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Welcome to Reality Check’s Discussion Forum
On
this page you will find:
Introduction
to the Forum
Reality
Check does not endorse, and has not verified, any of the information
on the Forum, and accepts no responsibility for postings.
We
don't have health professionals moderating the Forum and the only
source of medical knowledge is our varied experience with the
condition known as Diabetes. The intention is to provide a space
where we can exchange our experiences with Diabetes and Life. Or with
Life and Diabetes. Or just with Life. If these exchanges happen to
inspire you to seek out a new way of doing something to improve your
lot, then so much the better. But please do not rely solely on the
information in postings - always seek expert medical advice before
making any significant changes to your regime.
Forum
Rules
Respect
for others is a definite. We're a good natured bunch. There's
lots of room both for decent debates and light-hearted banter on this
Forum. By and large there is no moderating since it's been our
experience that the Forum moderates itself fairly well.
The
Forum is a place where you can share your experiences, ask questions
and learn from the amazing wealth which is others' experiences of
living with diabetes. The Forum is managed entirely by volunteers who
also happen to have diabetes.
However, please be aware
that if you post something off topic, mean, or just plain stupid, we
will delete it and kick you out.
We
ask that you be especially careful about providing medical advice to
others in the Forum. Speak as openly and expansively as you wish
about your own experiences. But please refrain from instructing
people to change their medical treatments, or making changes to your
own treatment, without consulting a doctor about your individual
symptoms and medical history.
The
managers of the Forum reserve the right to delete any post for any
reason. We also reserve the right to believe that people are
essentially good, and we trust that you will play your part in
maintaining the Forum as a warm and friendly place for all, new and
old, to visit and enjoy.
The
following are definitely not OK:
Flaming-
Inflammatory, aggressive or abusive messages directed at fellow
posters on the Forum, for whatever reason.
Trolling
- Being a royal pain in the rear. This includes, but is not limited
to, posting offensive messages only to incite anger, posting the
same thing over and over again to waste space and ruin the flow of
the Forum and the hurling insults left and right in hopes of
starting a flame war.
(Trolling is not someone who -- in the
course of a real debate or discussion -- pisses you off with a
opinion that is different from yours. That is quite ok, don't expect
any intervention)
Address
Harvesting - is also not on for whatever purpose. If you want to
use participants in one of your surveys, contact Reality
Check
to get support. It's the nice way to do it. Remember, people often
provide their email address to help other participants get directly
in contact. It's just not decent to lift their address for your own
evil ends.
Soliciting-
Companies and individuals may not post anything which solicits new
customers or promotes their products or services under any
circumstances. If you've just heard about some kick-arse new fangled
technology that you want to tell us about, that's ok. If you want to
market and sell that kick-arse new fangled technology on the Forum,
that's not ok. If, having read this, you're still not quite clear -
email Reality
Check
and we will clarify.
Bumping
– We do not allow posting of responses with just the word
“bump” or something else equally vacant for the sole
purpose of keeping your post prominent in the Forum. We do however
welcome updates or new ideas to be added as responses to your posts
to bring it back to prominence. Be creative.
Advertising-
We do not allow advertisements for the sale of medical equipment
such as insulin pumps or blood glucose metres, however much of a
bargain you are offering, on the Forum. If you or your company has
a new product to promote, please email Reality
Check
and, depending on the circumstances, we may be interested in
promoting your product or your special offer to our members. We
have a mailing list which is much larger than the people who visit
the Forum, so contacting us is a better option for you anyway.
Directly
recruiting to research projects – We are extremely
supportive of new research, be it clinical, psychosocial, marketing
or strategic. In fact, Reality Check has quite a bit of experience
in designing effective mechanisms to solicit the experiences and
opinions of young adults, and we will be pleased to talk to you
about your project. Unfortunately, not all researchers are
legitimate, so we ask you to provide details of your project and
ethics approval where appropriate, directly to the managers of
Reality Check BEFORE recruiting. Please email Reality
Check
so that we can work with you to find the best method for promoting
your project through our network.
Keeping
safe. Please read if you are under 18 ….
Everyone
needs to be sensible and cautious about sharing information about
themselves on the internet.
If
you are under 18 and using the Reality Check website, we ask that you
and your parents/carers read the following and stick to this advice:
Always
ask permission from your parent or carer before you give anyone on
the Internet your name or address or any other personal details.
This includes the name of your school, your photo or any personal
information about your friends and family.
Remember
that people you might meet online may not be who they say they are.
Someone claiming to be a 12 year old girl could really be a 40 year
old man.
If
you want to arrange to meet someone you have so far only met online
ask a parent or another adult to go with you and always meet in a
public place, preferably during the day.
