How to Participate

RIPPLE makes it easy for folks to participate! While reading a good story or searching for resources or creating a free MyRIPPLE profile, discover ways to interact with other members around specific rural issues!

Here are some more ideas for participation:

Read and comment on a RIPPLE blog: Write a comment. Share your experiences. Start a conversation.

Refer a story to a friend, colleague, or family member: Find a story inspiring or thought-provoking? Share the piece with a colleague or family member via email — or post it on Facebook and Twitter.

Find a Rural Resource: Looking for something specific? Opportunities or programs? Sort, filter, and search through these resources via Topic, Type, Location, and Keyword, so that you can find exactly what you need for your project, organization, or business.

Submit a resource: Want to help rural communities thrive? Submit a Resource lets you contribute to a growing database.

Locate a resource: Use the interactive map to find resources near you!

Explore The Feedbag: Follow the latest blogs on rural matters!

Become a member: It's easy to create a MyRIPPLE profile. Be a “resource” for others, save resources, blogs, and stories as bookmarks, and set email notifications so that you can push RIPPLE content to your own world.

Join a MyRIPPLE Group: As a member, network with others and work together to solve rural community problems.

RIPPLE relies on volunteer bloggers, RDI staff, and people like you — rural residents with a passion for community building and rural life — to make this online community thrive. We are always looking for fresh ideas to invite more participation and help us grow the RIPPLE community.

If you’ve got suggestions or comments, please contact Alison Cassin at acassin@rdiinc.org.

Community Guidelines

RIPPLE is growing a diverse online community. We encourage you to engage with others in blogs and group discussions that can help build vital rural communities.

To sustain a lively, friendly, and trusted community, please abide by the following guidelines:

Add Value: Share comments and questions that people will value. Write from your own experience or area of expertise. Be thoughtful when responding to another person’s idea. If you help others expand their knowledge, enhance their skills, solve problems, and provide important pieces of information, or simply provide words of encouragement, then you’re adding value.

Stay Focused: It’s easy for discussions to veer in different directions, so try to stick to the topic under discussion. Staying focused provides less interference and ensures more valuable outcomes.

Take Responsibility: You're responsible for what you write, so represent your own views. Take care to distinguish between your own ideas and other people’s, even if you have the same position and share similar concerns.

Have a Conversation: Be yourself! Write informally and don’t be afraid to speak up! Consider posting ideas in a way that’s open-ended and prompts other folks to reply. Broaden the conversation by asking questions, drawing on your own experiences, and knowledge.

Be Respectful: It’s ok to disagree with other people, but be polite and refrain from personal attacks or intimidation. All derogatory, offensive, harassing, libelous, illegal, and vulgar statements related — but not limited to — to age, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, political affiliation, nationality or community, will be immediately deleted from the site. We will also remove all spam, defined as repeated postings of the same message and posts related to for-profit marketing.

While RDI manages the RIPPLE site, the views presented by community bloggers, commenters, and participants on discussion threads in RIPPLE are not necessarily the views of RDI and RIPPLE sponsors such as The Ford Family Foundation, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, or the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust, or other partners or organizations featured on the site.

RDI is not responsible or liable for any loss, damage, or injury incurred as a result of any interactions among or between users or members. RDI is also under no obligation to become involved in any dispute among and/or between users or members, and you release both RIPPLE and RDI from claims, demands and damages of every kind, known or unknown, suspected and unsuspected, disclosed or undisclosed, due to disputes and disagreements.

Through RIPPLE, RDI is committed to providing a safe and trusted place for sharing ideas, and will not tolerate abusive posts. In addition, it retains the right to reject posts, delete posts, and block users without any prior notice, at any time. Our Terms and Privacy Policy outlines how we treat any information you enter or find on the site.

If you’re a participant and you want to flag abusive group comments send an email to RDI at ripplehelp@rdiinc.org with “Flagged Group Comment” in the subject line. Include identifying information such as the blog title, URL, the commenter’s name, and date of comment.

Otherwise, do your best to contribute to the conversation, and have fun!

How to Support RIPPLE

Show rural people you support their efforts to preserve and improve their communities by donating to RDI today. Find out how »