Our house rules

The River Cottage online community is crammed with amazing people who have created the most knowledgeable centre for cooks, gardeners, smallholders and campaigners on the web. 

We're proud of that.

But it's your community, not ours, and it's open to everyone. 

We want you to use it to share ideas, recipes, stories, experiences and issues, whether you're here for the first-time or an experienced user. We want you to inspire others with your passion, knowledge and experience in a safe and friendly environment. It is a lovely place for discussion, debate and sharing ideas, not somewhere for petty arguments and offensive postings.

There are a number of community moderators who monitor the forums, questions, blogs and recipes who report back to the River Cottage webteam when something isn't right.

River Cottage is a 'more than profit' company. We do not have an extensive webteam. Far from it. But we want discussion and ideas to flow freely, and in order for that to happen we ask our users to follow some simple house rules:

Play nicely

Manners don't cost anything. Racist, sexist, homophobic views are unacceptable. Threats and unfounded allegations against individuals or companies will be removed. Avoid using bad language and words which may cause offence. Spamming is prohibited. Only post content which is accurate, truthful and not misleading.

Personal profiles

We suggest you keep your profiles up-to-date and use your real name rather than a fake identity. You should avoid sharing personal information in public areas, such as phone numbers and emails addresses. Make sure you have the copyright permission if you're sharing specific content in our forums. Check out our privacy policy.

Share your ideas and experiences

Try to avoid using the community to simply advertise your goods and services. Instead tell us your story, and share your ideas. Get involved with the community members.

Support the moderators

Our fantastic moderators work hard to maintain this community and they have our full backing - their decision is final. Be nice, because they do it for the love of it. They are long-standing, respected members of the community and help us out in their own time. If you feel someone is behaving in an inappropriate way, then let one of them know. Hit 'report content' if you think we need to see something and we will act on this quickly. You can see the full list of moderators at the top of each forum. 

Talk to us

What can we do to make it better? We're not perfect. Drop us a note if you see something that's not right, or if you have an idea that will improve the community. We're always looking at ways to make things better, so your opinion counts. Feel free to criticise us, but do it in an accurate manner whereby we can make the relevant changes.

In using the River Cottage online community you accept our terms and conditions and agree to abide by our house rules.