitness and running journey.

Welcome to our tribe.

 

We are an inclusive and encouraging place to support and share your fitness and running journey. We welcome your running pictures, race victories, NSV (non-scale victories) successes. Offer your compassion for those struggling and turn to us when you need a little TLC. This is what we’re here for!

 

Here is what we are not here for: You to exploit, solicit to or market to our teammates. If you are a coach of any kind (fitness, nutritional, or otherwise), you are strictly prohibited from PM’ing people uninvited to pitch your product or service. We have heard from several members that this is happening. We have nothing personal against you or your product but there are several reasons why we don’t allow this.

 

Please also know that we are also on the lookout for “fishing” so if you aren’t an active person in our community but just swing by to share your ‘excellent’ results and then allude to something like, “PM me to find out how I did it,” you will also be flagged and possibly removed from the group. If you have a website where you sell products and service or a Facebook page that you use for your business and you constantly post from the page or website as a form of covert marketing, we will flag you as well.

 

If you have an eating clean challenge, accountability challenge, drinking water challenge, etc. that you think would be great, please PM Nora Breuker or Jennifer Roe. We’d be happy to consider setting it up as a #FFTFL challenge if it makes sense. However, if we find out that you are recruiting members from the group to challenges outside the group, and then it’s revealed that you’re using it as a marketing platform for your service or product you could face being removed as well.

 

Now it is OK to generally and organically speak about what has worked for you. If you use MyFitnessPal or Weight Watchers to track your food, as example, it’s OK to say – “Went to my WW meeting and lost a pound this week!”

 

So that’s some guidelines on the whole MLM (multi-level marketing) / coach thing. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

 

Here are a few more rules:

 

I know a lot of us fundraise for charities for races, however, it’s prohibited to post your request for donations in the group. If you are raising money for something that you feel is super important and personal, you can contact the admins and we will take it into consideration as an exception to the rule and it will be posted by one of the admins on your behalf.

 

Avoid posting “spammy“ articles about “miracle” diets, articles that appear to be informational on the surface but link to a paid-nutritional program, or articles that link to suspicious looking websites. Those will be removed, depending on the post, you will be warned and possibly removed from the group.

 

Be respectful of one another’s privacy. What people say and post in the group, should stay in the group unless you get permission to share otherwise.

 

Speak kindly to others. (We haven’t had a problem with this! You guys rock.)

 

We are a political-free zone. We encourage friendly discussion about the best water bottles, medals and running shoes but let’s leave the politics to someplace else.

 

Avoid being an authority, be respectful. If your fellow FFTFL’er loves barefoot running and it works for her please do not go into a tirade about why she’s ruining her knees and that she has to have Hoka’s. Each person’s journey is different. You can gently recommend she consult with a doctor, or local expert or share your own not so great experience with barefoot running but no judging. If another still needs her diet coke at the end of a long run and you’re a clean eater, please do not give her grief about her choices. We are all adults and can make our own decisions about what we want to put in our bodies. If she asks for help in ‘breaking her diet coke habit’ then offer advice until your heart’s content, otherwise, no finger wagging. We are not the food or exercise police. (A little bit more about our being a “judgement free zone” below.)

 

Always, always alert one of the admins if there’s something not cool happening. We’re very happy and eager to try to work it out!

 

We reserve the right to remove any post we find inappropriate for any reason and without notification.

 

Let’s dive deeper into the concept of this being a JUDGEMENT FREE ZONE:

 

Many of us have had tough pasts or challenging journeys and are seeking support or TLC on sensitive matters. This needs to be a safe place where someone can vent, complain, cry, ask for help, etc. Here is an example of what we mean by judgement free. If someone posts because their Mom (or significant other/friend/family member) is sabotaging their eating and needs to vent about it or ask advice on how to handle it, a supportive response might be, “I’m sorry to hear about this! It must be tough to handle but we’re here for you!” It could be considered judgmental for someone to respond with, “Don’t beat up your Mom! She probably means well, how would you like it if your kid went on Facebook and said bad things about you?” While you may be saying this from a place of concern it might not come across like that. This kind of statement could make someone feel unsafe here.

 

Additionally, please don’t offer your judgement on people’s running habits, food choices, or workout regimes. We all come from different points of views. Ask yourself, “Could how I’m responding possibly hurt someone’s feelings or make them feel defensive?” Sharing your insight and advice is encouraged but if you have no kind words to offer or your idea of a solution is contradictory to what that person has expressed interest in, please skip the thread. If some sort of drama is unfolding please alert us admins ASAP and do not add fuel to the fire.

 

If you feel like someone has intentionally hurt your feelings please take a little time before responding or reaching out to report someone. Sometimes, we are feeling overly emotional or close to something and misread someone’s intent to be helpful as hurtful. Nine out of ten times the issue has been misread and the person did not mean to cause any trouble or hurt feelings. In the event where someone has crossed a line, admins will review, warn the person in question, and remove them from the group if warranted.

 

We are not the place for tough love. Tough love often gets lost in translation online and rarely works coming from strangers. Always remember to lead with kindness and choose your words carefully. If you have something that you really feel you need to say and can be considered provocative or strong, please do not do it in an open thread. Take the conversation to a PM but do that at your own risk. If we hear that someone is harassing another or making them feel bad through PM they risk being removed from the group.

 

These rules are in place to keep this being the awesome and supportive community that it is. Thank you so much for keeping this tribe great. #tribepride #judgementfreeFFTFL

 

We appreciate you being here and look forward to following you on your path to the finish line.

© 2021 From Fat to Finish Line