Rules, Terms of Service and Guidelines for The Difficult Customers Knowledgebase

Unfortunately, we need to have some simple rules and guidelines, primarily to prevent spam, and poor quality content. We also post these in the interest of transparency and to avoid misunderstandings.

Basic Terms - You Own Submissions

When you submit content, you continue to own your submissions (that is, you own the copyright), but by submitting, you grant us permission to "publish" the submission electronically or in print, with proper attribution, of course. We need that "permission" to post your submissions publicly.

You must NOT post material that is owned by someone else without their permission. You can't cut and paste material from books, other websites, etc that you don't own. To do so is to break the law.

Relevance - Focus On Customer Service

Readers are here to learn and share wisdom about customer service. Don't post anything that is not relevant. It won't ever make it into the knowledgebase anyway, since all submissions have to be approved.

Self Promotion

Posting here is an opportunity to show off your expertise about customer service issues, and you deserve both credit, and the chance to post a link that is relevant to your contribution, or at least to customer service in general.

When you post a question and answer (or answer someone else's question), you CAN include ONE link to your blog, website, social media site, etc. It should go at the end of your response, and be in the form of http://mysite.com. That can help you be found on the Internet.

Anything other than that may be edited out.

Editing

We reserve the right to edit submission, or refuse to publish them, and the reason we reserve that right is to ensure the quality and usefulness of the site. It's also to allow you to post material without having to get it absolutely perfect -- making it easier for you to post.

Reproduction and Reprinting

As indicated above, you retain the copyright to YOUR contributions, and of course you may use YOUR contributions anywhere else you choose. However, you may not reproduce any material authored by anyone else but yourself, since the copyright is owned by the original poster.