Community Guidelines

[veritypcos]

These community guidelines are broken down into the following sections:

A: INDIVIDUAL WITH PCOS

B: MEDIA

C: RESEARCHER

D: COMPANIES

E: OTHER SUPPORT GROUPS / CHARITIES

The following set of guidelines foster an environment of shared values, mutual respect and trust, and your use of our Health Unlocked community implies your agreement to these guidelines. We reserve the right to amend/change the guidelines at any time, without prior notice.

A: INDIVIDUAL WITH PCOS

This is an informal environment to chat and meet others like you - who know what it is like to face the challenges of having PCOS. However, in order for us to have valuable conversations, there are some guidelines to help us all get the most of this space.

1. We reserve the right to remove any postings which do not adhere to the guidelines set out in this post or to take further action if required (see below)

2. You are responsible for any content you post. Although Health Unlocked is an anonymous platform anything you post can be searched for both on the website and by Google. Therefore any posts that mean you may be personally identifiable will be edited in order to protect you, but this is not guaranteed. We would urge you not to post personal information in the first place

3. Please keep the content of discussions on the topic of PCOS and related issues.

4. Please be polite and respectful towards other members of the community, and remember that others may not always share your point of view. Disruptive, offensive or abusive behaviour will not be tolerated. PCOS is a sensitive topic, and we reserve the right to take action if requested to do so by a community member

5. You must be respectful of other people's feelings and differing values. Being someone who "speaks your mind" does not excuse a lack of consideration for others. We must all remember that communicating online is a somewhat impersonal medium, and your tone and body language will be lost, making the real meaning of your post open to misinterpretation. Your conversational style may seem "open and upfront" to you, but it might appear intimidating and offensive to others. Any such postings will be removed

6. Please consider other users at all times when using the Community. Behaviour that deters other members from engaging with the community is considered offensive. Allow other members to contribute and do not dominate any discussions. Any complaints about members demonstrating such behaviour will be taken seriously

7. We do not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any advice, opinion, statement or other information displayed, uploaded or distributed through the Community. In using the Community you acknowledge that any reliance on any such opinion, advice, statement or information shall be at your own risk

8. You are responsible for copyright infringement in your messages. Remember that copyright infringement is a form of theft and is punishable as such. Please ensure that any material you post that is not your own is either free of copyright or that you have received permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material for these purposes. Verity and Health Unlocked cannot be held responsible for any copyright infringement by individuals in the Community

9. When posting material, you are responsible for ensuring that all such material is free of any libellous or discriminatory statements of any form. Verity and Health Unlocked cannot be held responsible for any such statements made by individuals in the Community. Verity reserves the right to forward the contents to the appropriate professionals if any illegal activity is discussed on the Discussion Board

In the unfortunate event of any member abusing the Community in any of the ways set out above, we reserve the right to remove or edit postings. If members continue to behave in an unsuitable manner, they will receive notification of this via a private message, after which if the behaviour continues, they will be banned from future participation in the Community. Such decisions are made at the discretion of the owner/moderator and no discussion will be entered into.

B: MEDIA

10. We do not accept messages posted in the Community requesting case studies and input for publication purposes. Verity is very happy to work with the media and help recruit case studies and we have a database of ladies who are happy to talk on a range of aspects about PCOS. Please email Rachel, the Chair and PR manager of Verity at [e-mail] or Kristine the Digital Manager at [e-mail]. Any such posts will be deleted without warning

C: RESEARCHERS

11. Verity welcomes and encourages research being done into PCOS, and we regularly work with researchers to help them recruit patients to their study. However, as we are sure you can appreciate before we ask our members to participate we must do our due diligence and ensure that any research we are pointing them towards has had ethics approval. Please do not post messages about your research in our Community, as they will be deleted without warning. You can contact our research advisor by emailing [e-mail]

D: COMPANIES

12: We do not endorse or promote or accept self-promotion of companies or products in our community. We have many advertising and promotional opportunities available, and to discuss these please email Rachel, the Chair of Verity at [e-mail] or Kristine, the Digital Manager at [e-mail]. Please do not post self promotional messages in our community, these will be deleted without warning

13. You may reply to our community members posts offering impartial advice or words of support, however, if these stray into talking about your individual products and services they will be deleted

14. If any breaches of this happen following a warning, you may be permanently banned from our community

E: OTHER SUPPORT GROUPS / CHARITIES

15. We actively work with other support groups that are relevant to our members and community, however, these need to be discussed internally with Verity's Trustees. You may not post messages promoting your group or campaign in our community, any such messages will be deleted without warning. If you would like to discuss how we can potentially work together, you should email Rachel, the Chair of Verity at [e-mail] or Kristine, the Digital Manager at [e-mail]