Rules & Etiquette

/r/CrossStitch Rules:

1. Be supportive! Exercise good reddiquette.

2. Read the FAQ & How To before posting a question. This resource has everything, including pattern making programs, apps & websites. 

3. Do not request, share, or post photos of any patterns. What’s the big deal about copyright? Patterns in the background must be blacked out and unreadable. A small section of a pattern can be photographed for help on reading it.

4. Properly include pattern’s source

   • Properly include a pattern's source as a parent comment of your [FO] posts. 

   • If you made it yourself and you're promoting your own shop or content, please follow the self-promotion rules. 

   • If you made it yourself and your relationship to the designer or shop is spouse/parent/sibling etc or anything other than 'happy customer', please follow the self-promotion rules. Why? Because the FTCs has published guidelines about native advertising, and that requires that any relationship be disclosed before the reader interacts with the content. We do that here via the [SELF-PROMO] tag.

   • If you made it yourself and you aren't promoting your own content, then you can say 'self-drafted'. 

   • Do not link to Pinterest or Google, only state the website. 

   • Reddit itself blacklists some links (including almost all link shortener URLs and .ru domains) so please don't use link shorteners or link to Russian websites.

   • You can watermark your pictures, but please use only your Reddit username in the watermark 

5. Embroidery pieces are limited to one [FO] post. You may share hardanger, candlewicking or other styled pieces one time as an [FO]. It is up to mod discretion whether your piece is similar enough to cross stitch. Blackwork is close to cross stitch and will be allowed as WIP and FO. See this post for details.

6. Do not link directly to your blog/shop These links are fine when used to share the source of a [SELF-PROMO] or free [PATTERN]. Use the 90-10 rule as a guide.

Using Tags [TAG]s

We require every post to have only one tag telling us what the post is about. The one tag must be at the front of the post's title. This helps people find what they're looking for. Here is a reddit post discussing tags. Only one tag per post.

[FO] finished object - see rules 4 and 6

[WIP] work in progress - only share the same WIP more than once if noticeable progress has been made - see rule 6.

[SELF-PROMO] if this is an [FO] or [WIP] of a design you are selling (whether you link to it or not) or if you refer people to your own social media or content.

[PATTERN] free pattern

[CHAT] question, discussion, pattern request, general self-post with no photo.

[PIC] on-project specific photo, haul, meme. Also use [PIC] if you can't properly provide a pattern source to satisfy rule 4.

[VIDEO] Tutorial, time-lapse, someone else's flosstube (if it's your own flosstube, you would have to use the [SELF-PROMO] tag).

The Norms

At /r/CrossStitch we like to have a good time. We want a positive environment and a sub people look forward to coming to. Here are our norms:

• Constructive criticism is ALWAYS welcome, unless the poster specifically says they do not want it.

• Some people don't like subversive cross stitch, please use good judgement when posting, and if you think it may cross the line, tag it as NSFW.

• All types of cross stitch are welcome on this sub! Subversive, traditional, samplers, patterns we've seen 100 times and brand new things you've created. If it's cross stitch, it has a place here.

• You have snarky mods in this joint. We have no problem calling you out for a wild report, or if you start to cross the line with rules or attitude.

  • Since Reddit doesn't tell us who makes a report, we will often publish the report on the post to open a dialogue and address the issue with the person who reported it, the OP (original poster) and/or any community members.

  • If you forgot to follow a rule, that is on you -- don't get pissed at us when we remind you to do so. We are absolutely open to discussing any problems or issues you are having. 

• If you do NOT have source information, tag your post as [PIC]. We have had a few people find a cross stitch out in the wild and take a picture, but there's no source to tell others where to get the pattern. When in doubt, feel free to ask the mods.

• We don't mind seeing embroidery posts every now and again, especially if similar techniques are used. Please stick primarily to cross stitch.

• Cross stitch tattoos and pet pics ARE allowed. Tag them as [PIC].

• Fabric crafts have a long history of being political, and you can post political cross stitch as long as it follows our other rules (especially in the comments, that one rule about being kind to others). Please be aware that we will often preemptivelyy lock comments on posts that are likely to 'flame up' if we are not around to actively monitor. 

Rule Four Clarification Tree (NEEDS AN UPDATE, COMING SOON!)