How many of us has ever taken TIME OFF to read the "Terms of Service' and the theme/motto of TOOSTEP?

many times some people choose not to read or follow the policies/ procedures etc...that's when sometimes you'll find many posting things that are irrelevant to the site or forum. we all have the right to agree or disagree but it should be done in a civilized manner.

Of late, the aim and theme of TooStep web community is getting distorted due to many factors 
that are being discussed here. 
It has become necessary to exercise discretion in building contacts and filtering of members 
who can access us in this community.

Great information indeed. Such an in depth analysis would definitely help one in many other fields. Accounting is one such field where indepth analysis is needed. law as well as marketing also needs for the marketer or lawyer to understand the nuances of any agreement. Good information and further discussion on how to understand the finer details before clicking on the "I agree " button. 

Seethal, I agree with half of your comment.I don't agree with this part of it and I quote "As far as reading terms and conditions, they actually expect human behaviour from users and so need not be read by normal persons but only for them who do not want to abide them in near or distant future".

I am a normal person and in my line of work I have to read terms and conditions, how else would I know if there were compliance with the agreements, etc.

My reason for mentioning Terms and conditions were to emphasise 3 points of the TOOSTEP system and since it appears that some people are not going to read them I will post now as follows:

(1)  1.  Acceptance of terms of use for this website

     1. The online service provided by TooStep is to enable executives in finding and connecting with other professionals more effectively (the TooStep service). Whether looking to enhance/share knowledge, brand yourself on the web, getting answers to your professional questions, or being part of niche communities, you can also connect with thousands of professionals who are users of the TooStep service.
( notice the words use are executive and professionals)

(2)  4.  Access to service and obligations

      You understand and agree not to use TooStep to:

         1. Post content or initiate communications which are unlawful, libelous, abusive, obscene, discriminatory, or otherwise objectionable. 

         9.Stalk or harass anyone. 

(3) 5. Other services 

            5.1 articles posted on the web site are form of knowledge and are primarily for the users of the website to share and enhance there knowledge regarding a specified field of operation or of interest to them. TooStep does not allow any user to post article which directly or indirectly is against any cast, religion, creed or sex or which involves racial discrimination, articles which directly or indirectly are against the purpose of TooStep will be removed and action against users who are found responsible of posting them will be as per the sole discretion of TooStep. TooStep software will automatically send you relevant articles to you as per your preferences. You can change your set preferences accordingly to receive articles for your benefit.
 
These caught my attention for specific reasons. I don't expect everyone to see it as relevant and to agree with me.

Sachin I get your point and I do appreciated your comment.However, no one on this site may be able to see eye to eye with me since I was the one targeted and felt stupid when one individual took pleasure in seeking out my past/present contributions and were rating them thumbs down. Whoever came to my rescue also was faced with the same consequence in a small way.

You may notice I did not say it was a racial attack although there are very few foreigners on this site.(I can even point out a comment if it is still there where that individual said it would be no loss to him if I quit since he is already not having communication with the Russians and Spanish.......). I retaliated by using the points system cause I could not find any other reason for his actions. I also made other observations which I preferred to keep to myself. 
As you are aware I said at another forum that the points don't mean a thing to me and this still holds. However experts on this site are being featured by the amount of badges and points awarded to them. Then is it not right for members to be careful how they award points, also why should some members post lots of 'copy and paste' articles, make meagre comments and gained points to later be called experts.Do you think the management of Toostep has time to monitor who post what?
Is this right? 
Do you think it would be right for me to just quit and keep mum on the issue? 

Common lets be logical this is supposed to be a professional and social website.

I have to agree with you Devi........

I have joined this platform to know & share knowledge around my area of interest i.e. marketing, branding & sales. I am here to know what people understand & discuss about the area of interest I mentioned. If we don't behave professionally, there will be no value add from this platform. No one can really will be able to judge or improve him / herself........

I have to agree with Deshpandey & others also on how we need to act & what kind of behavior we need to influence & make this platform a great place for everyone......

Deepesh, in my profession I have to be careful what I report on since every point I make has to have substantive evidence. I am also a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors which deals a lot with professional ethics,etc. I am not in the habit of clicking accept buttons unless I am sure what it is all about and I do read EULAs. You seem to miss the important points of this insight. However, I will define Professionalism for you as I understand it to be.

