Forum Code of Conduct

By joining the forum you have agreed to the following. Please take the time to occasionally take a peek at this page, so you know what the social norms of tipna.org are. Thanks.

Overall Goals for Conduct

For this virtual community to be successful in its mission to promote the general interests of PN patients, all members of this site need to follow certain guiding principles. These are:

A. Respect for each other and our statements (even if we disagree).

B. Discuss and debate important issues without personal attacks.

C. Express differences of opinion using factual statements and reasoned arguments.

D. "Agree to disagree" when an impasse is found.

E. Be supportive and non-judgmental.

F. Focus on how our statements might affect one another.

G. Be able to see things from the other person's point of view.

H. No hidden agendas.

I. Remember that people communicate differently, and that’s ok, as long as the above are adhered to.

Code of Conduct Rules

Rule 1. Respect other people's privacy:

A. Don't share sensitive or personal information given to you via PM, email, phone, or in-person conversations. If you are unsure of what is appropriate to share, please ask permission of the person who shared the information.

B. Don't make assumptions or insinuations about people, members or otherwise, without proof that you are able to share (see A).

Rule 2. Don't abuse your power. Abuse of power includes using "influence" in PNE community and among members to intimidate, or to make one's opinion seem more prominent than the opinions of others.

Rule 3. Be forgiving of other people's mistakes.

Rule 4. Be willing to "agree to disagree" when an discussion reaches an impasse.

Rule 5. Do not use sarcasm, obscenity, or "attack language" against other members. "Attack language" can be defined as straying from maintaining a professional, respectful dialogue, and attacking another individual's person, intelligence, or emotions.

Rule 6. Respect the requests of Moderators when discussions reach difficult points.

Progressive Discipline

Forum Members who are in violation of the Code of Conduct Rules will be subject to the following Progressive Discipline steps:

Step 1. Warning from Moderator via private message. In order to give more control and responsibility to forum Members, any Member in violation will first be asked to edit his/her own post(s), if necessary.

Step 2. Warning from Moderator, to be visibly posted on the thread in question.

Step 3. Vote by quorum of site "Core Group" (Moderators and other site leaders) for short-term banning of one week.

Step 4. Un-banning after period of one week; return of full privileges to member; probationary period of one month.

Step 5. If the member complies with all Code of Conduct Rules for duration of the probationary period, any future Progressive Discipline will begin at Step 1.

Step 6. If the member violates any Code of Conduct Rules within the probationary period, as determined by a vote by a quorum of site leadership, they will be banned for one month from the forum.

Please note that we have rarely had to invoke these. By and large, people on the forum are well behaved.

Responsibilities for Moderators

1. To maintain civil discourse among forum members.

2. To guide heated discussions back to acceptable parameters, as defined by the Code of Conduct Rules.

3. To administer progressive discipline to forum members who break the Code of Conduct Rules.

4. To run their own posts past other Moderators when there is a chance the language might confuse or offend.

5. To respect their roles by adhering closely to the Code of Conduct Rules.

6. To refrain from abusing control of the site to unilaterally ban, edit, delete, censor, etc.

7. Note: Moderators will be subject to the same Progressive Discipline steps as any Member, and will also be monitored by other Moderators.

Additional Terms of Agreement

We want you to realize that YOU are responsible if you commit slander or libel or anything else illegal with your messages, and not us, the people running the site. You acknowledge that all posts made to these forums express the views and opinions of the author and not the people running the site (except for posts by these people) and hence the people running the site will not be held liable. To learn more about slander and libel, so you can avoid it and help others avoid it, please see the Wikipedia entry.

Protecting Your Privacy

Keep your personal information personal.

Do not post your full name, email address, home address, telephone number, or anything else you want to keep private on the forum, unless you want the world to know about it. If you still want to exchange personal information with another member, you should do so using the private messaging.

This is a public forum. Because the forum is open to anyone to read without registering, search engines will lead people to forum messages. This allows those searching for a solution to their health problems to find us, and perhaps we can help them. By your taking that extra moment to keep your personal information personal, you allow this forum to be open to the public in the fullest sense of the phrase. You are helping to help others. We really appreciate this!

We recommend you use your real first name and a single letter for your last name. This may or may not be the first letter of your last name. This way we are talking to real people with real names, but not revealing our full names. The extra letter solves the problem of five Bills or sixteen Cinderalla's. If your real first name is too unique, try a close non-unique approximation, like Cindy instead of Cinderalla.

We frown on the use of wierd names, such as SkyFy or Criptique or The Prez, because they become masks to hide behind. We need an atmosphere of openess and trust. Many lasting friendships are developed here.

Note that some people prefer to use their full name, mention what city they live in, and so on. This is their decision. Also, we have some members that are working in a professional capacity. It would make little sense for them to use a pseudonym.

What if someone asks you for personal information? Posts that request anyone to submit personal information should be viewed with suspicion, unless the requester is a trusted member of the community.

Thanks,

The moderators and all the folks at TIPNA