Facebook Group Rules

Blue Heart Community Groups are Facebook groups targeted at bringing local community members together. Our philosophy is built around strengthening communities through constructive discussions and providing tools to support local businesses. Blue Heart Communities Groups are represented through“I Love” suburban groups that are visually associated through the Blue Heart Logo. 

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Our team of administrators and moderators facilitate the Blue Heart Community Groups. Every member and post is screened however we are not always aware when a member has been abusive or offensive and therefore request that you report any suspicious content to the administrators, moderators or contact us here. We invite the community to get involved and please feel free to contact us with any feedback.

The general outline of the group is the below: 

  1. Inform community members of location related issues
  2. Seek help 
  3. Share advice
  4. Be Kind always!
  5. Unite the community against important issues 
  6. Sell unwanted goods
  7. Provide a platform for local job seekers or recruiters. We don’t allow job seekers to post but always allow job opportunities. Job seekers may Post on the BHC: Jobs Group
  8. Lost and Found
  9. Be supportive of local business providers

General Rules:

  1. No racism of any kind.
  2. We do not tolerate any abuse to our members and as such,  will result in deletion of the post/comments and if repeated, the member will be banned from using this group.
  3. No Sexual content of any nature. We do not allow posts or comments that are pornographic, obscene, indecent, lewd or suggestive;
  4. We do not allow any scamming, counterfeit and fraudulent products or services.
  5. We do not allow free advertising on our groups. This is to ensure our groups remain clean and spam free and to ensure that the businesses that are advertising are relevant to your area. ALL promoting of businesses and products for sale need to be within a 6km proximity of the suburban hub or your post will not be approved. Please note your business needs to be listed on our website(s) in order to advertise on a group. See Links to sign up: (ILF) https://ilovefourways.co.za/signup/ (BHC) https://blueheart.africa/signup/
  6. You may not sell animals of any kind. This is against the Facebook Community Standards and is strictly prohibited by Facebook.
  7. You may not sell Alcohol of any kind unless you have the legal right to distribute.
  8. You may not sell illegal, prescription or recreational drugs of any kind (This includes stimulants, supplements and enhancers)
  9. You may not sell weapons, ammunition, or explosives.
  10.  Do not contact members directly by private message unless you have been given permission by the member to do so.
  11. Do not contact the administrators or moderators directly. All queries must be submitted at our contact us here page.
  12. We do not allow any political party advertising or general political posts.
  13. We do not allow any posts promoting churches or religion.
  14. We do not allow posts or comments that are unlawful, defamatory, harassing, threatening, abusive, discriminatory, racist, sexist, homophobic or comments which would otherwise constitute hate speech;
  15. We do not allow posts or comments that may infringe any intellectual property right of any party;
  16. We do not allow posts or comments that would encourage or provide instructions for a criminal offence;
  17. We do not allow posts or comments that are invasive of privacy or publicity rights, disclose personal information of any third party(such as contact details);
  18. We do not allow posts or comments that constitute unsolicited promotions, advertising, contests, solicitations or comments which repeatedly post the same or similar message(spam);
  19. We do not allow posts or comments that are unrelated to the topic or contain links to other websites.
  20. We do not allow the sharing of other groups or pages on the BHC platforms.
  21. An individual may not belong to more than 6 Blue Heart Communities Groups in order to avoid group spamming and false advertising...Please ensure you select the areas to be within a 6km radius of where you work and or live to avoid being removed from all groups.
  22. We do not allow the “Hijacking” of posts. Comments in posts must be on topic and relevant to the post. Please do not post your opinion unless they are helpful, relevant and kind.
  23. We do not allow bullying of any kind. Any members that are seen or reported too admins for bullying will be removed.
  24. Medical - We are not Healthcare professionals and therefor cannot allow posts asking for medical advice. Please contact your local GP or hospital for advice. Please understand that misinformation on this platform could lead to serious complications or death which we could be held liable for and therefor we cannot allow such posts.
  25. Financial - Only registered financial service providers are allowed to list their business and advertise on the BHC groups. We reserve the right to cancel any listing we feel does not withstand to our group standards.
  26. Charities, BackaBuddy/GoFundMe - only charities that are registered institutions and are relevant to the specific group will be allowed. Please contact us for approval. 
  27. Market Research, Polls and Surveys - Please note that all Market research, polls and surveys that are conducted on the Blue Heart Communities groups needs to be approved by admins to ensure the protection of information on our groups.
  28. Free to a Good Home Group rule - Unfortunately we do not allow any“free to a good home posts”. Rehoming of any animal must be done through a reputable institution like the SPCA or other rescue shelters or organisations. This is due to the alarming amount of animal baiting. We ensure that proper home checks are done for any animals that are re-homed through our platforms through reputable institutions.
  29. We do not have a service level agreement on post approvals your post will be approved as and when moderators are available.
  30. Before taking to social media and slandering/naming and shaming a business. Please can we ask that you reach out to the business first to try and resolve the matter. 
  31. License plate numbers and peoples faces should be blurred out when posting to the group.
  32. We do not allow posts or comments that are otherwise objectionable in the absolute discretion of UPMRKT t/a Blue Heart Communities.