Tell
your parents or another adult you trust if you see upsetting
language, nasty pictures or something scary on the internet
For
more information, visit Chat Danger - http://www.chatdanger.com/
- how to keep safe in chat rooms.
Making
the most of the Forum
Our
Forum is very active, with hundreds of posts every day, and hundreds
of regular members who have formed a strong online community. There
are some simple things you can do to quickly get the information or
help that you are looking for from the Forum. We are keen for you to
join us and contribute to keeping our community supportive and
enjoyable, and the following tips are drawn from the managers’
many years experience of online communities.
Give
your post a clear and detailed title. The title is not your
introduction; it’s an attention-grabber. If your post
is called “Do you ever do this?” it will get missed and
you’ll feel neglected. If you call it “Ever got really
drunk and forgotten your shot?” you’ll meet people with
helpful and relevant stories to share. Similarly, a post called
“Exams…” is not much help to us, but “Exams
coming up, advice please” is much clearer. Write the title
last, after you finish your message. That way you can more
easily summarise what your message is – this is the point of a
title.
Don’t
direct posts to a single person. All posts are there to be read
by anyone and everyone. We do not encourage or allow posts called
“For Johnny” or “Are you OK Bob”. If you
want to get in touch with a member of the Forum, please email
Forumhelp@realitycheck.org.au
with a message and the member’s username on the Forum (not
just their real name, that doesn’t help us!) and we can look
up their email and send yourWhen you message on to them. We can’t
guarantee they’ll reply, and they are not obligated to.
Picture
the guy who’s never Googled diabetes before. When posting
and responding, please do think before you click about the person on
the other side of the city, or the world, who might be reading your
posts. Picture someone who has had diabetes forever but never asked
anyone the tricky questions; this is the first time he Googles
diabetes and after an hour he stumbles across our Forum. Would your
posts scare him off?
Put
your Location in your Profile. Update your profile to tell us
in what part of the world you live. It will make answering
your questions, and understanding your stories much easier. We have
members from all around the world. A city, state or country is
enough – don’t be too specific.
Search!
Before you post, hit Search at the top of the screen to see if
we have recently discussed your topic – and provided witty and
informative answers. Feel free to post a response and bring back to
life an old discussion.
Use
the Quote function well. If you’re responding to a
specific part of a long discussion, click the Quote button on the
part that you are referring to – THEN don’t leave the
entire message in your quote - highlight and delete out all but the
part you want to refer or respond to. This might take some
practice, but please use the function properly.
Share
your experience. This is so important it gets a mention in the
rules too. The Forum is here for sharing experiences, and sharing
things we’ve learned through our experiences. It is not for
telling each other how to live our lives. It is not helpful to cut
and paste medical information out of other websites or books. Add
your story, share your challenges. When saying what works or went
wrong for you, give us some context – a simple distinction
like whether you are newly-diagnosed or a veteran of 30 years, makes
for a much better conversation.
Instant
gratification. It can be exciting and fulfilling to know the
exact answer for someone’s random, tricky question. And it can
be pretty cool to have a website where your name is up in lights,
maybe a thousand times, for all to see. Just have a reflect on the
instant gratification you’re getting as you hit post. There’s
no competition to respond to every single message, or contribute
every single thought that crosses your mind. Go for quality,
considered posts and you’ll fast earn respect from the
community.
All
admin issues, good and bad, direct to the moderators. With
technical hitches, log in problems, complaints or constructive
criticism about the Forum or Reality Check in general, please email
Forumhelp@realitycheck.org.au.
This address is prominently blazed across the top of the Forum so
you can’t forget it. Posting admin stuff on the Forum is not
the best way for us to deal with anything, and disrupts the Forum
from doing what it does best.
And
above all, be respectful. Kind, thoughtful, considered, funny and
reflective will also be tickets to success and fame. Do unto
others … you know the drill. If you want people to help you,
or make you laugh, then you’ll need to do the same for them.
When
you come to our Forum, it’s like walking into a party.
Would
you jump on a chair and yell a joke that noone understands at one
single person across the room? Would you butt into a conversation
without smiling or introducing yourself? Would you say every single
thought that goes through your head without stopping for breath?
Would you fork out medical advice to people you meet at the party? If
you wanted to tell your hosts they were out of loo paper, would you
make an announcement to the whole party?
Maybe you would. But you wouldn’t get invited back.
We
are keen that you have the best possible experience using our Forum,
sharing your knowledge and experiences of living with diabetes.
Reviewing
and referring to this page is an important part of joining and
participating in our online community. If you have any further
queries please contact the managers of the Forum directly.
Contacts
The
volunteer managers of the Forum are:
To
contact us with any questions or comments please email
Forumhelp@realitycheck.org.au.
Reviewed
16 November, 2005
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