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-   -   Community Guidelines -- Updated 4/8/2015 (https://www.neurotalk.org/community-and-forum-feedback/1293-community-guidelines-updated-4-8-2015-a.html)

DocJohn 09-21-2006 03:58 PM

Community Guidelines -- Updated 4/8/2015
 
Forums Mission Statement

The purpose of our Community is simple -- it's devoted to support for health, neurological, mental health and related issues. In that vein, you should be civil and treat others as you expect to be treated here.

Community Guidelines

While the administrators and moderators of this forum will attempt to remove or edit any generally objectionable material as quickly as possible, it is impossible to review every message. Therefore you acknowledge that all posts made to these forums express the views and opinions of the author and not those of the administrators, moderators or Webmaster (except for posts by these people) and hence they will not be held liable.

You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-oriented or any other material that may violate any applicable laws. Doing so may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned (and your service provider being informed). The IP address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. You agree that the Webmaster, administrator and moderators of this forum have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time should they see fit. As a member you agree to any information you have entered above being stored in a database. This information will not be disclosed to any third party without your prior authorized consent.

These forums are for mutual support and information sharing only. The forums are not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment provided by a qualified health care provider. Always consult your doctor before trying anything you read here.

Advertisements and any type of research on the content of these forums by third-parties are strictly prohibited. Unless otherwise noted, copyrights of individual messages are owned and retained by their original poster. Unauthorized use or reproduction of any material found on these forums is strictly prohibited without prior authorization of the copyright holder. A valid email address is required to complete your registration.

Our forums are primarily meant for ordinary people to share their experiences, treatment stories, information, and such for emotional support and education about their condition. We believe such sharing empowers patients to become informed equal partners in their own care. Professionals are welcomed to participate as long as they check their professional hat at the door, and share their experiences as an ordinary human being. Professionals should not offer medical advice in our community.

Only One Account per Person, Please

In order to keep our community civil and responsible, we ask that you only register one account as a member here.

There is an exception to one-account-per-person: If you would like to discuss something you would rather not associate with your regular username here, you may register a single additional account just for such a discussion. Members should create only one duplicate account for special posting. Please notify Chemar when you create the second account in order to avoid confusion or misunderstandings. No individual should have more than 2 accounts at any time here and additional accounts should never be created to circumvent administrative actions (such as a suspension).

Inappropriate Content

This is, first and foremost, a self-help support and education community. That means if your message (post or PM) isn't about offering support or information to another person or asking for it, it's potentially not appropriate for our community. Specifically prohibited from our community:

  • Advertisements of any sort
  • Flames or messages meant to intimidate or harass others
  • Threatening or profane messages
  • Messages discussing a private message (PM) from others
  • All administrative issues (exceptions will be made from time-to-time for community administrative issues)
  • Copyrighted materials that you do not own the rights to, except any educational or research article a member would like to post that is not available elsewhere online to nonsubscribers
  • Messages containing suicidal threats or threats of suicidal actions. Posts of a primarily suicidal nature should be made to the SOS forum.
  • Messages containing or condoning illegal acts
  • Triggering material without the use of the Trigger Icon http://forums.psychcentral.com/images/icons/trig.gif
  • Anything that violates the Terms of Use for this site


- Limit your direct discussion of politics, as people usually hold pretty strong opinions about this topic. Use the Politics Icon http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/im...b/politics.gif when posting a political thread.
- Posts of a mostly religious nature should be made to the Spiritual Support forum
- Before asking for donations from members (e.g., sponsors) for a nonprofit event, please PM an administrator for approval.