Advertising of Groups:

The advertising of external groups (groups outside of the Blue Heart Community framework) is not permitted within the Blue Heart Community groups. If you would like to promote your group through our audience please contact the ADMINS directly for permission to do so.

Jobs:

Blue Heart Communities does not allow any job seeker (stand alone groups have been created for seeker and opportunities) posts due to the large volume we receive. We do allow members to post about job opportunities. Visit the BHC: Jobs Group

Competitions run by the BHC Team:

  • You can only win once every six months
  • Winners are selected at random using a random picking tool
  • Please ensure you email to claim your prize within one week of the announcement to qualify for your prize. 
  • Prizes that are not claimed within one week of the announcement will be reallocated.
  • T’s and C’s apply to the individual competition as stated by the host of the competition.

Ticket Sales:

Please note that Facebook prohibit the sale and resale of tickets on Facebook unless from an approved seller. Should you wish to resell your tickets on any of the Blue Heart Community groups you do this at your own risk. Please be vigilant as this is a high risk environment for scammers and fraudsters.

Members Requests:

  1. All members should know at least 1 current member on the group and have been on Facebook for a minimum of 1 year. This rule is in place to protect our members against fraudsters and internet predators. 
  2. Thank you to all members for getting involved in this community page and we welcome any input to make improvements. 
  3. Please note that by requesting to join the Blue Heart Communities group you are accepting responsibility over your comments made on the group.  
  4. We do not allow company Facebook pages or profiles as members. These groups are for residents and real people. Companies will need to market themselves through a personal profile.

Medical

You acknowledge that treatment or medicine of any kind may be discussed from your own personal experience, but the UPMRKT t/a Blue Heart Communities Forum (Facebook Group) is not the place to recommend or prescribe it to others.UPMRKT t/a Blue Heart Communities may not support or validate any medical claims or evidence discussed within the Forum (Facebook Group). Please may we encourage you to contact your healthcare professional instead of going to social media for medial advise

Sale of Second Hand Goods

Please follow the below rules when posting personal/second-hand items for sale.
We suggest(but is not mandatory) including the following in your sales post: 
  • State the collection area. 
  • Include the price/prices in your post or on the actual images. 
  • If you have more than one item to sell, please include all images into one post and not multiple individual posts.
Example:Table and chairs for sale, collection in Broadacres/Fourways R2,000.00

Sale or Rental of your Private Residence

If you are advertising the rental or sale of your private residence, kindly ensure that you stipulate that you are not an agent and that this is a private listing. Your post will then be approved by one of our moderators. 

