To help you gain the most from our support forums, please familiarize yourself with the rules and guidelines below.
These rules and guidelines are designed to help give a better understanding of what behavior is expected and make your experience more enjoyable and safe.
Rules:
1. No discussion of any illegal activity or threats of violence (ie. threats of suicide, self-harm, or physical harm). Discussion of medical marijuana is allowed as long as discussions have a medical focus.
2. No use of explicit, racist, obscene or vulgar language, images or messages.
3. No posts that attack, insult, flame, defame, or abuse others. Respect other members’ opinions regarding treatment decisions. Decisions about health and well-being are highly personal choices. We should respect all points of view. Flaming will not be tolerated.
4. No advertising or links to advertising or “Spam” is permitted.
- Advertising or spam is defined as posting a link for the purpose of selling, soliciting or promoting something.
- Links promoting fundraising, advocacy, etc. are not permitted.
- Links to personal blogs/homepages are allowed in member profiles and signatures .
- Sharing of links to helpful and relevant web sites and resources is allowed if they are not used for a promotional purpose.
5. No posts regarding research studies, surveys, or clinical trials without prior approval from the forum administrator.
6. No posts of copyrighted material, lengthy articles, or posts of an overtly political or religious nature (ie. proselyting).
7. Do not post offline personal contact information (ie. your home address, phone numbers etc.) and do not ask for personal information from others. This is to protect your security and identity.
8. If you are a medical professional, do not use the forums to distribute professional medical advice and/or promote your services.
Guidelines:
1. Check for open topics. Before posting a new topic, please check to see if there is already a topic open on the subject.
2. Ignore bothersome members. If there is someone on the forum that bothers you, select the Ignore button at the top right corner of the post.
3. Report posts that violate the rules. Do this by selecting the Admin alert button in the Options menu at the top right corner of the post.
4. Use good judgement. Never rely on information or opinions exchanged to replace necessary, personal consultation(s) with qualified health or medical professionals to meet your individual health or medical needs. Remember that what’s right or has worked for one person may not be what’s right for you.
5. Lend a helping hand. A bit of compassion can go a long way toward helping people with life’s challenges and reaching out can help alleviate feelings of loneliness.
6. Don’t be afraid to share. If you’re feeling alone or hurting, don’t be afraid to share your fears and tears. If you’re rejoicing about the results of a recent medical test or treatment, share that too.
7. Welcome new members. Help new folks “learn the ropes” about how to find information and resources, save time, and how to get involved.
8. Use descriptive titles for new posts. Avoid “generic” post subjects like “Help” or “Question”. You will receive a better response to your posts by making your title more descriptive about the content of your post.
9. Be respectful of moderators in both the forums and any private communications.
10. Stay on topic. Posts which are not relevant to the forum topic may be deleted.
11. Keep posts family friendly. If it shouldn’t be viewed by minors, then it shouldn’t be posted to the forums.
Know Your Moderators:
Our chronic illness support forums are moderated by volunteers that have some special understanding of your health condition. While they may not have answers to all your questions, moderators are here to help in any way they can. You can spot a moderator because their profile indicates that they are moderators. We are always looking for new moderators to help with our many disease/disorder topics.
Moderators have the right to edit or remove posts without prior notice at their discretion. If you have a question for a moderator on a decision, you can email them and discuss it privately. They may not see things the same way you do, but they are open and approachable.
Please Remember:
Members that do not abide by the rules may be subject to having their posts edited or deleted, their member account permanently banned from further access and/or deleted without notice.
Rules and guidelines may change at any time, please review them regularly.
