Community Guidelines for our PMRGCAuk HealthUnlocked Forum

Hello all,

Please find below our PMRGCAuk HealthUnlocked Community Guidelines . This will remain a pinned post so that you know where to find it.

Best wishes

Director & Trustees of PMRGCAuk

PMRGCAuk HU Community Guidelines (additional rules re coronavirus are at the bottom of these rules).

Welcome to the PMRGCAuk Community!

We’re very glad you have chosen to be a part of our community offered by PMRGCAuk and HealthUnlocked (HU). This community supports people affected by Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) and Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA) to understand and manage their condition better and share experiences.

The community is moderated by PMRGCAuk and HealthUnlocked. Please read our Community Guidelines, which are there to ensure we create and maintain a safe and supportive space for all our members.

Community Guidelines

1. Content posted by individual members should not be taken to represent the views of PMRGCAuk or HealthUnlocked.

2. The purpose of the forum is to share experiences of living with PMR or GCA, as a patient or partner/caregiver, to ask questions, and to offer support and relevant experience/advice. Posting is taken as your agreement that the information you post is true and accurate to the best of your knowledge.

3. Please keep content broadly relevant to your experiences of living with PMR or GCA. We are a friendly community, welcome social interaction and want to meet the needs of everyone, but please be aware that the forum is part of the work of the charity and we are here to share experiences that are relevant to living with PMR or GCA. Members may be contacted by Administrators if topics are not related to the purpose of the forum.

4. All Administrators and Ambassadors have been trained by HealthUnlocked. Some Ambassadors may be part of the HU community and may post on issues they wish to as individuals. When acting in their capacity as Ambassador they have the full support of PMRGCAuk.

5. We enjoy and expect an atmosphere of mutual respect and politeness, even when opinions vary. Please word any posts or replies to posts politely.

6. If you wish to post a link to your own blog or website please ensure that the content is relevant to the forum and that it meets our community guidelines. We are happy for relevant blogs to be posted on a very occasional basis (two or three times) but not for the forum to be used as a vehicle to promote your blog/website. If the post does not meet these criteria, replies may be turned off to avoid a long discussion thread which may not be pertinent to the forum or it may be deleted.

7. Content should not be abusive, derogatory, discriminatory, sexually explicit, offensive (including bad language) or suggestive, or deliberately misleading. Content should also not include religious or political views.

8. Please only report posts if you believe someone else’s content violates the principle above (7). You can do this using the “Report” option. Use the dropdown menu to select the reason why you are reporting the content. Content that is felt to violate this policy may either be edited or removed. Reports are read by PMRGCAuk administrators and it is their judgement on what action, if any, is taken. More often than not the issue will be dealt with via private messaging.

9. Neither PMRGCAuk nor HealthUnlocked is responsible for any offence or injury that a member may draw from another member’s content.

10. Any content posted on this community can be read, used, reproduced, and cited by other users of the site, within the site. Please refrain from sharing other members' posts on the web outside the site. You have the option to delete content you posted.

11. When you post third-party information, such as information about new treatments, you are asked to provide references and links to sources wherever possible. Please ensure links are to a reputable site.

Coronavirus updated rules

This is a worrying time, and you may chat to others, share worries, seek reassurance or post something humorous that might put a smile on someone else's face. However, please note, that you must keep this site focused on PMR and GCA and to keep it factual.

In particular, please note the following rules:

Where a poster is seeking the experiences of others in relation to getting a booster vaccine, this is not an invitation for a general discussion on vaccines and/or the scientific decisions behind the various rollouts. Posts and replies that are expressing views and opinions about the vaccines will be removed and the poster may be restricted. We recognise that some people want to have discussions of a general nature about the vaccines, but please do this on another site and not the PMRGCAuk one.

Please do not share information that is not from an official source. There are many urban myths and fake stories floating around the internet and it is not helpful to share them. We will remove them. Please refer to the relevant authority's website for factual information on symptoms, treatment and necessary action eg see NHS website if you are UK based.

For clarity, comments that are anti-vax, ie repeating unsubstantiated claims about vaccinations, will be removed.

Please do not share your political views about how the various governments are dealing with the virus. By all means if you're concerned about isolating for example, share that concern, there may be lots of wisdom here to help you. If you wish to discuss your opinions on your president or prime minister etc, then please discuss them on your own social media.

Moderation

Moderation helps maintain a safe, positive environment for all members of the community. Content may be edited or removed to ensure that the community remains supportive and responsive for all members.

The community is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Moderation occurs after posting and primarily between the hours of 9 AM and 5 PM GMT weekdays only.

Solicitations

Please note that PMRGCAuk does not endorse or recommend any specific products, services, therapies, or activities mentioned by any third party (individual or company).

Advertising of commercial services or products is discouraged. However, this should not stop members from recommending products or services that they have found useful or helpful in managing their condition.

Online Safety

In this community, there may be discussions of health-related issues and sharing of personal information.

Please note that the PMRGCAuk Community is an open site, meaning that any posts are searchable by internet search engines and can be shared via social media platforms. If you would rather your content was not searchable or shareable, you can select the visibility status of your post as visible to “Only followers in my community” before you click submit.

For your own safety, you should not disclose personal information such as your full name, email address, home address, telephone number, or any other information which could directly or indirectly identify you. If you wish to do so, please use the private messaging (chat) function.

The PMRGCAuk community is part of HealthUnlocked, a network of over 200 conditions and wellness communities from organizations you know and trust. By using HealthUnlocked (HU) you are accepting these posting guidelines and agree to HealthUnlocked’s site Guidelines and Terms of Use. Members of this community should read HU’s Guidelines in conjunction with the PMRGCAuk community guidelines outlined above.

Thank You