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The American Society of Breast Surgeons (ASBrS) Forums Community Guidelines

ASBrS Forums Community Guidelines

Thank you for being part of the ASBrS Forums. To ensure the best possible experience for all members, we have established some basic guidelines for participation.

By joining and using this community, you agree that you have read and will follow these rules and guidelines. This is a private online space with which to solicit the advice of your colleagues, benefit from their experiences, and participate in ongoing conversations.

Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with these important guidelines. Membership questions should be directed to our member services department via contact@breastsurgeons.org. Any ASBrS Forums questions should be directed to our Community Management Team at forums@breastsurgeons.org. In order to preserve an environment that encourages both civil and fruitful dialogue, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate membership in this community for anyone who violates these rules.

The Rules

  • Respect others. Focus on the content of posts and not on the people making them. Please extend the benefit of the doubt to newer users and members.
  • Respect the purpose of the community. Use the community to share successes, challenges, constructive feedback, questions, and goals instead of products or services that you provide. If you’ve found a product or service helpful, please share your experience with the group in a respectful way. Conversations involving religion, politics, and violence of any sort is not tolerated.
  • Don't post commercial messages.
  • Use caution when discussing products. The information posted on the discussion groups and in the libraries is available for all to see, and comments are subject to libel, slander, and antitrust laws.
  • All defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials are strictly prohibited. Do not post anything that you would not want the world to see or that you would not want anyone to know came from you.
  • Respect intellectual property. Post content that you have personally created or have permission to use and have properly attributed to the content creator.
  • When posting items in our collaborative environment, please indicate if the item is not available for reuse. It’s also advisable to contact the owner of any material if you would like to reuse it.
  • Post your message or documents only to the most appropriate communities. This helps ensure all messages receive the best response by eliminating "noise."

Discussion Group Etiquette

  • State concisely and clearly the topic of your comments in the subject line. This allows members to respond more appropriately to your posting and makes it easier for members to search the archives by subject.
  • Send messages such as "thanks for the information" or "me, too" to individuals, not to the entire list. Do this by using the "Reply to Sender" link in every message.
  • Do not send administrative messages, such as “remove me from the list,” to the group. Instead, use your profile settings under Profile – My Account – Community Notifications to change your settings or to remove yourself from a discussion. If you are changing email addresses, you do not need to remove yourself from the list and rejoin under your new email address. Simply change your settings. For help with this, please email our Community Management Team at forums@breastsurgeons.org.

Violation Policy

First time: The ASBrS Community Manager or Community Administrator will edit or remove the post. Member will be notified by email or private message that they have violated the Community Rules and Etiquette. Participant will be asked to discontinue similar actions. Member will be asked to confirm they understand the violation. Member will be notified that any subsequent violation will result in participant being put on probation with posts being moderated prior to posting for a period of thirty days.

Second time: The ASBrS Community Manager or Community Administrator will edit or remove the post. Member will be notified by email or private message that they have violated the Community Rules and Etiquette. Member will be asked to confirm they understand the violation. Participant will be asked to discontinue similar actions. The participant will be put on probation with posts being moderated prior to posting for a period of thirty days.

Third time: The ASBrS Community Manager or Community Administrator will edit or remove the post. Member will be notified by email or private message that they have violated the Community Rules and Etiquette. The member’s community access will be suspended for 1 month.

The Legal Stuff

This site is provided as a service for the members of The American Society of Breast Surgeons (ASBrS). ASBrS is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on this site by others. We disclaim all warranties with regard to information posted on this site, whether posted by ASBrS or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall ASBrS be liable for any special, indirect, or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data, or profits, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of any information posted on this site. ASBrS further does not warrant that the information, advice, and opinions posted on this site are consistent with the medical standard of care and in no event shall ASBrS be liable for any special, indirect, or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from any members reliance on information, advice or opinions. ASBrS neither monitors, verifies, nor endorses any medical information, advice, or opinions posted on this site. It is the responsibility of any member to independently verify such information and otherwise exercise his or her own professional judgment. Postings on this site remain the sole opinions of the individual member posting the information and in no way reflect the professional opinion of ASBrS. This Discussion Group is never the appropriate forum to address medical emergencies. In the event of a medical emergency, dial 911.

Do not post any defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials. Do not post any information or other material protected by copyright without the permission of the copyright owner. By posting material, the posting party warrants and represents that he or she owns the copyright with respect to such material or has received permission from the copyright owner. In addition, the posting party grants ASBrS and users of this site the nonexclusive right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and use such information or other material.

Do not post any personally identifiable information regarding any individuals, including without limitation any “individually identifiable health information” as defined by the HIPAA Privacy Rule, 45 CFR Parts 160 and 164, or any information regarding any patient that is protected by any other state or federal law. By posting material, the posting party warrants and represents that the posting of such information is not in violation of the HIPAA Privacy Rule or any other state or federal law protecting patient privacy.

Messages should not be posted if they encourage or facilitate members to arrive at any agreement that either expressly or impliedly leads to price fixing, a boycott of another's business, or other conduct intended to illegally restrict free trade. Messages that encourage or facilitate an agreement about the following subjects are inappropriate: prices, discounts, or terms or conditions of sale; salaries; profits, profit margins, or cost data; market shares, sales territories, or markets; allocation of customers or territories; or selection, rejection, or termination of customers or suppliers.

ASBrS does not actively monitor the site for inappropriate postings and does not on its own undertake editorial control of postings. However, in the event that any inappropriate posting is brought to the attention of ASBrS, we will take all appropriate action.

ASBrS reserves the right to terminate access to any user who does not abide by these guidelines.

Privacy Policy

Any personal information you provide to us including and similar to your name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address will not be released, sold, or rented to any entities or individuals outside of our organization except as noted below.

With Whom Do We Share the Personal Information We Collect Through This Site:

Our Service Providers

We may share your personal information with companies (including our affiliates) that perform services on our behalf, for example, companies that help process credit card payments. Our service providers are required by contract to protect the confidentiality of the personal information we share with them and to use it only to provide specific services on our behalf.

Business Transfers

Your personal information may be transferred to another entity (either an affiliated entity or an unrelated third party) in connection with a merger, reorganization, dissolution, or similar corporate event. If such a transfer were ever to occur, the acquiring entity’s use of your personal information will still be subject to this Privacy Policy.

Government and Legal Disclosures

We may disclose the personal information we collect through this Site, when we, in good faith, believe disclosure is appropriate to comply with the law (or court order or subpoena); to prevent or investigate a possible crime, such as fraud or identity theft; to enforce our Community Guidelines or other agreements that govern your use of this Site; or to protect the rights, property or safety of our company, our users, or others.

External Sites

We are not responsible for the content of external internet sites. You are advised to read the privacy policy of external sites before disclosing any personal information.

Cookies

A "cookie" is a small data text file that is placed in your browser and allows us to recognize you each time you visit this site (personalization, etc). Cookies themselves do not contain any personal information, and we do not use cookies to collect personal information. Cookies may also be used by 3rd party content providers such as news-feeds.

Remember The Risks Whenever You Use The Internet

While we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information that you transmit to us and you are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of any passwords or other account information. In addition, other Internet sites or services that may be accessible through our site have separate data and privacy practices independent of us, and therefore we disclaim any responsibility or liability for their policies or actions. Please contact those vendors and others directly if you have any questions about their privacy policies. For any other information please contact us at contact@breastsurgeons.org.