The Cheyne Gang Forum Code of Conduct

The Cheyne Gang Community Forum Code of Conduct

Overview and Purpose

The Cheyne Gang Community Forum is intended to be a place for further connection with other members, support, and conversation. This is a civilized place for connecting with other users, staying in touch, sharing stories, ideas & hobbies. By participating in this Community, you are agreeing to our privacy policy, as well as this Community-specific Code of Conduct.

Together, we all have an exciting opportunity and responsibility to make this a community we can be proud of and a safe online space for our members.

Pledge

In the interest of fostering an open and welcoming environment, we as contributors and maintainers pledge to making participation in the The Cheyne Gang Community Forum a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, body size, ability, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, level of experience, nationality, personal appearance, race, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.

Standards

Treat The Cheyne Gang Forum with respect. We are a shared resource — a place to share skills, knowledge, and interests through ongoing conversation.

The following are not hard and fast rules, merely aids to the human judgment of our Community. Use these guidelines to keep this a clean, well-lighted place for civilized public discourse.

Summary of Code of Conduct:

Please take the time to read the full Code of Conduct. However, for quick reference, the following points should be remembered at all times when using the forum:

The forum should be a positive and supportive space; please do not use language or engage in behaviour that is offensive to others.

Any medical advice you receive on the forum does not constitute professional medical advice. Please see your GP if you have worries or concerns.

Please consider whether any link you are posting is from a reputable source

Any spam will be deleted without notice

Please don’t post petitions, surveys or recruitment for research studies

If you’ve questions or concerns, please contact us on cal@thecheynegang.com

How should this forum be used?

We are happy for discussions on the forum to be varied and we appreciate that things can occasionally become animated. However, please bear in mind that we will not tolerate any behaviour which makes other users feel uncomfortable, uneasy, or unable to use the forum. This includes, but is not limited to, posts which may:

1. be inflammatory, defamatory of any person, hateful or obscene;

2. promote any discrimination, based on age, gender, race, religion, nationality or sexual orientation;

3. infringe any copyright or trademark;

4. be threatening or abusive or likely to embarrass, upset or alarm others;

5. advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act;

6. be used to impersonate any person, or to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person or organisation;

We ask that you do not swear or use language that others may find offensive. Please remember that what you may find perfectly reasonable may be offensive to others, especially when in reference to body parts. You should not say anything in a post online that you would not say to someone in person.

The Cheyne Gang reserves the right to edit or remove posts, without notice, which we believe breach these guidelines or cause any disruption to the page.

Please note, the views held by the members of our Cheyne Gang Community forum do not necessarily reflect those of the organisation.

Sharing links to other websites

Whilst it is helpful to be able to share information from other websites, often, this can result in inaccurate information being shared. These can be from unregulated or unverified sources. Please be mindful of the information that you share. If we feel the information may be harmful to our members, we reserve the right to edit or delete posts.

As an organisation, we aim to make sure that those using our forum are given correct information regarding COPD and other related breathing conditions, we kindly ask that you try to share information from regulated organisations such as the NHS, British Medical Journals, or another charity.

Medical guidance

We appreciate that conversations in the forum may occasionally tend to be medical in nature. Any advice that you receive from an individual or organisation through our forum does not constitute professional medical advice, even if it is posted by someone who claims to have a medical background or extensive experience in this field. Any changes to the way that you treat or manage COPD or your condition should be discussed with a trained medical professional. You can find additional information about the management and treatment of COPD on our website. In an emergency you should contact 999 and you should not delay seeking emergency medical treatment if you are concerned about your health.

Spam

Posts which direct users to inappropriate products or external content may be classed as spam and will be removed if they are deemed to be inappropriate. This may also apply to the promotion of particular products, which may be viewed as advertising.

If you would like to post a link to external content and you are not sure if it is relevant to users please contact us in the first instance. If a user repeatedly breaks the rules we will ban them from using the forum.

Personal Information/Photos

If we deem any image to be graphic or offensive, this will be removed from the forum in order to prevent offence within the community. Images should not be shared in order to gain medical advice. Please also be aware how much information you want to share about yourself.

Moderation

The forum will be moderated, if you have any concerns about posts or content please report the member or email directly to cal@thecheynegang.com We will get back to you as soon as possible. If you see a post that breaches our guidelines, please contact us in the first instance. It is useful to include a screen shot or full details of the post (date, time and content). Please do not respond to the post or attempt to diffuse the situation, we find that this can inflame the situation.

Would you like to speak to us?

We try to respond to questions that may be directly aimed at us in the forum. The fast paced conversations can mean that these queries soon disappear from our News Feed. If you have an urgent question, please consider sending us a message or contacting us by email ( polly.waugh@btinternet.com or anne.ritchie@sky.com ). We are a small team, so it is much easier for us to provide a comprehensive response this way.

After you have contacted us regarding a concern and/or we have resolved the problem please do not continue to post in the forum about the issue. We find that this only serves to exacerbate the situation.

Please note that any message which is sent to you, via email or privately through the messaging system, should not be made available in the public forums. These communications constitute private correspondence and we do not expect them to be copied into the public domain. If the information contained within these messages appears on the forums we will delete the post and you may be removed from the forum(s).

The forum is designed to be a safe place, please help us to maintain this.