Forum Posting Guidelines

[TUKOffice]

By posting on Thyroid UK you are accepting these posting guidelines (see below), HealthUnlocked's site Guidelines: support.healthunlocked.com/...

and

HealthUnlocked's Terms of Use: support.healthunlocked.com/...

Members of the Thyroid UK Online Community must read these Guidelines which cover the whole of the site including the posts and messages.

If you do not wish to abide by these guidelines or are unhappy about any of the information below and wish to delete your account you can find information about how to do that here:

support.healthunlocked.com/...

The Community

The Thyroid UK online community is set up to support people who have diagnosed or undiagnosed thyroid disease and their friends, family, carers etc. The group is moderated by members of the Thyroid UK Admin team who are volunteers or paid employees of Thyroid UK.

This is a patient to patient forum and no one, including the Admin team, on this community should be assumed to have medical training of any sort.

Everyone is only speaking from their own experience, that of friends/family or other people they may have spoken to.

People MAY be able to evidence some of their information by linking to research, reliable websites or quoting from well researched books and if at all possible this should be done when making 'definite' statements.

Just because something worked for you, this categorically does not mean that it will work for everyone. Please remember this when you post.

Everyone is entitled to have their opinions listened to and respected. This does not mean that everyone has to agree with them. Please keep arguing to a minimum and personal attacks should be avoided at all costs.

Content on the site

Content on this site does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.

Views expressed are those of individuals and not of Thyroid UK.

Thyroid UK cannot be held responsible for any discussions regarding self-treatment or the outcome of any such discussions.

What is visible to others on the site?

Thyroid UK is an open site, this means that any ‘open’ posts are ‘searchable’ via any internet search engine. If you would rather your content was not ‘searchable’, make sure to pick ‘Only community members’ BEFORE you click submit. If you go back and change it later, the post may still be ‘searchable’.

All posts appear on search engines, regardless of whether or not they are ‘Only community members’. However, as mentioned in this article - support.healthunlocked.com/... - posts that are ‘Only community members’ only have the title and first line visible to people who are not logged-in members of that community.

When accessing that post from Google, you should find that you can only see the title and first line of the post (unless you are logged in, in which case you will see everything).

🔴 Thyroid UK Forum Guidelines 🔴

1.Children under the age of 18 are prohibited from creating an account and becoming a member of HealthUnlocked. In registering as a member, you are acknowledging that you are aged 18 or above.

2. This is a Patient to Patient support community. Advice from members openly claiming to be medically qualified is not permitted.

Member names and/or profiles which appear to suggest medical qualifications e.g. doctor, nurse, chiropractor etc. are not permitted.

Any member names and/or profiles which the admin team consider misleading will be asked to change their member name and edit their profile. Non-compliance with this request will result in account restriction.

3. The Admin team reserves the right to remove a member from the register. An explanation may be provided.

4. The Admin team reserves the right to refuse membership to Thyroid UK.

5. For the benefit of the whole community, first time posters may have their posting rights temporarily restricted whilst their account is verified.

6. The Admin team reserves the right to delete or edit any Post or Comment they judge inappropriate without notifying the author. The member may be informed of the reason the content was deleted and invited to rewrite it.

7. The Admin team reserves the right to make any member 'read only'. An explanation may be provided via message.

8. The Admin team reserves the right to 'close' any thread to comments and editing. An explanation may be provided.

9. Please report any abusive or inappropriate posts, comments or messages.

10. All members should conduct themselves with respect and honesty at all times.

11. We want all members to be comfortable posting here. In order to ensure that any post or comment which causes alarm, harassment or distress to any person, whether or not intended by the poster, may be removed.

12. Please refrain from making derogatory comments about other HealthUnlocked groups, members or Admin of those groups.

13. People posting and/or answering on the site should not be assumed to be health professionals.

14. Posts, replies and comments posted on the website should be designed to support, not replace, medical advice.

15. Members posting on Thyroid UK must only post information which is true and correct to their knowledge. If relevant, please provide references to health or medical information.

16. Do not breach copyright rules by placing documents onto Thyroid UK unless you have permission from the author of the document. You can, however, post excerpts with links to the full text of the document.

17. If you post a link, please at least explain briefly what people can expect to find if they follow the link. Links without such an introduction/explanation may be deleted.

18. If possible, show a clear distinction between personal experience or opinion and evidence-based information.

19. Where possible, link to information on the Thyroid UK website - thyroiduk.org

20. Thyroid UK cannot be held responsible for the content of external websites.

21. Thyroid UK cannot be held responsible for the content of 'Private Messages' or the outcome of any action taken as a result of any such message. The messaging system is private and cannot be accessed by the Admin team.

22. If members choose to make contact via email, telephone or in person, Thyroid UK cannot be held responsible for the outcome.

23. Any post, post title or comment considered to be advertising or of a promotional nature (that has not been previously sanctioned by Thyroid UK) will be edited or removed at the discretion of the Admin team. The poster may or may not be notified.

24. Any post or comment which appears to be asking for money, except for fundraising for Thyroid UK, will be edited and/or deleted at the discretion of the Admin team.

25. Do not name and shame identifiable individuals, including other forum members and members of the Admin team. Names/comments will be edited and/or deleted at the discretion of the Admin team.

26. The decisions made by the Admin of any group should be respected as being their decisions and should not be open to discussion or interpretation by the admin or members of other groups.

27. Do not solicit members to other websites or forums for your own purposes either via posts or the messages system.

28. Do not post advertisements, links or information of any sort whatsoever, on where or how to obtain UK prescription only medications without prescription. This includes online pharmacies who issue 'prescriptions' on the basis of the completion of a simple health questionnaire.

29. Do not post offers to sell or give away your unwanted medications or over the counter supplements. Similarly, do not post requests for medications or over the counter supplements from others.

30. Do not post information about specific endocrinologists or doctors on the main board without their permission as this may result in unwanted attention from certain areas of the medical profession. If you wish to discuss a particular endocrinologist or doctor, you may mention his/her name and location, providing that you ask for comments by private message only.

31. Do not post links or website addresses in the subject field of posts.

32. Any posts, replies, links, videos & images deemed by the Admin team to be of a political or religious nature will be removed. Members may also be requested to change their user name and/or bio details.

33. All content can be read, used, reproduced and cited by all for non-commercial purposes.

34. Do not use 'Text Speak' when posting or replying.

35. Thyroid UK reserves the right to update and/or amend these Guidelines at any time without notice.

Last updated: 18.05.2024 (V2.2)

Review date: 11.11.2024