The use of any of
healthLearn forum constitutes acceptance and agreement to our Forum Code of
Conduct. If you violate the Code of Conduct, we reserve the right to suspend
all accounts belonging to you without prior notice. We prefer to advise users
of inappropriate behaviour, however, flagrant and repeated violations of our Code
of Conduct will result in immediate account suspension. Our failure to enforce
this policy, for whatever reason, shall not be construed as a waiver of our
right to do so at any time.
Principle Guidelines
We created the Code of Conduct
to provide a basic understanding of what's allowed and not allowed in our
forums. The following are the principle guidelines for the establishment and
enforcement of our Code of Conduct:
Ensure
a friendly atmosphere to our visitors and forum members
Ensure
the privacy of our members and that of others
Comply
with existing laws
Encourage
responsible use of our forums and discourage activities which disrupt our
community and reduce the value of our services to our users
Encourage
the freedom of expression and exchange of information in a mature and
responsible manner
What about free-speech?
While we are committed to the
principles of free speech, certain activities may be damaging to the resources
of both healthLearn and our communities and cannot be permitted under the guise
of free speech. The resources of healthLearn are limited, and abuse of these
resources by one user has a negative impact on the entire community.
As a member of our forum
community, you must participate responsibly. If you have any questions
regarding our Code of Conduct, please contact any of our forum moderators, or
the healthLearn administrators via email.
Violations of the Code of
Conduct
It is extremely
important for you to understand that this section of our Code of
Conduct isn’t designed to cover everything. We may take action — issue a
warning, suspend your account(s) and/or IP addresses, lower your post count,
delete/edit your post(s)/thread(s), etc. — if your conduct at healthLearn is
counterproductive to the Code of Conduct’s principle guidelines.
Unauthorized access / Forum
Security
The following actions are
strictly prohibited:
Accessing,
or attempting to access, the accounts of other users
Exploiting,
or attempting to exploit, bugs, vulnerabilities, or loopholes; whether
they are disclosed or undisclosed
Penetrating,
or attempting to penetrate, security measures of healthLearns software or hardware, or electronic
communications system
All intrusions will subject all
your healthLearn accounts to immediate suspension, regardless of whether or not
the intrusion results in the corruption, loss, or theft of data.
Users are responsible for the
security of their healthLearn accounts. Users may not share their passwords or
transfer – via any means – their accounts to others without the express
permission of the healthLearn Administration Team. In addition, users are
responsible for all activity made by them or anyone the user allows to use their
account.
Ad Hominem
Ad Hominem comments/personal
attacks towards anyone - staff, forum member, or a visitor who is likely to
view it on the forums - is subject to the message being deleted and action
taken against the user, regardless of how pertinent or thoughtful the rest of
the message might be.
Spamming
Unless a thread or forum is
designated as an area ok for spamming, you may not spam. Spam includes, but is
not limited to, the following:
Excessive
off-topic threads
Posting
nonsensical messages
“Flooding”
the forum with similar meaning messages
Free-____
links (i.e. Free iPods, Free PSP, etc. etc.)
Advertising
Please note that our forums
aren’t the place to advertise your own sites, business or forums. You are
welcome to link your site in your signature without a slogan.
Any forum member who seems to
have created their account solely to promote another site will be permanently suspended.
Pirated Materials, Cracks,
Keys, and Key-Generators
“Piracy” is the illegal copying
and/or distribution of copyrighted content including, but not limited to,
games, software, music, movies, pictures, ROMs, abandon-ware, and leaked
software. “Cracks” are programs that disable copy-protection technology; a
“Key” is a combination of numbers and letters that is required for software
installation and sometimes used to validate users for online play; and
“Key-Generators” are programs that generate valid Keys.
You may not encourage, post in
support of, link to, or discuss activities, methods, and/or techniques
involving piracy, cracks, keys and key-generators. In addition, the following
are grounds for moderator action on your post and/or account:
Seeking
help to create cracks and key-generators
Seeking
missing files that are supplied with installation CD(s)
Admitting
to possess pirated materials, cracks, and key-generators
Admitting
to distribute pirated materials, cracks, keys and key-generators
Admitting
to the use of cracks and key-generators
Uploading
any such files to healthLearn
Generally breaking this rule
will result in an instant suspension of your account. However you may be given
a warning for a first offence if, in our opinion, you are a new user who
doesn’t understand why this is such a strict rule – this will be explained to
you; any subsequent offences will result in a permanent ban.
