Forum rules

Epilepsy forum house rules

The epilepsy forum (the "Forum") is a place for people affected by epilepsy to come together to share experiences. We encourage a supportive forum environment in which people respect each other and show courtesy to one another.
 
This Forum is not a suitable place to obtain medical advice. It is always wise to check any health advice you read on the Forum with your GP or consultant, particularly if this involves a change to your treatment.

You can get confidential emotional support from NSE’s helpline on 01494 601 400 (national rate, Monday-Friday, 10am-4pm).

All members must follow our house rules.  Every time you use the Forum you are also agreeing to our Forum Terms and Conditions of Use and Website Terms and Conditions of Use (in particular, please note clause 10 in relation to our Privacy Policy.  Please read each of these carefully before you start to use the website or the Forum (and ensure that you comply with their terms at all times).

Please be aware that the Forum is a public message board which can be viewed by the general public.  Any personal information that you disclose on the Forum will be available for the general public to read – it is strongly recommended that you do not post personal details or sensitive personal data on the Forum.

Apart from new members’ posts (which are sent for moderation until a certain level of community involvement has been established – see Registration for more details, we moderate after material has been posted and then decide whether it is suitable to remain. We also ask users to alert us to inappropriate or offensive messages (see below). Please bear in mind that when you post on the Forum your comment will be posted directly on the Forum (which is accessible to the world through the internet) without moderation and will remain on the Forum for some time.  The moderators actively monitor the Forum but we cannot be online 24 hours a day and users may post inappropriate material.

We ask you to:

• Respect others and their views or beliefs;
• Be sensitive to the fact that the subject matter of our website and Forum are of a highly personal nature;
• Keep postings clean – avoid swearing, sexual innuendo and rude jokes. Please bear in mind not everyone shares the same sense of humour;
• Not use the Forum to ask for volunteers for professional research studies without the prior written consent of NSE or to advertise or promote;
• Avoid posting links to images or to sites that break the house rules or Forum Terms and Conditions of Use;
• Not to refer to health professionals or recipients of healthcare by name;
• Avoid using more than one account at the same time or allowing another person to post on the Forum using your account; and
• Bring problems to our attention – if you think someone has breached the house rules or Forum Terms and Conditions of Use, please use the report it link (triangle-shaped icon with exclamation mark next to all posts) to bring it to our attention.

We do not tolerate any of the following (please see Forum Terms and Conditions of Use for further details):

• Bullying or personal attacks against another user;
• Slanderous, abusive, racist, sexist, homophobic, ageist or sexually explicit comments;
• Spam, junk mail, chain letters, money making or pyramid schemes;
• Trolling (deliberately posting false or controversial messages solely to annoy or offend or gain attention);
• Any deliberate attempts to start a flame war (turning a discussion into a heated and vigorous exchange of personal attacks or crude name-calling);
• Impersonation of another person;
• Encouragement of illegal activity (e.g. illegal drug use, including medicinal marijuana); or
• Infringement of rights of any third party including intellectual property rights.

Moderation

Moderators have the absolute right to delete or edit any post or thread that breaks the house rules or Forum Terms and Conditions of Use.  After the first offence we will warn a user who breaches any of our house rules or Forum Terms and Conditions, unless it is a serious breach, which could result in a permanent ban. Users who receive a warning and go on to breach either our house rules or Forum Terms and Conditions of Use for a second time may be permanently banned.

Disclaimer

The views expressed on the Forum are not the views of NSE, but of individual users.  Any recommendation or other information within the Forum is followed by you at your own risk and we do not warrant the accuracy of the information posted on it in any respect.  NSE reserves the right to remove any message at its sole discretion for any reason whatsoever. This reservation of right to delete messages does not mean that NSE assumes any responsibility for the information contained on the Forum nor for content in messages exchanged between users through private messaging. No failure to remove particular material constitutes an endorsement or acceptance of it by us.

Please note

We have the right to update and change our house rules and Forum Terms and Conditions of Use at any time, but we will do our best to let registered users know of any significant changes.