The Farmer Exchange is an online community of people involved in the agricultural industry here to learn new things, help each other and create connections. With this in mind, when signing up to the Exchange you are bound by our Rules & Guidelines.
They are intended to help foster high quality, friendly and respectful interaction and ensure that members are all in here for one reason – the betterment of their farming businesses and the agricultural industry as a whole.
1. Free Farmer Member
By signing up as a Free ‘Farmer’ Member, you are over 18 years of age, in Australia and are:
A primary producer
Works/is a member of a farming business
Is an aspiring farmer or agricultural student
Your primary occupation is not:
In agribusiness or in a related agricultural industry
In an ag-tech/agri-service/consultant/agricultural input company
In a government or public organisation
Outside of Australia
Please refer to Agri Members Rules & Guidelines.
2. WAITT Policy – ‘We’re all in this together’
We have a strict WAITT policy on the Exchange. Stop, wait and remember, “We’re all in this together” before replying or commenting on a question or answer.
Welcome new members and if you’re a new member, make sure to introduce yourself – we are looking to learning more about you and where you are from.
Be respectful of other people’s opinions and ideas. You can disagree without being disagreeable.
Do not harass, insult, demean or personally attack another member. You can be friendly even if others aren’t.
Do not use obscene or excessively violent language. Let’s set a strong example.
It’s ok to use humour as long as you’re answering the question.
3. Report abuse and spam
Our strong online community is self-governing - please help by reporting the problem to an Administrator.
If others are breaking the rules, don’t use it as an excuse to break the rules yourself.
We cannot read every post, so please report problems you encounter.
Do not engage in dialogue with bullies, trolls or spammers. Report them to an Administrator or use the ‘Report post’ button.
4. Don’t make it one big advertisement
Upon signing up, Agri Members agree that they will not directly solicit products or services. Please refer to Agri Members Rules & Guidelines.
This too applies to Free Farmer Members.
Threads that are nothing but an ad or sales pitch will be deleted.
If you link out randomly to your own site when it’s not relevant, the thread or post will be reviewed and possibly deleted.
If the links are relevant to the thread, that’s fine, just use your best judgement. Please use your best judgment here.
5. Threads, topics and private messages
Before starting a new topic, search first via a keyword to see if there is already a similar question on the topic. This might help get a quicker answer to your question.
Use a title that indicates the specific subject. See full list of FAQ about asking and answering questions here [Link to FAQ – Question area]
Posts must stay on thread or category topic. If going off topic, create a new question.
If you have doubt about a post, contact us before you submit your post.
Private inbox message content cannot be posted to the open Exchange without the permission of the original author.
If you have technical issues or account concerns, do not raise these on the Exchange. Contact Support [link to support page] to get help.
6. We maintain the right to deactivate accounts
We reserve the right to permanently deactivate user’s accounts who breach our Exchange community rules. We assume good faith when dealing with violations, but administrators have final say in modifying, interpreting and enforcing our rules and guidelines.
If the rules are broken above, we received the right to remove posts and threads. We reserve the right of giving you a warning and you may find yourself on a path to getting blocked.
Accounts created with a fraudulent profile or fake postcode and found later to be breaching this rule can be deactivated.
Our aim is not to limit discussion, promote or censor opinions or alternating points of view, or be controlling. The goal is to ensure this community survives and thrives and that poor behaviour by a minority does not ruin it for all.