Expectations for Affilliates

Who is eligible to join?
Any member of Writing.Com who
         (a) agrees to the "Crosstimbers Code of Conduct" ; and
         (b) has at least one item in their portfolio
may join the Consortium as an Affiliate.

What do we expect of our Affiliates?
We expect Affiliates to interact with other members of the Consortium and with the Writing.Com community. The "Crosstimbers Code of Conduct"  describes in some detail how we should interact, but these boil down to "be nice," "be helpful," "be authentic," and "don't be a jerk."

That says how to interact, but it doesn't say how often.
The "Crosstimbers Discussion Board"  provides a safe place to interact with other Consortium Affliates. We expect affilates to post at least four times per quarter to this forum. Consortium Senior Managers will monitor the forum for participation.

Members may interact with the Writing.Com community in many ways. Posting reviews linked to the Consortium may be the most obvious way, but newsfeed posts or responses are other ways. Senior Managers can track things like reviews, but newsfeed posts and other interactions are harder to capture.

Another way is by recognizing exceptional reviews. We plan to initiate a project to do this, Rewarding Outstanding Awesome Reviews.

We hope Affiliates will assist in this and other projects. Affiliates may participate in these projects in lieu of posting to the forum, but we hope everyone watches the forum and chimes in.

What do I get from all this interaction?
Well, you benefit in positive ways from positive interactions. Every review you write improves your ability to think critically about writing. Encountering new authors means encountering new new perspectives and expands your personal universe. None of us can escape our own personal event horizon, but we can expand it's limits by interacting with others.

Besides the personal benefits, the Senior Managers will at least quarterly recognize members for outstanding interactions by awarding merit badges or gift points.