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The MS PEOPLE UK Forum
Support, help, advice and information for Multiple Sclerosis. Ask questions and share experiences with people affected by MS.

Rules & Guidelines

The language of the Forum is English but, as it might not be the mother-tongue of some contributors, please be tolerant of spelling and grammatical errors. Our members are people who either have varying degrees of Multiple Sclerosis or who are friends, family or supporters of those with MS. Please have consideration and an open mind for one another. Our aim is for this to be a place for both give and take. Don't hesitate to contribute, especially if you can help another contributor. Information, suggestions, views and news on subjects of mutual and relevant interest to MS sufferers and their friends and family is welcome.

 

The Forum is open to everybody to read. If you wish to post to the Forum, you must first register by clicking "Register" at the top of the page.

 

You are kindly asked to treat everyone with the same respect, understanding and compassion you would expect yourself and your loved ones to receive.

 

RULES

 

- Everyone has a unique display name which they chose on registering. Any such names which are felt to be in bad taste can and will be deleted and may be replaced by Admin with a more appropriate username. If the latter should occur, you will be notified by email.

 

- Registered users must have a valid email address at all times. If your email address is found to be invalid at any time, your account might be deleted. Please make sure you keep your account details up-to-date within your Account Settings.

 

- All postings are the sole legal responsibility of their author.

 

- Messages posted within this entire Forum express only the views of the author of the message and do not reflect the views of the MS People.com Forum. Neither the MS People.com Forum nor any person or entity associated with it will be held responsible for the contents, accuracy, completeness or validity of any information posted in them.

 

- If someone says something that seems to upset or attack you, known as "flaming", please stop and take a deep breath and and think about what you're responding with before replying; better still, sleep on it and it might be seen in a different light in the morning. It's all too easy to instantly react and retaliate and enter into personal conflict when one is feeling inflamed. Try not to react to what might read as a personal attack. This link is a useful article on Avoiding personal conflict on mailing lists and equally applies to forums.

 

- Any member who is found to be abusive, insolent or attacking risks being put on moderated status or banned. So please do consider the above before posting if you feel upset by somebody else's post.

 

- If you suspect a topic or post has been made by a troll, please use the "Report" button in posts.

 

- Please do not discuss the following possibly inflammatory subjects:

* Politics

* Religion

* Sexuality

* Race

These are subjects that risk leading to heated, emotional, offensive or even hostile replies and are therefore best avoided.

 

- Don't post names of doctors and nurses etc, regardless of whether you think they're good or bad. Instead, refer to them simply as "my neurologist/GP", or "Dr X" substituting the X for the first letter of the doctor's name. They may not want their details to be "out there" for the world to see on the internet. We also have to protect the forum in the event a topic in which a medical professional was named turned negative, which could leave us open to action for libel or defamation. The only doctors where it wouldn't matter (as long as not defamatory) are the ones like Dr Tom Gilhooly or Dr Bob Lawrence, both of whom commonly deal on the net with LDN, for instance.

 

Members are, of course, free to share the names of their Neuros, Nurses, etc via the PM facility.

 

- Posting any material that is defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, inflammatory, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, misleading or knowingly false, or in violation of any law, is forbidden.

 

- Posting any copyrighted material without the express permission of the copyright holder is forbidden - unless such copyright is owned by the MSPeople.com Forum or by you. If you hold your own copyright, please include the copyright notice in your post.

 

- Advertisements for or links to all commercial products/sites/forums, spam, chain letters, electronic petitions (except for those to the UK government at No.10), pyramid schemes, and solicitations are forbidden.

 

- Links to personal non-commercial home pages are allowed in members' signatures and profiles.

 

- If you would like us to add a link to your non-commercial forum, whether somehow related to MS or not, please have the courtesy to email the Administrator and ask for authorisation first - in most cases it might then be allowed even if not in all cases. If you add your link to your forum or website without asking, it will be deleted. Politeness costs you nothing 🙂

 

- Removal of your account - If at any time you wish to have your account removed from this Forum, please email Admin a request to do so and Admin will then confirm back to you that this has been done. Please note that this will not, however, remove your display name from any posts you've made.

 

- We reserve the right to remove (ban) any member who violates the rules and guidelines at our sole discretion with or without notification.

 

- We may at our own discretion reserve the right to ban individual members or registration from any email service, ISP or user with or without notification.

 

- We reserve the right to edit or delete any post or topic for any reason whatsoever at our discretion. Posts may also be removed when they become old or inappropriate. The author of a post may request to have a post removed via Admin.

 

- We reserve the right to remove any posts or topics without explanation which we deem inappropriate or disruptive.

 

- Please note that from time to time posts or topics may be removed for being inappropriate even though your individual post in that topic may have been perfectly fine. Please do not feel this reflects badly on you.

 

- Links to pornography, warez, or any other illegal transactions in any shape or form are forbidden.

 

- The Forum is intended for personal use only. Commercial posts and adverts are not allowed.

 

Besides the rules listed here, Admin may make certain requests via the Forum, PM or email.

 

These rules may be changed or added to at any time, so please check them frequently for any modifications. New rules may be created if and when anybody behaves in a manner which compels us to make them in order to maintain a friendly community and one which remains within the law. In other words, it is the behaviour of members which will create rules.

 

If at any time any registered member feels they are being harassed in any way by another user, please report it to the Forum Administrator.

 

TOPIC SUBJECT TITLES

 

Try to be explicit when wording the title of your contribution. "My cat's driving me mad" or "How do you manage your garden pond?" is far better than "Help!" or "Newbie question". When looking for help or asking a question, please state in the title what it is you want help for or are asking a question about.

 

EMAIL ADDRESSES

 

For reasons of discretion and privacy, your email address will not be visible to other members when you post on this Forum, unless you choose to type it into your post. It is highly recommended that you do NOT type your email address in posts as spammers use software to steal email addresses from the internet. If you must enter an email address, please put a space either side of the "@" sign or type "[at]" instead of the "@" sign.

 

HOW TO

 

There is a list of "How To's" under the "Forum Info and Help" category which you will hopefully find useful in showing you "How To" use the Forum.

 

Thank you!

About Us

Founded in 2004, MS People UK is a community website and discussion forum by and for people with Multiple Sclerosis as well as for friends, families, supporters and those interested in this disabling condition.

If you’re newly diagnosed or want to ask about possible first symptoms, or if you’ve had Relapse Remit, Secondary or Primary Progressive MS for some time, a welcoming group of fellow MS sufferers is here to chat with you about MS symptoms, diagnosis and treatments.

The atmosphere is friendly whilst being compassionate, supportive and caring. Members also post about a variety of subjects not related to MS, as well as share jokes, talk about their hobbies, have fun, and more.


The MS People Forum is not responsible for advice or information supplied by members. We suggest you seek medical advice before trying anything.