The Community Relations Committee offers the following guidelines for designing and maintaining a masonic website:

I. Administrative:

1. Advise the Grand Lodge of BC & Yukon webmaster of your URL: email to: admin@freemasonry.bcy.ca
2. Don't post any member’s name without the member’s permission.
3. Avoid complex URLs; use short names in lower case characters.
4. Remove outdated information on a regular basis.
5. Provide a site map.
6. Keep a current back-up copy on a stable medium such as a CD.

II. Editorial Content:

1. The following excerpts from the "Charges of a Freemason" should be considered:
   "Avoid all ill language... no private piques or quarrels... cautious in your words and carriage... act as becomes a moral and wise man... avoiding all wrangling and quarreling, all slander and backbiting... that all may see the benign influence of Freemasonry."
2. Read the "Statement regarding discussion of masonic business on the internet".
   http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/grandlodge/statement.html
3. Clearly identify as authorized any notices of meetings, list of officers or members, or anything from the Lodge Secretary’s desk
4. Include a copyright notice on each page or site:
   "Unless otherwise noted, all contents copyright <year lodge constituted-current year> <lodge name>."
5. Include the full URL at the bottom of each page.
6. Include a disclaimer on each page or site:
   "The opinions expressed on this webpage represent those of the individual authors and, unless clearly labeled as such, do not represent the opinions or policies of any masonic lodge, Grand Lodge or recognized masonic body."
7. Include a disclaimer on each page with links to offsite pages:
   No claims are made or responsibilities assumed for the contents of linked websites.
8. Before providing a link to another website or page, explore the site to confirm the appropriateness of its content.
9. Include a link to:
   Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon A.F. & A.M.:
   http://freemasonry.bcy.ca
10. Consider linking to these webpages:
    Links to Grand Lodges and other masonic websites:
    http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/links.html
    Links to masonic resources:
    http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/bcy.html
    Contemporary anti-masonry:
    http://anti-masonry.info/anti-masonry_faq.html
11. Rather than duplicating information on the Grand Lodge of BC and Yukon website, consider providing a link to the relevent page or section.
12. Don't link to website "Rings";
    you have no control over linked sites.
13. Consider adopting an editorial style guide such as that used by Ars Quatuor Coronatorum:
    http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/aqc/aqc_style_guide.html

III. Visual Design

1. Avoid using frames and animated graphics:
   Frames make it difficult for some browsers to navigate; animated graphics are time consuming distractions.
2. Don't use black backgrounds or detailed, high contrast background graphic tiles; they generally render type illegible.
3. Don't use your site to showcase the newest technology;
   if your visitors' browsers or computers do not support this new technology, you will lose them.
4. Avoid non-standard link colours;
   a constant for web browsers is that links to pages users have not yet seen are blue, and links to previously viewed pages are purple or red. By changing this colour you risk confusing your visitors.

IV. Technical:

1. Don't use the pound symbol "#": spell out "Lodge No."
2. Don't use the ampersand, "&"; the proper code is "&#038;"
   Both these symbols are used in HTML coding and can confuse some browsers.
3. Browser compatability is a major issue in web design. View your pages on as many different browser and OS versions as possible to identify potential problems.

Keep in mind that your website is a reflection of the entire fraternity of Freemasonry and act accordingly.