Account guidelines

A Melville Chamber account is free and anybody can open one. It holds your profile, your contact card, and the listings you manage if your business is a member. These are the things we ask of everyone who has one. They are short on purpose.

Be yourself

Use your own name and your own photograph. An account is a person, not a brand, a department or a pen name. If you want a page for your business, that is a member listing, and it is a different thing.

Only claim a business you are actually part of

Attaching yourself to a member business tells everyone who reads your card that the Chamber stands behind it. That is the whole reason a Chamber card is worth more than one you could make yourself, and it is the thing we take most seriously here. If you no longer work somewhere, take it off.

Write things you would say at a Chamber event

Your profile, your card and anything you post to the member feed are read by neighbors and by people considering joining. Disagreement is fine. Abuse, slurs and harassment are not.

Do not publish what is not yours to publish

Somebody else's phone number, home address, photograph or private message does not belong on your profile, whatever the reason.

Sell by being findable, not by pushing

Telling people what you do is the point. Repeated advertising, bulk messaging and anything automated is not, and it is the fastest way to have an account closed.

One person, one account

If you need to sign in as somebody else at your business, ask them to open their own account and attach it to the listing. Sharing a sign-in means nobody can tell who changed what.

If something is wrong, tell us

Every published contact card has a Report this page link at the foot of it. You do not need an account to use it, and you do not have to leave your name, though it helps if we can come back with a question. These are the things you can report:

• Claims a business they are not part of. The account says they work somewhere they do not.
• Pretending to be someone else. Using another person's name, face or details.
• Shows somebody else's private details. A phone number, address or photograph that is not theirs to publish.
• Offensive or abusive. Language or images that do not belong on a Chamber page.
• Advertising or spam. Using the account to push something rather than to be found.
• Not a real person. An automated or made-up account.
• Anything else that does not fit the list, in your own words.

A person reads every report. Most end in a quiet word with whoever holds the account. Where something is plainly wrong, the Chamber can hide a card, remove a post, or close an account outright, and will say so to the person it belongs to.

What we do with your account

Nothing on your profile is published anywhere until you turn your contact card on, and you can turn it off again at any time. The Chamber reads what you write in "Who would you like to be introduced to?" so that somebody in the office can actually make the introduction: that field exists to be answered. We do not sell your details, and we do not add you to anything you did not ask for.

Questions

Write to hello@melvillechamber.org. The terms and conditions and the privacy policy cover the site as a whole.