Please take a moment to read the updated AF-A Forum guidelines and rules - September 2023

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 site, blog, product, or business. This includes external links to reports/videos without prior permission from the Admin Team. Forum posts should be free of ads and promotions that benefit the poster. 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. If you have any questions - please contact one of the Admin Team beforehand

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, post a link to the 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: [e-mail]

With kind regards,

AF Association

[JayDJ]

"The point of moderation is not to limit discussion, promote or suppress points of view".

Unfortunately that is exactly what is happening and more often than not it is because "We had a complaint". Whilst there can be justifiable complaints ie personal, rudeness, spam etc I've yet to see "We've had a Complaint"with a reply saying that we see no merit in it. The apparent complainants side always seems to be taken without any explanation. As you can see from the latest episode the "Complainer" has apologised for misreading the intentions of the poster, unfortunately because of blindly pandering to that person's complaint a post was unreasonably taken down. Surely there is room for improvement on this contentious issue?

[mjames1]

First I'd like to say how appreciative I am of this forum and how well it is managed. I think the moderators are doing a great job in balancing freedom of expression and keeping a safe place for all of us.

That said -- and since this thread has been left open to comments -- I would like to reiterate what "JayD" said previously.

Obviously, moderators can't be all places at once and therefore sometimes have to rely on the "Report" button to inform them of rule violations. It make sense and I don't think anyone should be criticized for reporting a post they feel violates forum rules.

However, what has bothered a number of people, including myself, is that it appears that some posts are taken down solely on the basis of complaints, but not because content of the post itself.

This unfortunately can result in forum bias, where a person, or small group of people who disagree with a poster on some subjects can have that person's posts removed, simply by filing a complaint.

Again, nothing wrong with pushing the "report" button -- I've done it myself on more than one occasion -- but hopefully it will not be used to stifle healthy and civil conversation. And if it is, hopefully you will see it as such.

Jim

[CDreamer]

I would just echo the concerns already expressed. Members get extremely upset and often angry when the reason for the removal of a thread is not given. All that happens then is that the discussion moves to personal messaging and many miss out on what could be really useful discussion.

Obviously it may often come down to a judgement call and most of the reasons highlighted above may be obvious in a thread but quite a few are quite contentious and a very thin line in what one person considers ‘bullying’ whilst another reasonable debate.

I also am appreciative of the volunteer moderators but have had more than one occasion when a post was removed without warning or explanation. This has upset me because I was left completely ignorant of the transgression.

Having been a moderator on a closed FB page I do understand how time consuming this process can be, but it is well worth the effort when you can inform members with perhaps some sort of an automated as there are a limited list of infringements?

On the whole I have found the moderation on this forum has a much lighter touch than on other HU forums and am grateful for that as the line between ‘on topic’ and ‘off topic’ needs to be flexible in my opinion, not least so that we may all enjoy Jean’s (and others’) fabulous Christmas Ditties every year which makes us smile, best medicine ever!

[secondtry]

Good to see no mention of 'misinformation' as that always raises the question according to whom!

We are all adults here and some of us 'at a certain age' have built up a lot of experience so we can decide ourselves what to read and what to ignore and would rather not be nannied - less work for the moderator 🙌!

[Singwell]

Thanks for all you and the volunteer helpers do. We've had some problems recently where perhaps people were over reactive and I appreciate that in the end it's the judgement call of those who run and organise the forum. As the forum owners you also have to consider both legal and ethical implications. Not an easy task! Good to have these guidelines set out in detail.

[Rainfern]

Looks like a good set of guidelines to me. Harassment and insult towards moderators needs particular attention from my observation. Sometimes people in the heat of the moment ascribe special powers to those whom they perceive to be “in control” or “in charge” and turn their frustrations on individuals without perhaps realising the force of their comments.

I know when I’m feeling ill and exhausted having my views respected seems all the more important. (My husband knows this at his cost!) And I have yet to find such a lovely and tolerant group of people as I’ve found on this forum. They are like family to me and my first go-to every morning. But things are bound to have a wobble sometimes- no system is perfect. So thank you Katrina for the guidelines and your part in keeping the forum a safe space.