Terms and Conditions
Terms and Conditions (updated 8 November 2022)
Once you have read the Terms & Conditions, scroll to the bottom of the page to click the Accept button and enter the community.
Community Rules & Etiquette and Privacy Guidelines
Thank you for being part of our community. 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. You also agree to reserve discussions and shared files and content to that best suited to the medium. This is a great medium to discuss topics of interest with your peers and seek their ideas, benefit from their experience, and participate in an ongoing conversation.
Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with these important guidelines. If you have questions, please Contact Us. To preserve an environment that encourages positive dialogue that aligns with the purpose of the community, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate membership in this community for anyone who violates these rules.
The Rules
Respect the purpose of the community. Use the community to share successes, challenges, constructive feedback, questions, and goals rather than 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.
Respect others. Focus on the content of posts and not on the people making them. Please extend the benefit of the doubt to newer guests and members; there’s no such thing as a stupid question. Be respectful, polite, and sensitive to others in the community if expressing or responding to dissenting opinion.
All defamatory, abusive, profane, aggressive, threatening, offensive, derogatory, 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.
Be aware of the possibility of microaggression in your posts. A microaggression is a comment or action (direct, subtle, or unintentional) that negatively targets a marginalised group of people. While you may not mean any harm nor realise you are making a microaggressive comment, they can be hurtful to the people who experience them.
Be aware of ‘trolls’ (people who appear to seek attention by deliberately posting provocative comments or causing trouble or distress). If you believe a member may be trolling, the best response is not to respond to their post and to notify the ROC Community Manager. Where the College determines that trolling is occurring, we may place one or more posts into moderation, and record a ‘strike’ against a member under the Three Strikes Policy.
Use caution when discussing products. Information posted on the discussion groups and in the libraries is available for all to see, and comments are subject to intellectual property, libel, slander, and competition laws.
Respect intellectual property. Post content that you have personally created or have permission to use and have properly attributed to the content creator.
Do not take screen shots of content in the ROC and share on other platforms. You must also comply with all privacy laws and not circulate personal information.
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 for their written approval.
Post your message or documents only to the most appropriate communities. This helps ensure all messages receive the best response by eliminating 'noise’.
Avoid posting ongoing / repetitive criticism of a service offering, or repeatedly starting new threads on the same topic. If you are unsure of where to raise your concerns email MemberServices@racp.edu.au for information on feedback mechanisms.
Avoid posting information that can identify a patient. While this community is open only to members of the RACP, you must avoid posting anything that could be a breach of a patient’s privacy and your employer’s policies and other requirements. You can discuss symptoms, differential diagnoses, and treatments, but remember that other members of the community may recognise (or may think that they recognise) a person from the description.
Comments made in discussions or the results of polls conducted in these communities are not binding on the RACP.
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 post 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 the web interface to change your settings or to remove yourself from a list. If you are changing email addresses, you do not need to remove yourself from the list and re-join under your new email address. Simply change your settings.
All statements outside your personal experience – for example, about statistics, data, or studies – should have trustworthy and current sources. Please include a link or reference to the source of the data within your post.
Topic of Interest Communities
From time to time, the RACP will establish a Topic of Interest Community (TIC) to enable members to discuss and debate that topic without crowding the Open Forum. The RACP will advise members of a TIC via an Announcement in the Open Forum.
If discussions about a Topic of Interest are started outside of the TIC, the RACP will move that discussion into the applicable TIC. Repeatedly starting threads on a Topic of Interest outside that topic’s TIC, will be treated as a breach of terms and conditions and will count as a ‘strike’ against a member under the Three Strikes Policy.
The RACP may from time to time make Announcements in any community in the ROC directing members to the relevant TIC about any topic that if we wish to inform members or to request members to participate in discussions on issues related to the topic if they are interested.
The Legal Stuff
This site is provided as a service for the members of The Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP). The RACP is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on this site by others. The College will not be liable or responsible for any information or comment posted on this site, whether posted by the RACP, member or any third party; to the extent permitted by law, this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of accuracy of the information, merchantability and fitness for purpose. In no event shall the RACP be liable for any special, indirect, or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from use of or reliance on any information posted or discussed on this site, loss of use, data, or profits, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of this site and any information posted on this site.
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 any material on the site, the posting party warrants and represents that he or she owns the intellectual property (including copyright and trade marks) with respect to such material or has received permission from the intellectual property owner to post those materials. In addition, the posting party grants the RACP and users of this site the non-exclusive right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, store and use such information or other material.
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.
The RACP will actively monitor the site for inappropriate postings and will take action if inappropriate material is posted or the terms and conditions are breached. Such action may include placing one or more posts into moderation, and recording a ‘strike’ against a member under the Three Strikes Policy.
The RACP’s Code of Conduct also applies to any conduct private or public on the ROC as a College platform. Users should be aware that behaviour deemed unacceptable under the terms of the Code of Conduct may result in a Code of Conduct complaint against them.
The Nominations and Elections Process for the Board of the College and its College Bodies By-law and Candidate Code of Conduct By-law govern how the RACP conducts Elections for elected positions on the Board and on College Bodies. These By-laws restrict the use of College resources for campaigning activity to Board approved campaign assistance. The ROC is not an approved College resource for campaign assistance or posting, exhibiting or distribution of any material in support of the candidature of any person in an election by any members. The RACP reserves the right to remove any post that breaches these By-laws and to terminate access to any user.
The RACP reserves the right to permanently terminate access to any user who does not abide by these guidelines.
For less serious breaches of these guidelines as solely determined by the RACP, and at the RACP’s absolute discretion, the RACP may re-admit a member/user to participate in this site. The RACP may follow a Three Strikes’ Policy which will support and encourage a member who has demonstrated poor behaviour to improve it. If by the third opportunity, poor behaviour continues or there are further breaches of these Guidelines, the RACP will change or remove that member’s access to the ROC.
We reserve the right to modify these Terms and Conditions at any time by posting changes on this Terms and Conditions page. The updated version of these Terms and Conditions will take effect immediately upon being posted. We may also take additional steps to bring the changes to your attention, including by posting a notice in the Communities or by notifying you directly. We will update you of any material changes.
Privacy Policy
The RACP is committed to protecting your personal information. See our Data Collection Statement and Privacy Policy.
Any personal information you provide to us through the communities site, 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. 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. Data may be stored on servers located in the United States.
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, reorganisation, 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 a court order or subpoena); to prevent or investigate a possible crime, such as fraud or identity theft; to enforce our Terms and Conditions 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 recognise you each time you visit this site (personalisation, 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 newsfeeds.
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 using the Contact Us page.
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