Etiquette and Privacy in Participation
Thank you for joining the Official Society of Surgical Oncology’s (SSO) Facebook Group. To ensure the best possible experience for all members, we have established some basic guidelines for participation. By joining and participating in this group, you agree that you have read and will follow these rules and guidelines. General questions about the workings of this group should be directed to group administrators.
To preserve a professional and friendly environment, SSO reserves the right to suspend or terminate your access if postings do not adhere to these expectations for professional behavior. Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with these important rules. We may change these rules from time to time; the rules posted at the time of your use of the website will apply.
THE RULES
- Respect others. Focus on the content of posts and not on the people making them. Please extend the benefit of the doubt to newer participants; there is no such thing as a stupid question. Do not post harassing or bullying content.
- Do your part to create and protect a respectful environment for colleagues to share successes, challenges, constructive feedback, questions, and goals. This is not a forum for promoting products and services. If you have found a product or service helpful, please share your experience in a non-promotional way.
- Remember that once you post your content it will immediately become public among participants of the group. Please recognize that you are personally responsible for protecting any desired or legally required confidentiality for yourself and your patients in your posts. Do not include patient-specific identifiers. If posting images of any kind (radiology studies, pathology slides, or patient photographs) be sure that the patient cannot be identified. Be sure to obey laws protecting patient privacy in your jurisdiction. Content you post is subject to libel, slander, antitrust, and patient confidentiality laws.
- All defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials are strictly prohibited.
- Respect intellectual property. Post content that you have personally created or have permission to use and have properly attributed to the content creator. Remember that other participants have the right to reproduce your postings unless you specify otherwise.
- Help keep content clear and organized by posting comments in appropriate locations. Label your content by topic, diagnosis, or disease site. Post replies under the material to which you intend to respond.
DISCUSSION GROUP Tips and ETIQUETTE
- Make sure your identity is accurately represented when posting. Do not create a false identity or impersonate any other person. Please consider including your location and your expertise when these are relevant to the discussion.
- Include a heading on new posts to state the topic concisely and clearly. For long posts, consider including a brief summary or conclusion. This is likely to increase engagement of other participants with your content and will allow for ease of searching for content by subject.
- Please consider acknowledging the comments of participants who engage with your content with responses such as “thanks for the information” or “me, too” or by using the “like” button.
LEGALITIES
- This site is provided as a service for cancer surgeons around the world providing care to patients with cancer. SSO does not endorse, or support any views, opinions, recommendations, information or advice that may be in posted by participants, nor do we vouch for any post’s accuracy or reliability, usefulness, safety or the intellectual property rights of any posted content. We take no responsibility and assume no liability for any content posted by you or any third party.
- SSO disclaims all warranties with regard to information posted in the group, whether posted by an SSO-designated moderator or administrator or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall SSO be liable for any special, indirect, or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data, or profits, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of any information posted on this site.
- Members must comply at all times with the Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information (“Privacy Rule”) and the Electronic Security Rule (“Security Rule”) established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to implement the requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”). Information posted here will not be treated as confidential and, therefore, should not identify any patient by name or other identifying features, characteristics or any other individually identifiable Patient Health Information, as defined under the Privacy Rule. In fact, since any information posted here may be downloaded, reproduced, and disseminated without the knowledge of the originator of the post, participants should use extreme care when posting or sending such information.
- Do not post any defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials. Do not post messages or images that may be interpreted as hateful, prejudicial, or promoting or encouraging illegal activity. Do not post commercial messages. Do not post any information or other material protected by copyright without the permission of the copyright owner. By posting material, the posting party warrants and represents that he or she owns the copyright with respect to such material or has received permission from the copyright owner. In addition, the posting party grants SSO and users of this site the nonexclusive right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, 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; job postings; profits, profit margins, or cost data; market shares, sales territories, or markets; allocation of patients, customers or territories; or selection, rejection, or termination of customers or suppliers.
- SSO reserves the right, but not the obligation to monitor content posted within this group. In the event that any inappropriate posting is brought to the attention of SSO we will take such action as we deem appropriate in our sole discretion.
- SSO reserves the right to terminate access to any participant who does not abide by these guidelines.
By joining this Facebook group I consent to receiving communications related to SSO.