1: Always Keep Our Group Friendly
We might have different opinions, but we don’t argue. Instead, we offer suggestions for one another, knowing that there can be many ‘right’ answers. We also remember the courtesy of using please & thank you. We’re all in this together to create a welcoming environment, so we treat everyone with respect. Healthy debates are natural, but kindness is required.
Explanatory Note: We want the group to be “Safe Respectful & Positive”, so friendliness is always required.
2: No Advertising, Promotions or Spam
This community is not for advertising the businesses of members, or of anyone else. Promotions and spam are also not allowed.
Travel agents make valuable contributions in our community, but we have no advertising here. Please do not promote any travel agents or sales consultants by name.
In the same way that we do not allow advertising, we also do not allow links to other pages with advertising (eg Cruise Critic).
Explanatory Note: We don’t allow advertising because we don’t want our news feeds to be swamped by it. However, if a member would like to receive contact, they are able to request private messages.
3: No Hate Speech, Bullying of Offensive Language
Make sure everyone feels safe. Bullying of any kind isn’t allowed; and degrading comments about things like race, religion, culture, sexual orientation, gender or identity will not be tolerated.
We also do not accept the use of any crude, vulgar, offensive or insulting language.
4: Always Stay on the Silversea Topic
This community is all about the things we share as passengers with Silversea. So all posts should be related to Silversea in some way. For example, the company, ships, ports, excursions, transfers, pre-cruise hotels, crew, onboard experiences, etc.
Explanatory Note: No doubt there are other topics that could be of interest to members, but we need to be consistent so that the Silversea content is not diluted. Silversea is why people joined, so we stay on that topic.
5a: No Politics, Religion or Divisive Comments
This community is only about our shared interest in Silversea. It is not about things that could divide us, like politics or religion. We have no comments that are divisive, or could be offensive to others.
5b: No Sharing of Screenshots
As a matter of trust, this is a Private Group, so members create their posts and make comments believing they will stay within the group. While posts cannot be shared, it is also not allowed to capture a screenshot and share that outside the Silversea Passengers group.
Explanatory Note: On Facebook it is impossible to share content from a Private Group. However, some people have worked around this by instead sharing a screenshot of private content. For reasons of integrity between our members this rule makes it clear that sharing any private content is not allowed. Those who break that trust are unfortunately removing themselves from this Private Group.
6: We Are Not the Complaints Department
As passengers, we do not represent the Silversea company or other third parties, so we cannot handle problems on their behalf. Instead, any issues should be directed to the people who can actually resolve the problem – normally the onboard management, or sometimes the Silversea office, an airline, hotel or travel agent.
Explanatory Note: As shown in the sub-title of the group name, our purpose is “for Those Who Enjoy Silversea, or Plan To in the Future”. We don’t represent the company; we cannot resolve problems; and we don’t want to be used by a minority trying to apply social media pressure.
As a happy and positive place, some complaints can be unreasonable. Others can be misunderstandings that are later resolved, but not updated in social media. All are better addressed with the business involved. For those wanting to apply social media pressure, there are other websites that invite complaints for their content – but Silversea Passengers is not one of them.
Some people occasionally say that we should drop this “We Are Not the Complaints Department” rule, but it has been the case ever since the first member joined.
7: Restricted Posts to the Group
PRIVATE MESSAGES: Posts cannot be used for personal messages between 2 people. Chat in comments is good, but not messages between individuals.
POLLS: To avoid conflict, members cannot create competing Polls. (Instead contact the Group Admin with any suggested surveys).
AVOID CLUTTER: Simple statements of “Thanks for letting me join” are not encouraged.
8: No Comments About the Covid-19 Disease Itself
We do not make comments about Covid-19 (the disease, treatments or vaccines) as we are simply not the best source of information for this expert topic. Comments could be open to misinterpretation, speculation, or lead to misinformed decisions by other members.
Talking about the impacts on cruising with Silversea is fine here, but not the disease itself.
Explanatory Note: This group does not provide medical advice, especially when there is a chance that someone may act upon a general statement that was made with no understanding of individual circumstances. This would also not be on the Silversea topic, as per Rule 4.
9: No Unsolicited Direct Messages
This community cannot be used for making unsolicited contact with other members. Instead ask in a first message “May I contact you about . .?”. Direct messages sent without permission have been associated with conflict and spam; and our member list is not a marketing list.
If you receive an unsolicited message from a group member, please report it to Facebook and also to the Group Admin.
An important exception is contact to or from the Group Admin with questions about the operation of the community.
10: Do Not Disrespect or Block the Administrators
Disrespectful language about the administrators is not tolerated. They are fellow passengers who contribute their time for the success of this community.