Bourbon Street Community Leader Application

Thank you for your interest in the BourbonStreet Community Leader Program. The CL job can be very rewarding as you help homesteaders build their new homes on the web. This page is designed to answer many of your questions about being a CL. Once you are sure you would like to be a CL you can fill out the application.

PLEASE READ THIS ABOUT YOUR INFORMATION

Remember, being a Community Leader is an important responsibility. Children under 13 are not permitted to apply. The personal information you will be providing is being sent to and collected by a volunteer, a Community Leader,and NOT an employee of GeoCities. This information is being collected solely for the purpose of evaluating your application to become a Community Leader, and determining whether you should be accepted as a BourbonStreet Community Leader. As part of the evaluation process, your information is likely to be reviewed by other BourbonStreet Community Leaders, and may be kept on file by the BourbonStreet Community Leaders for an indeterminate period of time. Please contact leaders@geocities.com if you have any questions about how your information is used.

Here are the answers to some questions you may be having.

What will I do as a CL?

Serve as an example to other homesteaders. This includes having good home pages that fit the BourbonStreet theme, have no content violations, have the required link back to GeoCities on each page of your site, and having a "developed" page, which means it should have at least two sub pages.

Monitor specific blocks in your neighborhood (as specified by the Liaison). You'll be looking for great sites, which you'll be able to nominate for the Best of Geocities (BOG) Program; pages that don't meet the content guidelines, which you'll tell Geocities about so they can contact the owners or remove them if necessary; and content that doesn't match the theme of the BourbonStreet neighborhood.
Act as a liaison between your neighbors and Geocities. Your member name and e-mail address will be posted in a prominent place within the neighborhood, so everyone will know whom to contact if they have questions or problems. We encourage members to think of you as their primary resource, for everything from HTML problems to content guidelines to neighborhood themes. Current leaders tell us they're getting between 10 and 20 messages a day, sometimes more!
Keep your own home page fresh and lively. If we're holding you out as leaders of the community, your own site should be a showcase. It doesn't have to be completely whiz-bang (although your fellow Community Leaders may be able to help you jazz it up), but it should be updated at least once a week. And it MUST conform to our content guidelines and to the theme of your neighborhood. If you're not sure if yours does, e-mail one of the BourbonStreet Community Leaders and they'll take a look.
Recruit and nominate new Community Leaders by referring those who you think qualify to the Community Leader Application. You will also be asked to vote on applicants.
You will be responsible for communicating with your fellow community leaders via email regarding BourbonStreet business. Although not mandatory, your presence is encouraged at the BourbonStreet CL meetings held weekly and will help us to insure that BourbonStreet is running efficiently. In addition, please notify one of the BourbonStreet Co-Liaisons, Idle Al, Maggie or Ziggy when any change in your email address occurs.

Probably some other things we haven't thought of yet, but we'll let you know when we do.

What are the requirements of being a CL?

Be an established homesteader in one of the BourbonStreet communities. One month residency is the minimum requirement.

Good HTML knowledge, we will not be able to train you on HTML and you will be answering a lot of HTML questions.

Familiar with GeoCities utilities

Complete compliance with the Content Guidelines, including having either the GeoGuide on your pages or a link back to GeoCities on every page. We strongly urge you to have the GeoGuide on at least your index.html page

Willingness to help

Good communication skills

Page must fit the BourbonStreet theme

Plenty of time (2-3 hours per day)

Availability to start training immediately

What will I get as a CL?

Twenty-five Geopoints per month.

After 6 months as a CL you receive a special free GeoPlus membership.

Increased disk space. If you are already a featured page or GeoPlus member, you do not get extra space. GeoCities disk space allocation is not cumulative, you only get the largest amount you are qualified for.

Satisfaction of helping your neighbors

Great friends, good times, and more email than you ever dreamed!

What would disqualify me from being a CL?

Violation of Content Guidelines--We look at your page keeping these things in mind:

No GeoGuide or link to GeoCities/BourbonStreet on every page of your site.

Non-approved banners, such as PageCount Counters, Bannermania, etc.

Links to material not allowed on GeoCities

Other violations

Underdeveloped page-- Sites should not have "under construction" or temporary pages up. All links should work within your site. Your site should have more than one page, and should have content. Remember, you must have lived in BourbonStreet for one month before applying. This will give you time to develop your page and become familiar with the vastness of GeoCities.

Not fitting BourbonStreet's theme--As CL's we must be an example to other homesteaders. Only applicants whose page fits the theme of BourbonStreet will be approved.

Visit the neighborhood directory to make sure your page is in the right hood. If your page would fit better in another neighborhood, you can move your page and apply for CL in that hood. Every hood in GeoCities is needing quality CLs.

Lack of Maturity -- CLs are responsible for many things, including daily contact with homesteaders. You may see things on pages you do not agree with, or that make you angry. CLs must keep a level head at all times, so we look for individuals that have a high degree of maturity.

Lack of HTML skills -- if your page was made with only the basic editor, we have no way of judging your HTML skills, so we look for pages that show off your skills. You need to help homesteaders with a variety of HTML problems, and we can not train you on this aspect of being a CL.

Lack of Communication skills-- We check your page and application for spelling and grammatical errors. Think of the application as a job application. Try to impress us. A hastily filled out application shows. Take your time and make it look good. We also check to see that the address you give is correct. If you can't give us the correct addresses, it makes it very difficult to evaluate your application.

Overall attitude -- This is the toughest part. The BourbonStreet CLs are well established, and occasionally we will see an application that technically is good, but as a whole we do not feel the applicant would "mesh" with us as a group. CLs will often give "gut feeling" as a reason to reject an application. You should not take this as a negative reflection of you, but that your personality, skills, and attitude would just not be compatible with that of the group.

Invalid email/web page address

Incomplete application

No parental/guardian permission for those under 18

Important!

Before applying, make sure your site conforms to all GeoCities content guidelines. Most frequent violations include not having a link back to GeoCities on every page of your site and using advertising banners that are not approved. This includes the Page Count Counters that have a banner underneath a counter. The only banners approved for GeoCities are GeoRewards and Internet Link Exchange and the new GeoGuide. You will not be approved if your page violates any of the content guidelines.

NOTICE!

CL's may be exposed to pornography, excessive profanity, and hatred against racial, ethnic and religious groups. This job is not to be taken lightly, it may take up 10 or more hours per week. This job is for mature individuals only. If your only reason to be a CL is to get more space, get more GeoPoints, to monitor chat, or to get passwords to trade, you will be very disappointed with being a CL.

Attention teenagers!

The BourbonStreet CL's welcome teenagers into the program. We have several teenagers already in our group. However, because of the nature of the internet we must be sure that your parents or guardians have full knowledge of what you are applying to do. If you are under 18, you must give a parental (or guardian's) telephone number contact, plus your parent or guardian must email the Liaison giving consent for you to participate within 24 hours of submitting your application. If these items are not received, your application will be discarded without response.
This consent must include the following statement:

I understand that (membername) has applied for the position of Community Leader in BourbonStreet. I also understand that CL's may be exposed to pornography, excessive profanity, and hatred against racial, ethnic and religious groups. I take full responsibility for supervising my child while she/he is performing CL duties. I further understand this position takes a strong commitment and may take up to 10 hours a week of my child's time.

Without the above statement, your application will be discarded. Copy and paste the statement, inserting your membername, and have your parent/guardian send it to bourbonstreet@usa.net within 24 hours of your application. All approved CL applications of minors will be voice verified.

If you have made it this far and still want to be a CL and think you have what it takes, please fill out our questionnaire.

BourbonStreet@usa.net
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