Community Rules, Etiquette and Privacy Guidelines

Latest Revision December 5, 2019

Thank you for being part of our community. To ensure the best possible experience for all members, we have established some basic guidelines for participation.

By joining and using this community, you agree that you have read and will follow these rules and guidelines. You also agree to reserve discussions and shared files and content to that best suited to Lyme and related diseases. This is a great medium with which to solicit the advice of other patients and caregivers, benefit from their experience, and participate in an ongoing conversation. Questions or concerns should be directed to the group owner via the link on the group home page.

Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with these important guidelines. In order to preserve an environment that encourages both civil and relevant dialogue, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate membership in this community for anyone who violates these rules.

The Rules

Respect others. Focus on the content of posts and not on the people making them. Please extend the benefit of the doubt to newer guests and members.

There is no such thing as a stupid question.

Respect the purpose of the community – the discussion of Lyme and related diseases. Use the community to share successes, challenges, constructive feedback, questions, and goals instead of products or services that you provide. If you’ve found a product or service helpful, please share your experience with the group in a respectful way. Commercial, medical, or research solicitation is prohibited and may cause the user to be moderated, suspended, or terminated.

Use caution when discussing products, medical facilities, or doctors. Information posted on the discussion groups and in the libraries is available for all to see. Comments are subject to libel, slander, and antitrust laws. We discourage mentioning doctors by name in this forum. If you wish to discuss a particular doctor, please do so in a private message to the sender not on the open discussion board.

All defamatory, inflamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials are strictly prohibited. Do not post anything that you would not want the world to see or that you would not want anyone to know came from you.

Respect intellectual property. Post content that you have personally created or have permission to use and have properly attributed to the content creator. When posting items in our collaborative environment, please indicate if the item is not available for reuse. It’s also advisable to contact the owner of any material if you would like to reuse it.

Post your message or documents only to the most appropriate communities. This helps ensure all messages receive the best response by eliminating “noise.” Sub-groups for states, parents, and other special interest are more open while the national group is fully moderated. All are welcome to post to the national group, but the topic should be of national relevance.

Discussion Group Etiquette

State concisely and clearly the topic of your comments in the subject line. This allows members to respond more appropriately to your posting and makes it easier for members to search the archives by subject.

Send messages such as “thanks for the information” or “me, too” to individuals, not to the entire list. Do this by using the “Reply to Sender” link in every message.

Do not send administrative messages, such as “remove me from the list,” to the group. Instead, use the web interface to change your settings or to remove yourself from a list. If you are changing email addresses, you do not need to remove yourself from the list and rejoin under your new email address. Simply change your settings. You may also unsubscribe from each group you have joined by using the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any email from the group.

The Inevitable Legal Section

This site is provided as a free service for the members and guests of LymeDisease.org. LymeDisease.org is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on this site by others. We disclaim all warranties with regard to information posted on this site, whether posted by LymeDisease.org or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall LymeDisease.org be liable for any special, indirect, or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data, or profits, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of any information posted on this site.

Do not post any defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials. Do not post any information or other material protected by copyright without the permission of the copyright owner. By posting material, the posting party warrants and represents that he or she owns the copyright with respect to such material or has received permission from the copyright owner. In addition, the posting party grants LymeDisease.org and users of this site the nonexclusive right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and use such information or other material.

Messages should not be posted if they encourage or facilitate members to arrive at any agreement that either expressly or impliedly leads to price fixing, a boycott of another’s business, or other conduct intended to illegally restrict free trade. Messages that encourage or facilitate an agreement about the following subjects are inappropriate: prices, discounts, or terms or conditions of sale; salaries; profits, profit margins, or cost data; market shares, sales territories, or markets; allocation of customers or territories; or selection, rejection, or termination of customers or suppliers.

This group is intended for patients to support each other through sharing information and personal experiences. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read in this group or on our Website.

LymeDisease.org does not recommend or endorse any specific tests, physicians, products, procedures, opinions, or other information that may be mentioned in group discussions or on our Website. Reliance on any information so obtained is solely at your own risk. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor, go to the emergency department, or call 911 immediately.

LymeDisease.org does not actively monitor the site for inappropriate postings and does not on its own undertake editorial control of postings. However, in the event that any inappropriate posting is brought to the attention of LymeDisease.org we will take all appropriate action. Please use the group owner link on the group home page to report inappropriate postings.

LymeDisease.org reserves the right to terminate access to any user who does not abide by these guidelines.

Privacy Policy

Any personal information you provide to us including and similar to your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address will not be released, sold, or rented to any entities or individuals outside of our organization except as noted below.

With Whom Do We Share the Personal Information We Collect Through This Site:

Our Service Providers

We may share your personal information with companies (including our affiliates) that perform services on our behalf, for example, companies that help process credit card payments. Our service providers are required by contract to protect the confidentiality of the personal information we share with them and to use it only to provide specific services on our behalf.

Business Transfers

Your personal information may be transferred to another entity (either an affiliated entity or an unrelated third party) in connection with a merger, reorganization, dissolution or similar corporate event. If such a transfer were ever to occur, the acquiring entity’s use of your personal information will still be subject to this Privacy Policy.

Government and Legal Disclosures

We may disclose the personal information we collect through this Site when we, in good faith, believe disclosure is appropriate to comply with the law, a court order or subpoena; to prevent or investigate a possible crime, such as fraud or identity theft; to enforce agreements that govern your use of this Site; or to protect the rights, property or safety of LymeDisease.org, our users, or others.

External Sites

We are not responsible for the content of external internet sites. You are advised to read the privacy policy of external sites before disclosing any personal information.

Cookies

A “cookie” is a small data text file that is placed in your browser and allows us to recognize you each time you visit this site (personalization, etc). Cookies themselves do not contain any personal information, and we do not use cookies to collect personal information. Cookies may also be used by 3rd party content providers such as news-feeds.

Remember The Risks Whenever You Use The Internet

We strongly encourage the use of nicknames which do not reveal your full name on posts. Nicknames can be set by editing your profile settings. While we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information that you transmit to us and you are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of any passwords or other account information. In addition other Internet sites or services that may be accessible through our site have separate data and privacy practices independent of us, and therefore we disclaim any responsibility or liability for their policies or actions. Please contact those vendors and others directly if you have any questions about their privacy policies.

For any other information please contact us using the owner link on the group home page or the Contact Us link on our Website.

These rules are subject to change at any time without notice.