Appendix B of Managing Online Forums features blank, general templates for your user guidelines, staff member guidelines and contact templates. In order to make it easier for you to use them, a downloadable archive of the templates in .txt format has been made available. Click the appropriate language below.
Thank you to Wiebke Lüther for the German translation. If you would like to translate these templates to another language, please contact me.
The user guidelines detail the types of behavior and participation that you allow or don’t on your forums. The staff member guidelines describe the responsibilities of the staff members on your community and how they should accomplish them. The contact templates are pre-made, ready to send messages for you to use when a member of your community has to be contacted in regard to a violation of your user guidelines. This helps to ensure consistent communication from staff member to staff member. Read more about contact templates.
Ideally, you would use these as a basis point to create guidelines and policies that work for you. That said, you are welcome to use them as they are on your community.
Thank you for your interest in Managing Online Forums.