I’ve had a freeze on new Louder Minds group members while I’ve been updating our rules.

If you’re one of the 1,500 people waiting for approval, sorry! We’ll start approving members again shortly.

So here are the rules…

Louder Minds Facebook Group

Who is the Louder Minds group for?

This is a group for introverts.

Not sure if that’s you? Check out What Is An Introvert? and What Every Introvert Needs To Know.

What are the goals of the group?

• To share discussion, laughter, and learning
• To gain insight into ourselves without denigrating others – including other personality types
• To be uplifting and supportive of each other
• To value intelligence and depth.

What can you post?

You can post funny memes, questions, observations, insights about yourself – anything related to the introvert life as you see it, subject to the rules below.

Rules for posting and commenting:

1. Be kind and respectful in every interaction

What this means:

• Don’t be a jerk.
  Don’t insult others, provoke drama, or post nasty memes as comments.
• Do give people the benefit of the doubt.
  We’ve all said things that come out wrong, all had bad days. Let things go.

2. No selling, self-promotion, external surveys, or anything that uses the group for some agenda

What this means:

• Don’t use the group to try to sell something or convert people to a viewpoint.
• Don’t friend or message members unless you’ve made a genuine connection.
• NOTE: I share articles from the Louder Minds blog and ask for input for Louder Minds articles I’m writing.

3. No vague complaining, moaning, woe is me-ing

What this means:

• Do describe your experience and ask for specific input such as suggestions, support, encouragement, or others’ experiences.
• Don’t make vague, general, life-is-horrible complaints. They bring down the tone of the group and make it difficult for others to offer input.
• NOTE: If you have clinical anxiety or depression then please seek professional help. This group is not equipped to provide clinical support. Please take proper care of yourself and let this group be an added source of humour and interaction.

4. Reward the good stuff, ignore the rest

What this means:

• Do adopt a scroll-by attitude. Trouble-makers are inevitable on the internet, but we can let their posts sink by ignoring them. Give your attention, likes, and comments to interesting, funny, thought-provoking, insightful, helpful posts. If you don’t like something or have nothing constructive to add, ignore it.
• Don’t take offence. Assume the best of the other person, or simply choose to rise above it. Don’t feel you have to defend every point.
• Do help keep our group self-regulating, which is possible if most of us behave well.
• Do REPORT a post or TAG me if you see spam or something that explicitly violates our rules.
• Don’t message me as my profile is set to accept Facebook messages only from friends. I’m an extreme introvert – and I need my boundaries.

5. Don’t share anything that identifies another member

What this means:

• Don’t share anything from the group that shows or identifies another member. (You shouldn’t be able to share from a closed group like ours to another page or profile, but there’s a Facebook bug that may allow sharing for some people.)

I’ll update/add to these rules as needed.

Meanwhile, your feedback is welcome!

And you can join our group here.