Professionalism exhibits the skill, competence, or standards expected of a  professional as distinguished from an amateur. Some characteristics are as follows:

(1)   Professionals have a high degree of self-control of their behaviour and are governed by a code of ethics. 
(2)   They take pride in the quality of their work
(3)   Their abilities can provide a valuable service to Society and operate with little or no self interest
(4)   Develop standards for themselves and their institutions
(5)   Ability to create knowledge as well as possess it
(6)   Application of theoretical knowledge to practice
(7)   Capacity to solve problems
(8)   Promotes ethical practices.

I hope you are satisfied with this explanation. This is done in a global context.

really this type of animosity is not good and one should be true to the spirit of toostep or say any social networking site. and should use the space for sharing information which is meant for everyone's growth and increase in business, which inturn causes growth of economy. 
As far as reading terms and conditions, they actually expect human behaviour from users and so need not be read by normal persons but only for them who do not want to abide them in near or distant future.

Really surprised and perturbed by this "chalta hai" attitude of some members. It's shocking indeed to see respectable, 'professional' people running like mad after 'candies' and other freebies. 

One question I would like to ask these 'professionals' is what would they gain if they were awarded top points by toosteps? 

Would their peers in the work place accept them as authorities in their niche fields? Or would their superiors (boss') appreciate them better, or would they get an salary increment? 

To what purpose is this rush for freebies? 

kiya yeh pseudo professionals "andho me kane raja" bana Chahatein hai? 

Dear Devi........

I have been following this for some time now but I never participated in this kind of things bcoz my motto of joining this platform was to make friends & share knowledge. As it is a open platform this things are bound to happen where everyone will have his say & will be interested in contributing what he/she likes. I am sure TooStep will come up with some proper control mechanism which will help everyone & will maintain the sanity of the system........

At the same time what we should understand is that there will be few members who would like to abuse the system irrespective of control measures, so as members we need to raise the flag & inform that member first on what he is doing is not right & then to the TooStep system if it is out of control....

I hope we all can make this platform a great place for sharing professional expertise !!!

I am really very surprised that what is happening on this site and just only for points,I have not seen this mess up earlier. This thing is like disturbing and annoying and making me to think that if i made a mistake to join this site... 

I am always proud to feel that, i m in touch with such great proffessionals through this site, but from last few days, these arguments are forcing me think in different way. I dont want to get into the point system, i just request you all that "Please stop this" and behave like professionals..."it is very true ke ek baat se doosri baat nikalte hai" so till we will not stop discussion on this topic this will not come to end...so good for everyone stop it.

I did realize that one 'candy' that toostep offers are these point system which entices people to post as many as possible to gain these brownie points. But at the same time, it is very difficult to judge here as I can never know which info is being used by whom. In many cases.. just as in an office environment, I am sure we also use polished language even on a virtual environment so that we dont offend other participants here - and just live by what ever they post. 
I also see that this forum is a good platform for many novice to experiment and speak their minds out so that they commit less mistakes in their real work environment. So, in conclusion, I do realize that all that is happening in this forum is a great experience for all. The novice get to learn their mistakes and we get (who are also novice on many aspects) get to co-exist and share our opinion/knowledge/experience with all. 

Devi, it happens all the Time! We should, in fact read all such Notices, or End User Agreements which are also referred to as EULA (End-User License Agreements) that applies to anything proprietary service, that we pay for. What I would like to question is "What is the metrics for Professionalism, because in different parts of the World, we see different set of ailments that count for this specific term!" I do agree that it should be ubiquitous, but, my own experience about India, US & Deutscheland is very different, and even borderline to what we may refer to as professionalism! 

The SAD part is, its similar to those EULA's that we often dont bother reading, whenever we install something new in our COmputers, or sign-up to a specific site, be it professional, or social networking! 

I even dare confess that, "I'm an end user, and I don't recall anything good ever coming from clicking that "I accept" option. It's just another meaningless hoop I have to jump through before I can actually use the software. For all I know, the EULA could specify that the software is going to install a key-logger, steal all my passwords and financial information, send incriminating emails threatening the president, format my hard drive, and then reveal some guarded secrets of Mine. How would I know? I blindly clicked that big, fat accept button, same as I always have."

Wont You agree, Devi ?

Regards,
Deepesh.

it happens. enjoy . 

I am glad that you have addressed this issue!! Its a nuisance to see some articles that bear no semblance to OR are completely irrelevant to the forum! But each to his own, I prefer to ignore rather than... But I am definitely with you here on this issue!

Kudos Devi! I was going to bring this up myself, you beat me to it. Thanks for raising this issue.