Forgery or impersonation
Attempting to impersonate any
person, including staff, using forged headers, instant messenger names in an
effort to deceive or mislead is prohibited.
Profanities
You may not use profanity or
bypass the software-based censor. In addition to words included in the censor
list, sexual remarks and slang may be considered profane when used in certain
contexts.
A word about what is considered
to be bypassing the software-based censor: Anything done to avoid the default
*'s provided by the censor is considered to be a bypass of the censor. For
example, if the word “angle” was in the censor (it is not), then all of the
following are considered a bypass of the censor and thus in violation of the Code
of Conduct:
A****
ang1e,
angl3
anglë,
añgle
a n g
l e
[i]A[/i][i]n[/i]gle
a<!--
a -->ngle
Harassment
You may not use terms or
audio/visual materials referring to ethnic/national origin,
ideological/religious beliefs, gender, or sexual preference in a demeaning
context.
We have no tolerance for
discrimination. You are in violation of this rule if the nature of your post
discriminates, promotes hate, promotes violence or advocates hatred or
discrimination against individuals, groups, races, cultures or organizations
because of their ethnic/national origin, skin colour or culture.
Derogatory Terms
If you use any terms in an
offensive context against a person, race, culture, group or organization, as
determined by our moderators, you are in violation of this rule.
Please note that words carry
different meanings in different cultures, and that while a word may be
acceptable use in one part of the world, it may not be in another. In addition,
anyone can invent their own derogatory terms, unfortunately. Because of those
factors, we will evaluate the context in which the term was used to determine
whether a violation has occurred.
Porn/Sexually Offensive
Materials
You may not post or link to
pornography or sexually offensive materials.
Offensive Images / Shock
Sites
You may not post or link to
shock sites, or any such obscene material. Violations of this rule will result
in a permanent ban on your account.
Illegal Use
You may not use our forums for
illegal purposes, in support of illegal activities, or encourage conduct that
would constitute a criminal offense, as determined by the laws of New Zealand.
Such activities will guarantee a ban. We reserve the right to cooperate with
legal authorities and/or injured third parties in the investigation of any
suspected crime or civil wrongdoing.
Privacy
You
may not post any form of real life information of a user unless the user
has first permitted it by express consent. Examples of real life
information include name, address, IP addresses, and phone numbers.
You
may not distribute any form of real life information, email address,
private/email Messages, and Instant Messenger messages (“Chatlogs”) with
intent to harass or in any demeaning manner as determined by a moderator,
regardless of consent.
You may
not disclose a user's unpublicized email address unless the user has first
permitted it, either by actual consent or previously releasing said
information.
Signatures
Signatures, whether facilitated
by the forum software or by the user, may not exceed the following
restrictions:
The
signature may not contain more than 3 lines including blank lines
Signature
images may not be larger than 300 pixels wide by 75 pixels high
The
signature must not violate any part of this Code of Conduct
Email Addresses
You may
not harvest email addresses from our forums for any purpose
You
are required to keep your forum account's email address up-to-date. If a
warning sent to the email address on record bounces, your account may be
suspended.
Moderation & Bans
You
may not publicly complain about or demand a reason for another user's ban,
the deletion of a message, or the deletion/closure of a thread. Any
discussion about warnings, bans, message deletion, thread deletion and
thread closure should be done over private email between the person
concerned and the moderators
You
may not re-edit a message that has been edited by a moderator
You
may not post a message on behalf of a suspended user.
Miscellaneous
Do
not post negative posts and discussions that are repeated over and over
and over with no other purpose than to disrupt conversation. If you feel
the need to say something, say it once and then move on. Do not disrupt
multiple threads in order to get your view out.
You
may not bait/troll users. Bait / Trolling is defined as posting with a
clear intent to provoke anger, incendiary posts, and behaviour that
results in other users violating the Code of Conduct.
You
may not bait, insult, flame, or otherwise abuse a staff member. Staff
members have to follow the same rules, and should you have a problem with
a certain staff member, please contact a moderator or the Forum Management
Team.
You
may not abuse your ability to post in HTML in HTML-enabled forums
You
may not post graphically-disturbing images as inline images (such that the
images are displayed when users view your post). However, you can link to
the images with a warning stating that the images are graphically
disturbing
You
may not post in a manner that is harmful to healthLearn LEARN. If you do,
the post will be deleted and you will be suspended.
You
may not register multiple accounts with intent to violate any part of this
Code of Conduct.