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Community Guidelines & Terms of Service

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2014 1:04 am
by Jennifer P
The United Brachial Plexus Network (UBPN) is a web site with forums dedicated to the primary discussion of brachial plexus injuries, care and support, in a positively charged, family-friendly environment. Although it is assumed that all members will participate in a civil, responsible and mature manner, guidelines have been devised to assure that there are fewer misunderstandings as to expectations and proper membership behavior. Please keep in mind that these are guidelines, and exact interpretation is at the discretion of the Site Owner and Moderation Team. Your completion of the process of applying for membership to the UBPN community indicates your agreement to comply with the following guidelines:
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BEFORE YOU GET STARTED

Each member gets one account in a lifetime.
Name changes are not allowed, except under very special circumstances. Email addresses are not allowed for usernames, and we strongly suggest that you do not choose your real name as a username. Multiple people may not share one account. If a member experiences account difficulties, please review our Suggestion Box & Forum Help or contact a Moderator using the private messaging system and describe the problem.

The UBPN Forums are moderated.
Moderation duties are assisting members, moving threads, clarifying thread titles and other organizational tasks. The Moderation Team reserves the right to delete, edit or moderate anything on the UBPN Forums that is not in the spirit of the community, and to moderate, issue infractions, or ban members when needed. If a member receives an infraction, they are notified via the private messaging system. No other member of the community will know about it unless the member with the infraction chooses to tell them.

Search for the answer to your question before you post a new topic.
If everyone uses the forum search near the top of the page, we can avoid a lot of duplicate questions, and you may find answers to your questions more quickly.

Editing is to be used for fixing typos or adding material
Enter a reason into the space provided as a courtesy. Please try to do this if your additional material would be a secondary post immediately following your first post. Deleting the entire contents of a post or excessive editing that invalidates subsequent posts is not allowed, and will result in an Infraction.
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INTERACTING WITH OTHERS

Be careful.
Never share your email address or personal information in the forum. Please be cautious if you choose to contact others offline or ask others to contact you. We like you, and we want to ensure your safety, security, and privacy.

Be nice to each other.
This is a community of people who care about helping others affected by a brachial plexus injury, and we want to keep things friendly. Personal attacks and name-calling are not permitted. This behavior may result in a warning or removal from the community.

Be nice to the moderators.
We are real people who care a lot about this forum and its users. We're always happy to hear your feedback, but please be constructive.

Signatures may have up to three lines.
Signatures may not contain unnecessary URLs, promotional or commercial content.
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HOW TO MAKE POSTS

Posts must be on-topic.
In this forum, we discuss obstetric and traumatic brachial plexus injuries, their effects, ways to improve quality of life, and more.

Posts must be easy for others to read.
Subject lines and post contents may not be in ALL CAPS, contain excessive punctuation, or contain excessive emoticons. Check your spelling before you click the "submit" button.

Posts must be created within the most appropriate category.
This forum is organized by categories, so please choose the appropriate category for your post.
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WHAT TO POST

No Spam.
In this forum, we're all responsible for keeping the community spam-free. Spam includes, but is not limited to, any promotional, commercial, or adult content, multiple instances of the same post, posts with URLs unrelated to the question, and the transmission of malware, viruses, or anything that may disrupt service or harm others.

Posts should remain PG-13.
We don't allow nudity or sexually explicit material. We also don't allow content that drives traffic to commercial pornography sites.

Respect and compassion always should be remembered while posting.
No violent or bullying behavior. Don't threaten, harass, or bully other users. This includes using profanity to abuse others. Controversial topics may generate disagreement, but flaming and trolling are not acceptable. We don't allow the promotion of hatred toward groups of people based on their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation/gender identity.

No impersonation or sharing of private and confidential information.
We don't allow impersonation of others or other behavior that is misleading or intended to be misleading. We don't allow unauthorized publishing of people's private and confidential information, such as credit card numbers, Social Security Numbers, driver's and other license numbers, or any other information that is not publicly accessible.

Each member is allowed one "Share Your Story" thread.
Feel free to add replies about your progress, and use your thread like a blog or journal about your experiences.

KNIT before you post.
Before you click the "Submit" button, review what you're about to say:
  • Is it Kind?
    Is it Necessary?
    Is it Informative?
    Is it True?
Read your words as if someone else were saying them to you. How would you receive them? Would you be offended, hurt or angry? If your post doesn't pass those tests, try again. If you simply can't compose something, let the thread go, and maybe try again later.

Every once in a while, there will be something that you cannot agree with. No one expects there to be a complete meeting of minds on every single topic discussed here. In those cases, we ask for tolerance. The other person is always worthy of respect. If you post, do not attack. Agree to disagree, and let your words be civil and as kind as possible.
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OUR AGREEMENT
By posting in this forum, you agree to abide by the aforementioned rules. Breaking these rules may result in your post being edited or removed, and severe abuses may lead to harsher penalties. Please read the Suggestion Box & Forum Help for further guidance. We reserve the right to change these rules at any point in our efforts to keep the forum clean, user-friendly, and safe. If you believe that someone is violating these posting guidelines, contact a Moderator. We'll try to promptly review your report and take action if appropriate.

Let's work together to keep this forum a clean and friendly environment. Happy posting!