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Community Guidelines — Building the Most Supportive Dental Marketing Community

We're committed to creating a respectful, safe, and productive space where 10,000+ practice owners can learn from each other, share real results, and grow together. These guidelines help us protect that culture.

Why These Guidelines Exist

Our community is built on peer-to-peer advice and authentic sharing. These guidelines protect that culture. They ensure members can ask vulnerable questions, share mistakes without judgment, and trust that the advice they receive comes from real practitioners with skin in the game — not vendors trying to sell them something.

We believe the best networking happens when there's mutual respect, psychological safety, and a shared commitment to helping each other win. These guidelines are how we maintain that standard.

Last updated: March 2026

Our 5 Core Values

🤝 Generosity

Share freely. The best ideas thrive when they're shared without gatekeeping. Give credit. Pay it forward. If you've benefited from the community, help others do the same.

✨ Respect

We come from different practice types, locations, and backgrounds. There's no one "right" way to run a practice. Listen with curiosity before judgment. Disagree gracefully.

🎯 Authenticity

Share real wins and real losses. Pretending you have it all figured out doesn't help anyone. The most valuable advice comes from actual experience — including the mistakes that taught us lessons.

🔒 Privacy

Patient data stays confidential. Practice details you share in the community stay in the community. We protect member privacy fiercely. No sharing member discussions on social media or elsewhere.

📈 Growth Mindset

Everyone here is committed to getting better. We celebrate wins, learn from failures, and believe that practice growth is always possible. Negativity and cynicism work against that culture.

Do's and Don'ts

✓ DO

  • Share wins and losses. Both teach the community something valuable. Your failure might save someone else thousands.
  • Ask questions fearlessly. No question is dumb if it helps you grow. That's what peers are for.
  • Offer help generously. If you have relevant experience, share it. Keep your answer focused on solving their problem, not promoting your services.
  • Give credit. Built on someone's idea? Mention them. Sharing a resource? Link to the original creator.
  • Stay on topic. Keep discussions relevant to dental practice growth, marketing, and operations. Off-topic posts make the community harder to navigate.
  • Disagree respectfully. Different approaches work for different practices. You can disagree without being disagreeable.

✕ DON'T

  • Spam or self-promote. "Check out my agency" posts aren't helping peers. Vendors have their place — but the community forum isn't it.
  • Share patient information. HIPAA violations are serious. Don't post patient names, conditions, financial details, or identifiable information.
  • Bash competitors by name. You can discuss bad experiences with specific agencies or service providers, but do it to warn peers — not to attack or defame.
  • Share community content outside the group. Screenshots of member advice on social media break trust. Respect member privacy.
  • Use aggressive sales tactics. Mentioning your service is okay if it's genuinely relevant to someone's question. Pushing it repeatedly is not.
  • Post content that violates platform norms. We follow Slack's (or your platform's) usage policies. Harassment, misinformation, and hate speech have no place here.

Content Categories — What to Post Where

We organize discussions by channel to keep the community easy to navigate. Here's what belongs where:

#general

Practice updates, questions about running a dental business, ideas, discussions about the industry.

#wins

Share your wins. New patient numbers, revenue milestones, successful marketing campaigns, team wins, practice culture improvements.

#questions

Ask for advice. "How do I..." "Has anyone tried..." "What's your experience with..." This is where most peer learning happens.

#resources

Share templates, checklists, tools, articles, and guides that the community can use. Submit your own resources here.

#introductions

New to the community? Introduce yourself: practice type, location, goals, biggest challenge right now. Helps you build connections with peers.

#off-topic

Life outside dentistry. Practice-adjacent topics, encouragement, personal wins. Keep it relevant to the community's spirit.

Moderation Process

We believe in education first, enforcement second. Here's how we handle violations:

1

Warning

First violation: A moderator reaches out with a private message explaining the issue and reminding you of the guidelines.

2

24-Hour Mute

Second violation or after warning ignored: Temporary mute. You can read but not post for 24 hours.

3

7-Day Suspension

Third violation or serious misconduct: 7-day suspension from the community. Full access restored after the period.

4

Permanent Ban

Repeated violations or severe misconduct (harassment, HIPAA violations, etc.): Permanent removal from the community.

Note: Serious violations (HIPAA breaches, harassment, threats) may skip steps and result in immediate suspension or ban. We also use judgment — context matters.

How to Report Issues

See Something? Report It

We can't catch every violation. If you see content that violates these guidelines, report it. Here's how:

  • In-platform reporting: Most community platforms have a "Report" button on messages. Use it.
  • Direct message to moderation team: Private message @moderators with details about what happened and why it concerns you.
  • Email: guidelines@dms.community with details. Include screenshots if relevant.

What happens next: Our moderation team reviews within 24 hours. You'll get a brief acknowledgment that we received it. If action is taken, we won't share details (to protect privacy), but you'll know we took it seriously.

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