For links to other websites, the following guidelines apply:
  • Links in your profile are fine. Link to almost anything you want in your profile page, as long as it doesn't violate our sexual, illegal activities, or profanity guidelines.
  • Links on a post to anything online are okay, as long as it's your personal site, photos, a research article, an article or resource you personally have found useful or helpful, a helpful tip, etc. We don't want to see people abusing this by saying, "Hey, I just updated my site" and posting about it every week.
  • Links in your signature are okay, as long as they are to your personal site, a charity, a helpful resource or article you'd like others to know about, a project or non-profit effort. Generally, no self-promotional links are allowed in one's signature; exceptions, however, may be made on a case by case basis.
  • When posting news links to any news-related or research-related forum on the site, please ensure you include the headline of the article you're linking to, as well as a brief summary (a few sentences is fine) about why the article is relevant to the community. Posts with links only and no explanation may be removed without notice.
  • Please refrain from posting links to other communities solely in order to solicit other members to that community. We're trying to build this community, right here, and such links send our members to other communities.
When in doubt about appropriate content, contact any moderator before posting questionable material.

Forums are Research-Free

We prohibit any non-naturalistic research being conducted on the forums. At no time shall members' individual posts be quoted or used in the write-up of any research. You are welcomed to post announcements of clinical trials or other research topics you believe are of interest to other members in the community. You are welcomed to help other members research topics and provide research that is potentially helpful to others.

Common Abbreviations Used Here

Confused by an abbreviation you see used within the community? Here's a list of what they mean.

New Members' Posts

In order to prevent the rising influx of spammers, advertising and potentially harmful links on the forums, initial posts by newly registered members will only be visible to the moderation/administration team until they've been approved. Once a new member's posts have gone through the approval process, future postings will be immediately visible without further screening.

Existing members posts are not screened and already post immediately to the forums.

Violating a Guideline

If you violate a guideline, the moderation team will work with you via PM to understand what was inappropriate about your post or reply. We do not use a formal penalty system here, but most of what moderators and administrators are here to do is to keep the community running smoothly and help members work out their differences amicably with one another.

We rarely ban members (except in cases of obvious spamming or trolls), and all established members' suspensions or bans must be approved by a majority of the moderation team before they take effect. Only administrators have the power to suspend or ban a member, and will only do so after other attempts at a resolution -- such as talking to the member -- have failed. Moderators do not have access to any member information: email address, PMs, etc. There is one exception to this, however: when a member reports a post, moderators will see the email address of the reporting party.

Edit History:

Last update: 4/8/2015 (professionals clarity)
Previous update: 10/29/2009 (links clarity)
Previous update: 9/8/2008 (formatting)
Previous update: 3/19/2008 (added note about asking for donations)
Previous update: 9/6/2007 (clarified additional accounts and need to notify an admin; suicidal posts okay in SOS; clarified linking policy)
Previous update: 8/14/2007 (added information regarding new member temporary moderation to combat spammers)
Previous update: 11/5/2006
Original version: 9/25/2006

DocJohn 11-05-2006 07:11 PM

Changes from 9/25/06 version:

- Clarified linking to other sites -- making it clear we're most interested in people not using our community to solicit others to join their community. Links to anything are okay as long as you're not doing it to solicit members to another online community.

- Moderators do not regularly have access to any personal member information (such as their email address, PMs, etc.). We clarified this to note that if you report a post to a moderator, they do get an email notification which displays your email address. I'll look into see whether this can be disabled.

DocJohn 08-14-2007 02:14 PM

Changes from 11/5/2006 version:

Added new section explaining new members' posting moderation to combat spam and individuals who register only to advertise.

DocJohn 09-06-2007 02:38 PM

Changes from 8/14/2007 version:

- Clarified the creation of an additional account; an administrator (chemar) must be notified. Only one additional account may be created. Additional accounts shouldn't be created to circumvent administrative actions.

- Clarified suicidal posts (okay on the SOS Forum).

- Again clarified linking policies.

DocJohn 03-19-2008 11:10 AM

Changes from 9/7/2007 version:

Added:

- Before asking for donations from members (e.g., sponsors) for a nonprofit event, please PM an administrator for approval.

DocJohn 04-08-2015 06:49 AM

Changes from 10/29/2009 version:

Added a paragraph in the introduction about professionals who want to become members here, to clarify that while they are welcomed, they should leave their professional hat at the door.


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