The Admin team try to ensure the forum is a welcoming and safe place for you to visit and ask questions and share information. We are aware that shared experiences and advice offer support, hope and comfort to many members.
With this in mind, please take a few moments to think and consider your response to a post, please be kind and courteous and refrain from direct, confrontational or offensive messages that may cause upset.
We request all members to read and consider the following guidelines:
A) Every member is responsible for only his \her own posts. If another member purposely breaks rules, you may ignore them or report the problem to the moderators to take the relevant actions.
C) Please remember that this forum should not be a substitute for a visit to your doctor. We must advise that if you experience symptoms or side effects that concern you, you should discuss them with your GP or specialist.
B) Volunteer moderators help us manage the forum and enforce the forum rules. The moderators cannot read every message, so they rely on members to report problem posts that they encounter. The point of moderation is not to limit discussion, promote or suppress points of view. The goal of moderation is to keep the forums enjoyable and free from problems that detract from the experiences of our users. They are a much valued and experienced member of the Forum team.
Offences which may result in an instant ban:
These offences can result in temporary forum suspensions or permanent bans.
Insults
Direct personal insult of another forum member and other name-calling. People should be able to discuss or even dispute other's posts without insulting people. You may dispute somebody's opinion but not attack the person who stated it. This is especially important when taking into account those personal preferences \ wishes regarding the Covid-19 vaccine and related issues
Harassment.
Purposely intimidating a particular member, harassing them, sending them rude or unwanted private messages, etc. This includes personal attacks on moderators for doing their jobs.
Threats.
Any threat or intimation of a threat.
Multiple registrations.
If your original account has been banned, the moderators reserve the right to ban any further accounts that you may create.
Hoaxes.
Purposely misleading other members to their detriment. Giving advice you do not know to be correct.
Trolling.
Do not post in order to anger other members or intentionally cause negative reactions. For a given post, this can be a subjective call, but a pattern of such posting or an especially offensive case will get you banned. Please ensure all responses to posts are respectful
Advertising/soliciting/self-promotion
Your purpose in joining or posting should not be to promote, advertise, or otherwise call attention to your or another website, blog, product, or business. This includes ALL external links to reports/videos/websites without prior permission from the Admin Team. Forum posts should be free of ads and promotions that benefit the poster or other. Legitimate recommendations and requests for help are permitted, but in ambiguous circumstances users without a previous forum track record will not be given the benefit of the doubt.
Rules:
Advertising.
Using the forums for advertising, site or product promotion, or for business deals and offers. You may not make posts to promote commercial, personal, or not-for-profit websites, products, or services. Threads will be deleted if their purpose is to advertise, announce, or promote products, services, or organisations, build traffic at other websites, carry out business activities, or for similar purposes that do not benefit our forum community.
We request any posts to links and videos have been given consent to be shared by the Admin team, your request will be dealt with at the team's earliest convenience. This is to ensure the links contain information that is both correct, factual, on topic and not misleading to the wider audience. We welcome support and advice based upon your own experience, so please understand the reasoning behind the rules.
If you have any questions - please contact one of the Admin Team beforehand: info@afa-international.org
Shilling.
If you pretend to be a consumer who recommends your own product(s) or favours your own product(s) over others, without admitting your affiliation, you will be banned. Vendors who post in threads only to criticise a competitor's product while promoting their own will also be banned.
Soliciting.
You may not use the forums to solicit donations, votes, or participants for surveys, contests, petitions, or product testing without prior permission from the moderators. Memberships created solely for these purposes will be banned.
Things Not to Do:
These habits can produce warnings and repeated violations can produce bans.
1.Inappropriate posting in a debate. We insist on a certain level of respect and civility toward other users, even when your viewpoints differ, and prohibit posts that attack posters personally or serve only to anger others (see "trolling" above).
2.Reposting. Please don't repost entire articles from other sites. To initiate a discussion about an article, quote a bit of it if you like, and include your own comments or questions so people know why you think it's worthy of discussion.
3.Shared accounts. Accounts are to be used by only one person, and not shared between family members, friends or any other people. Registration is free, so there is no reason not to create a unique account for each person. You are responsible for any posts made with your account.
4.Profanity. Profanity is not permitted on the forum as it can and does cause offence to other members.
5.Repeated problems. Any ongoing actions that make more work for the moderators and administrators or regularly annoy other members and require moderator action. We have thousands of forum members to serve and can't spend a disproportionate amount of time dealing with problems caused by any one member. If your membership is an ongoing detriment to our community then your membership may be terminated.
6. Diagnosis. As this is an open forum, with no means of ensuring members are "real people", we cannot allow any kind of medical advice which might be considered a diagnosis. We must always advise that if you are concerned about any symptoms, you must visit your doctor.
7. Discuss Political Views. Politics is a highly personal and highly divisive topic that should not be discussed on the forum. Each forum member is entitled to their own views; however this is not a place to share them. Please do not post personal political views or discuss\highlight political debates on the Forum, this is a global forum and your own personal views should remain private.
Minor Problems
1.Chattiness. Use the forums to discuss the topic of the thread, not as a substitute for Instant Messaging.
2.One thread. Do not post a thread more than once. Post a new thread in the proper forum. If the topic is relevant to more than one forum, pick the best fit or most specific forum and post it only once.
3.One post. Do not post multiple messages with the same content. One post in the most appropriate thread is sufficient.
4.Corrections. There is no need to point out another poster's spelling or grammatical errors unless you think it is causing confusion. Remember that not all members are native English speakers. Communication, not correctness, is our goal. When other people (especially new members) fail to search and start new threads on old topics, don't scold them or make them feel unwelcome. The best way to be helpful is by posting a link to a relevant thread or specific instructions for problem solving. Set a good example yourself by searching first before starting a thread if you have a question that may already have been answered in the forums or you want to discuss a topic that may already have been discussed.
Thank you for your co-operation and helping to keep the Forum on topic and offer support to those members that value it.
If you would like any support or information, do not hesitate to contact our Patient Services Team: info@afa.org.uk
With kind regards,
AF Association
Using correct terminology 
Starting over - learning what's important for patients
