The Improve Collecting Community is place for members to interact, learn from, and inspire each other. We want our Community to remain a helpful space where members can come for honest advice and recommendations without ever feeling pitched or spammed with offers.
Unfortunately, some may advantage of the friendly and trusting nature of many of our members and attempt to defraud them by offering services and not providing the work, or by taking advantage of Improve Collecting, by taking our work (our processes, trademarks, and techniques) and putting them in their own information products or tools without our permission.
Your continued use of the Improve Collecting Community constitutes acceptance of these additional terms.
Promotional Posts
Because we want the Community to not become overly promotional, we established this policy, but also made a way for members to offer helpful services to other members.
We welcome members to offer services to help our processes. These can be valuable to our Community and we fully support these efforts as long as the marketing is done in a non-spammy way, and in the proper place in the Community. It should be noted that no one should attempt to start a business that is completely reliant on the audience of another person or platform. This type of business is unstable and is most often easily replaceable.
All posts promoting any service or other offering MUST be posted in the Promotions/Networking/Services category of the Community. We want members to be able to create successful businesses offering services, but we don’t want to hurt the experience of others by making the entire Community a pitch-fest, so we’ve created this spot just for these posts, and our members have really appreciated that.
Improve Collecting members may promote service-based businesses in the Community (when properly categorized), but tools, software and/or information products related to cleaning, pressing, and the buying and selling or pricing of comics (Created by Members) may not be promoted or linked to from the Community. Please don’t try to enter our forum just to promote yourself to our members This obviously is not what our Community is for, nor what our members want when visiting the Community.
Websites for sale should also be posted in the Promotion/Networking/Services category. HOWEVER: Use caution when buying/selling anything, books or services, as it may involve a large transaction which should be handled securely. We will not be held responsible if you get scammed within our community. We will try to watch out for suspicious activity but ultimately it is up to you to make good decisions and to be cautious with your hard-earned money.
Private messaging another member or tagging another member to offer a service or promotion without the user’s prior inquiry is not allowed. Members should be free from being constantly pinged by people wanting them to buy stuff.
No post leading to a page designed to capture email addresses may be posted in the Community. Any promotional enticements by public post or private message attempting to send Improve Collecting users offsite with the intention of generating a contact list of the Improve Collecting membership is also prohibited.
Private Groups and Accountability Groups
Some members find accountability groups extra motivating and we are all for that. In general, informal private groups or accountability groups must be kept small. (No more than 10 members total.) Private groups or accountability groups should never be pushed off the Improve Collecting platform unless it is for a Zoom call with the sole purpose of accountability. Attempting to send Improve Collecting members off of the Improve Collecting platform with the intention of starting your own private group or accountability group is prohibited.
Affiliate Links
We love affiliate marketing, but the Community is designed to be a place where we help and trust one another with advice about our hobbies and businesses. We can’t do that if members repeatedly post affiliate links, because then new members will never know what is real advice, and what is a sales pitch. Affiliate links are not allowed in general Community posts. If someone asks for your affiliate link, please private message that user individually. Do not publicly share affiliate links or sale offers for the purpose sole purpose of generating sales. All affiliate links shared privately should be identified as such.
Using Improve Collecting’s Trademarks In Promotion
Please do not use our names, pictures, logo, and trademarks in relation to the marketing of products and services that we do NOT endorse. This makes us look bad when customers think they are getting something recommended by us, but in the end have a negative experience. For this reason, we have to make sure our name is only used with our permission.
Improve Collecting is a trademark of Improve Collecting, headquartered in Lancaster, SC. Improve Collecting also owns trademarks to the term “Improve Collecting Comics”, “IC Comics”, and many other unique, trademarked terms that we have created and used in commerce to represent our company and techniques.
Individuals or business may not use our names, logo, and trademarks in the promotion of their service. This gives users the impression that a service or product is endorsed by Improve Collecting. Never use any Improve Collecting trademark or give the impression that your product or service is related to Improve Collecting without prior written approval from Jimmie James Jr. by emailing improvecollecting@gmail.com.
Individuals seeking to offer a product or service, whether paid or free, may not use any trademarked Improve Collecting phrases or terminology in their promotion, advertisement, or name.
These include, but are not limited to: Improve Collecting, Improve Collecting Comics, IC Comics. Recognize that even our specialized techniques which we have uniquely named may be protected by trademark law. Improve Collecting retains all rights to the intellectual property associated with such terms and does not grant usage of their trademarks to anyone without prior written authorization by Jimmie James Jr.
Using Improve Collecting’s Techniques or Work
We have woken up each morning and worked really hard for years to develop the best techniques and processes for reliably cleaning and pressing comics as well as buying and selling comics, and collecting comics in general. Please do not try to take our work and pass it off as their own without giving credit to Improve Collecting.
Please recognize that our techniques are specific to us and that our approach is unique to us, and is protectable intellectual property.
This is a violation of the Improve Collecting Terms of Service. Any Improve Collecting processes or methods offered in tools, trainings, videos, software, apps, or products–whether paid or free–are a violation of our rights. Obviously, no one would want to spend many years of work developing something and then have others take it for their own–even if those taking it are well-intentioned and not realizing what they are doing is wrong.
For this reason, we feel that the best way to protect our work is to only allow services for hire to be promoted (appropriately) in the Community, but tools, software, and information products RELATED TO COMIC BOOK COLLECTING may not be promoted in the Community, because it is there where the greatest risk of having our work taken by another individual occurs.
Info products, tools, automations, training processes, and membership groups may NOT be promoted in the Community.
Hiring Services
Any posts looking to hire someone to complete work for you, your site, or your business, in any capacity should also be posted in the Promotions/Networking/Services category. The service you are seeking as well as recommended providers may already be offered in this Community category. If so, there is no need to create a new post. Simply reach out to the member directly.
Compliance
Failure to adhere to the policy outlined above may result in:
- Deletion of post(s)
- Loss of posting privileges
- Suspension from the Community or Improve Collecting services
- Immediate termination without a refund
- Other disciplinary action as deemed fit
If you have questions or concerns regarding this policy, please direct them to improvecollecting@gmail.com.