Respecting members and businesses:

This is just a reminder to please ask all members of groups to report any defamatory, harmful, abusive comments including the hijacking of posts especially on listed businesses posts. You cannot advertise your product on someone else’s paid ad. Please remember to think before you type as your comments can extremely damaging. Thank you!

Why was commenting turned off?

People want to know why we turn off commenting on certain posts, here is the answer:
We do this either because comments turn to inappropriate attacks, racial, rude or verbal abuse. We usually come in and remove the inappropriate comments and then turn off commenting OR we can see by the nature of the post that it has the potential to turn ugly. We do this to protect the members and businesses of our group as well as ensuring there is no inappropriate content. Please note that the poster is also able to turn commenting off their posts. 

The Knock on Effect of naming and shaming a business:

Here is something that everyone on Facebook community groups needs to read and understand. 

We need to highlight an issue we face on a daily basis:
A bad situation or experience does not need to take the light off the incredible work many of the people do in public service industries. If you have experienced unfortunate service or dealings with a company because of a particular person or two, by naming and shaming the business/enterprise, this has an effect on the ENTIRE corporation… 
ALL the staff take the knock, from the cleaners right to the top staff members and this is just not fair. 

By dealing with your issues the right way, management can handle the particulars concerned and avoid destroying the entire reputation of the business. 

To answer a preempted question on our various groups, yes, Blue Heart Communities has partnerships with key businesses that either provide a product and/or a service that we all (mostly) benefit from. Having these relationships on a community platform such as BHC, helps us communicate with them from the community’s perspective as well as theirs. These partnerships are vitally important for all of us as we are able to stay informed and get answers.

However, regardless of our partnerships or stand-alone businesses, we generally do not allow any defaming content of any business UNLESS it has been proven that the person (complainant) has tried to make contact with management and it has not been followed up professionally by management. 

Any business deserves the opportunity to rectify a matter and regardless of our relationship with the“accused”, we have a duty and a process to follow and can be held legally liable for every bit of content on this group... It is as simple as that. Please consider your post before submitting it to a social media platform. 

Stop the Scammers:

Despite the intricate screening process we go through when approving new members who are joining our groups, we do sometimes miss something which can(on occasion) end up being a scam. Should you find a member to be a“scammer” or“spammer” kindly notify us so that we can look into the matter. 

Facebook Community Standards: 
The Facebook Community Standards outline what is and isn't allowed on Facebook - https://transparency.fb.com/en-gb/policies/community-standards/

One of our main reasons for developing paid for Business Listings on our groups, is to avoid members getting scammed by fraudsters and spammed by endless advertising. Many other community groups which offer“free” advertising, often result in being caught up in a scam. We believe that those who are trustworthy in their businesses, are prepared to commit to a minimal monthly marketing fee to give comfort to those seeking a reputable business or service.  Our listed businesses have received wonderful feedback from our communities and we appreciate the support that has been shown to them! 

UPMRKT t/aBlue Heart Communities is not responsible for any of the information which is posted in the Forum (Facebook Group).

Be aware that opinions and discussion which are expressed are those of the users of the Forum, they are based on their personal opinion and do not represent any advice, or opinion of UPMRKT t/a Blue Heart Communities. Any recommendation or other information within the Forum(Facebook Group) which is followed by you is at your own risk. UPMRKT t/a Blue Heart Communities does not take any responsibility for content posted and gives no endorsement of such material.

UPMRKT t/a Blue Heart Communities reserves the right to remove any post, comment, member at its sole discretion for any reason we feel fit. This reservation of right to delete post, comment, member does not mean that UPMRKT t/a Blue Heart Communities takes any responsibility for the information contained within the Forum (Facebook Group), nor for content in private messages exchanged between members. No failure to remove particular material constitutes an endorsement or acceptance of it by us.
The Blue Heart Community Group  Administrators and Moderators reserve the right to remove any member without reason at our sole discretion.   
Sincerely,
The Blue Heart CommunityTeam - Join your Facebook Community Group

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