IMHO This should be required reading - yearly- for everyone on Google!

IMHO This should be required reading - yearly- for everyone on Google!

Originally shared by John Skeats

Dealing with Undesirable Behavior on Google+

There are lots of great people on Google+, but a service as wonderful as Google+ also inevitably has individuals who behave in undesirable ways, as well. This post discusses how to deal with the latter. There is also a section about how to avoid undesirable content and behavior.

The first question you should ask yourself when you see something you dislike or are uncomfortable with is whether it violates the rules in Google’s User Content and Conduct Policy (http://www.google.com/+/policy/content.html). It is important to be familiar with that policy both to avoid getting into trouble yourself and to determine the best course of action when you encounter undesirable behavior.

Dealing with behavior that violates Google's rules
The best course of action when you see something that you believe violates Google’s User Content and Conduct Policy is to do all of the following:

* Do not interact with the profile or page in any way. People who act in abusive ways thrive on getting negative reactions from people. Don't feed that need by responding to their posts or comments.

* Report the posts or comments that you believe violate Google's policies. The following Help Center article describes how to report violations: https://support.google.com/plus/answer/6320425?hl=en. When you follow those instructions, your reports will be sent directly to the Google+ Abuse Team for them to verify whether a violation took place and determine the appropriate action. This is the only way to bring the right people's attention to violations. 

* Report the profile if you believe the profile itself (not just posts and comments made by the profile or page) violates the policies. The instructions for doing this are included in the Help Center article referenced above. Again, this is the only way to bring the right people's attention to violations. 

* If you see something you believe to be illegal, report it to the appropriate legal authorities.

* Do not reshare the offending content or links to the content. Doing so -- even if you are trying to get action taken against the content -- can violate Google policies and possibly be illegal. Encouraging others to report violators can also be considered to be a form of harassment even if the violations are real. 

* Block the profile or page -- and leave it blocked. Blocking a profile or page has the following effects:
-- It removes you from the circles of the profile or page you block. 
-- It removes the profile or page from your circles.  
-- It prevents the profile or page from seeing your posts and comments again.
-- It prevents the profile or page from interacting with your posts again. 
-- It demonstrates to the Google+ Abuse Team that you are really serious about the report you are submitting. 

You can find instructions for blocking someone in the following Help Center article: 
https://support.google.com/plus/answer/6320399?hl=en

Dealing with behavior you dislike or are uncomfortable with
If you dislike or are uncomfortable with someone's behavior but the behavior does not violate Google’s User Content and Conduct Policy, that is really between you and the other person -- but there are actions you can take if you find their behavior completely unacceptable. It is up to you to determine when they have crossed that line. If you decide they have, do the following:

* Stop interacting with the profile or page entirely. As mentioned above, people who act in abusive ways thrive on getting negative reactions from people. Don't feed that need by responding to their posts or comments.

* Do not report the posts, comments, or profiles. Reporting is for violations of Google's rules not for things you don't like. Save reporting for situations where there are actual violations involved. 

* Block the profile or page -- and leave it blocked. Blocking a profile or page has the following effects:
-- It removes you from the circles of the profile or page you block. 
-- It removes the profile or page from your circles.  
-- It prevents the profile or page from seeing your posts and comments again.
-- It prevents the profile or page from interacting with your posts again. 

You can find instructions for blocking someone in the following Help Center article: https://support.google.com/plus/answer/6320399?hl=en

Avoiding undesirable content and behavior
We run into undesirable content and behavior on Google+ (as well as in life in general) in two ways: Sometimes it is simply presented to us seemingly randomly, and sometimes it is a result of people intentionally pursuing us. 

In Google+ terms, having undesirable content seem to be randomly presented to you usually means that the content is appearing in your Home stream for reasons which you don't understand. The fact is that nothing appears in your Home stream randomly. Google presents everything you see there to you for a reason. The following post discusses how to prevent undesirable content from appearing in your Home stream: https://plus.google.com/+JohnSkeats/posts/JBwMWmwiad4 

People who appear to be intentionally pursuing you might, of course, actually be doing that, but they might also simply be unintentionally overly aggressive in their efforts to interact with you. If you believe there is a possibility that the behavior might be unintentional, it is best to gently let the person you know that you don't appreciate it. Doing that removes any doubts about whether such behavior from that point on is intentional. Behavior that is clearly intentional and ongoing constitutes harassment and is a violation of Google’s User Content and Conduct Policy, so following the instructions for dealing with violations above is appropriate.