Preamble

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
• Post-Count farming
• Inciting a forum war or riot
• Outwar-style links
• Blatant advertising
• Messages without content
• Fraudulent activity (Pyramid schemes, chain letters, etc.)
• 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.