These Community Guidelines were last revised on November 19, 2007
Because PeoplesMD depends on member contributions to make your experience on our website as informative and engaging as possible, we also rely on you to contribute to, and communicate on, PeoplesMD in ways that are compassionate, respectful and responsible. In so many ways, PeoplesMD is your website, which means you can help ensure that it's a safe, supportive and informative environment for all site visitors, including our valued members. The PeoplesMD Community Guidelines provide answers to the following questions:
The contributions/postings, and other communications, written by members on PeoplesMD are based on personal experiences or ideas - and not necessarily on professional medical training - so it's important to remember that the content you read or write on PeoplesMD should not be construed as professional medical diagnoses or as medical/health care advice EVEN WHEN the person who has authored the advice claims to have professional experience or puts a title such as MD or RN next to their opinions. Furthermore, because PeoplesMD is premised on giving members a forum in which to share opinions and experiences, PeoplesMD does not evaluate the accuracy, or medical veracity, of members' contributions. That means postings may be inaccurate or misleading, and it's important for you to remain aware of that possibility. In addition, just because a piece of advice is rated highly on the site, or endorsed by many users on PeoplesMD does not mean that this advice is right for you.
In addition to finding member-generated content on PeoplesMD, many of our web pages include, or provide you with access to, information about conditions and treatments that are not derived from members, but are obtained from different sources. Those sources include, but are not limited to, the PeoplesMD Editorial Staff, First Data Bank, a medication database provider, and public domain websites such as, but not limited to, Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia, and U.S. government sites, like the Centers for Disease Control and MedlinePlus, an online consumer health service provided by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. When this type of content is made available on PeoplesMD, the sources will frequently be clearly labeled. Yet, while the PeoplesMD Editorial Staff seeks input from our Medical Advisory Team, while First Data Bank is well respected in the health care industry, and relies on the expertise of medical professionals, and while the public domain websites referenced on PeoplesMD often include input from medical experts, PeoplesMD cannot monitor or guarantee the accuracy of the information provided.
As a result, PeoplesMD content - whether written by members or derived from other sources - does not provide professional medical diagnoses or advice, and it's important that visitors or members seek such diagnoses or advice from a licensed physician and other qualified, professional health care providers.
Whether or not you're a member of PeoplesMD, you can view most areas of the website, and benefit from both member-generated information, as well as content delivered by other data providers. But only PeoplesMD members can make contributions, such as posting comments, creating or contributing to guides, boosting (rating) comments, and recommending articles or other resources to PeoplesMD visitors.
Although becoming a member is free and easy, PeoplesMD does not allow anyone under the age of 13 to become a member of our website. While we understand that health care concerns impact those less than 13 years of age, and some conditions, in particular, affect children more than adults, PeoplesMD is not an appropriate forum for those under the age of 13.
No, there's no specific writing style or format required on PeoplesMD. However, PeoplesMD is designed to make contributing, categorizing and searching for information easy and intuitive, so we strongly encourage you to be clear and concise in your postings, and to be as relevant or on-topic as possible, especially if you're addressing another member's comment or question.
PeoplesMD is designed to make searching for the insights and opinions of other members easy and efficient. In contrast to other online resources, like message boards or group list-serves (where it's often challenging to wade through strings of comments to find a specific subject that interests you), member postings on PeoplesMD are organized into discreet subject-areas.
If none of the categories available exactly matches the subject of your contribution or guide, we suggest that you choose one that best approximates it, or that you skip the process altogether, in which case the review or guide will default to the page/topic in relation to which you are making a post.
Although we've done our best to provide category choices that allow you to organize postings across conditions and treatments, while also sharing about specific condition- and treatment-related experiences, it's impossible for PeoplesMD's categories to be comprehensive, and cover every single subject of interest to our members.
That having been said, PeoplesMD welcomes your suggestions for new categories. Send your input to feedback@peoplesmd.com.
PeoplesMD encourages our members to share diverse opinions and ideas that relate to medical conditions, treatments and other aspects of your health care experiences. In that way, we don't limit topics or ideas.
However, while we encourage diversity of opinion, we also request that members write postings in a way that's responsible, respectful of and compassionate for other PeoplesMD members, and for the opinions expressed by them. That's why we require you to follow some basic guidelines for communication:
Yes, if your contribution/s infringe/s any of the rules and recommendations enumerated in these Community Guidelines or the stipulations noted in our Terms of Use or other PeoplesMD policies, or if PeoplesMD determines that your posting/s is inappropriate, we reserve the right to remove your contribution/s, including your Profile, at our discretion. Although we do not anticipate taking actions that fall outside the regulations noted in the PeoplesMD Community Guidelines, PeoplesMD reserves the right to remove, re-categorize, edit or suspend any and all posts made to the website at any time and for any reason.
Yes, in fact we encourage you to email PeoplesMD postings to friends, family, colleagues and/or acquaintances for the purposes of informing or educating them. However, if you work in the health care industry, or for a company that works with health care clients, or on issues related to or have an impact on health care, you cannot use member-generated content, whether it be comments and other postings on PeoplesMD, or members' treatment ratings, or any information available in member Profiles, for professional, marketing or other commercial purposes, such as, but not limited to, market research, product development or client cultivation. Please see the PeoplesMD Terms of Use for additional information.
We strongly encourage PeoplesMD members and other visitors to let us know if a member infringes these Community Guidelines, or any other PeoplesMD Policies, and we welcome any suggestions you may have to improve these guidelines. Send your comments to feedback@peoplesmd.com.
It's possible that these Community Guidelines will be updated or revised over time. If that happens, we will post a notice at the top of the Community Guidelines informing visitors and members that updates have been made. You should review the Community Guidelines from time to time, as your continued use after any revisions are posted (as indicated by the date specified) is your acceptance of the revised Community Guidelines.
