Student Doctor Network Community Usage Policies
The Student Doctor Network is dedicated to developing and maintaining a friendly online community, where members of all ages and backgrounds feel relaxed and comfortable. Like any community, The Student Doctor Network has certain standards. When members join our forums, they agree to abide by these rules. To remain a part of the Student Doctor Network community, members must be considerate to others. Repeated violations of these standards may result in a member being barred from entry or participation in community forums.
Member Names and Personal Information
While the Student Doctor Network does not prohibit the use of nicknames on our forums, we strongly encourage members to include their real first and last names with their registration information. Please refrain from using offensive names and never post a message under another person's name or pretending to be another person. When posting a message to a Student Doctor Network forum, your member name, username and email address will be displayed publicly unless you select otherwise during the registration process or in your user profile. You should always exercise judgment when revealing personal information about yourself when you post messages in public forums. Additionally, users who are aware of another user's personal information (including name and location) must respect that user's privacy and not reveal his or her personal information on the boards. For more information, please read the Student Doctor Network Privacy Policy.
Topics of Discussion
While these discussion forums encourage a wide range of opinions, please keep your posts focused on the topic of the forum in which you are submitting your message. Each forum has a different topic, so what is appropriate in one forum or thread may not be appropriate in another. Generally speaking, however, profanity, vulgar language, and personal attacks are not acceptable in any forum.
Inappropriate Language
The use of inappropriate or offensive language is not permitted in these forums. Inappropriate or offensive language includes, but is not limited to, any language or content that is sexually oriented, sexually suggestive or abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, profane, hateful, or that contains racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable material of any kind. We ask that you please be considerate to other members in the forums when posting your messages.
Harassment and Flaming
The Student Doctor Network members are not permitted to harass or "flame" other members. Please do not post or transmit any unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, profane, hateful, racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable material of any kind, including, but not limited to, any material which encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, violate the rights of others, or otherwise violate any applicable local, state, national or international law. Please note that this also includes the posting of taunts on a forum solely for the purpose of deriding that forum's topic and/or members.
Copyrighted or Trademarked Materials
It is illegal to post any content that is copyrighted or trademarked, unless you hold the copyright or trademark. Any material protected by copyright may not be posted in the message boards without the expressed permission of the author or owner of the copyright on that material. This includes reproducing the full text of news stories, articles, etc. It is acceptable to provide a link to copyrighted material, to post brief excerpts, or to paraphrase other works, though we do strongly encourage you to cite the original source whenever possible.
Piracy or Unlawful Activities
This community forum is a place for ideas and constructive participation, and not a place to violate any laws or to discuss illegal activities. This type of activity includes, but is not limited to, advocating or asking for information regarding software piracy or unauthorized emulators of software or hardware, sharing or distributing viruses, licenses, registration information, software keys, "cracks," or other information designed to do harm to or allow unlawful access to any computer hardware, software, networks, or any other systems. Please refrain from posting this kind of message.
Posting Advertisements
This is a forum of ideas, so advertisements are not allowed in the main forums. Advertisements may only be posted in the Free Classifieds section of the forums. A member may answer another member's question about their occupation or business, however, blatant advertising or solicitations of or for business is prohibited. This includes, but not limited to, links to products or services with which the poster is affiliated, whether or not a fee is charged for the product or service. Spamming, in which a user posts the same message repeatedly, is also prohibited. Pyramid schemes -- chain letters that involve money -- are not only prohibited by the Student Doctor Network standards, but they're also illegal. It is permissible for members to mention services or products that are provided by them or the companies with which they are affiliated, as long as the information is germane to the topic, is not a blatant advertisement, and the members mention their affiliation with the company in the content of the message.
Posting Images
Forum members are allowed to embed images in their messages by linking to an image that exists on another site. In addition to the copyright restrictions mentioned above, users should also refrain from embedding any images of a sexual or offensive nature. If you are uncertain if an image is acceptable or not, please just post a link to the image with a warning that it goes to a page that some may find offensive. Any links to clearly offensive or pornographic materials will be removed immediately at the moderator's discretion.
Other General Rules of Conduct
You shall not post on these forums any Content which (a) is libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, abusive, harassing or threatening, (b) contains viruses or other contaminating or destructive features, (c) violates the rights of others, such as Content which infringes any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret or violates any right of privacy or publicity, or (d) otherwise violates any applicable law. You may not post on these forums any links to any external Internet sites that are obscene or pornographic. You shall not use the main forums for any commercial purpose, to distribute any advertising or solicitation of funds or goods and services or to solicit users to join competitive online services.
Banning
The Student Doctor Network reserves the right at its sole discretion to restrict, suspend, or terminate your access to any part of these forums. If you violate any of the rules stated in this document or any other service terms documents, a moderator will remove the offending message and send you a note letting you know why the message was removed and requesting that you adhere to the forum policies. It is your responsibility to maintain a current, valid email address in your registration information so that our moderators can contact you in the event of a policy violation. Any member who violates our policies three times will be denied access to these forums for a period of 30 days, whether or not they were able to receive a message from a moderator stating the nature of the violation. Any member who refuses to comply with the policies of these forums will be banned permanently.
Managing User Content
Members of these forums are solely responsible for all Content that they post on our site. The Student Doctor Network shall have the right, but not the obligation, to correct any errors or omissions in any Content, as it may determine in its sole discretion. The Student Doctor Network and its affiliates further reserve the right, in their sole discretion, to delete or remove any user content from the site and to deny the access of any member to all part of this site, at any time for any reason without prior notice or liability. However, we really don't want to do that, so play nice, okay?
