Rules for use of the Asthma UK forums

Welcome to Asthma UK's discussion forums. We have established these house rules to help protect users and allow you to get the most out of the forums.

By registering with our forums you agree to:

  • keep your messages civil, tasteful and relevant
  • maintain respect for other people
  • post your message under the relevant thread
  • use only one account to access these message boards - users creating multiple accounts will be suspended

and not to:

  • use obscenity or insults
  • 'flame' or attack people individually
  • post your message twice under different subtopics
  • publish email addresses or phone numbers in posts
  • allow other people to post to the forum using your account
  • post messages advertising commercial products or services: these will be deleted
  • use the private messaging service to send multiple copies of the same message
  • post messages merely to tell everyone how ill you are: this is disrespectful to other message board users and goes against the nature of using the message board as a discussion forum

Unlawful, harassing, defamatory, explicit, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, racially offensive, or otherwise objectionable material is not acceptable and will be removed. To ensure the safety and well-being of forum users, Asthma UK moderators have access to private messages at all times.

Asthma UK's forums are for debate and discussion. Especially, they are not a suitable place to obtain medical advice in an emergency. If you feel unwell or need advice in an emergency situation, help should be obtained from one of the following sources:

  • Your local GP service - either your surgery, or, if closed, the local out-of-hours centre; some regions also have NHS Walk-In Centres
  • NHS Direct - a nurse-led advice line which can provide medical advice, or call an ambulance if needed - telephone 0845 46 47
  • Dialling 999 for an emergency ambulance, or by going to your local Accident & Emergency department.
  • Asthma UK's own guidance for what to do in an asthma attack

Any posts made requesting emergency advice will be removed so as to avoid causing upset to other message board users.

Opinions expressed in the forums are users' own, not those of Asthma UK, and are in no way a substitute for medical advice.

For the benefit of all users we operate a warning system for behaviour that does not adhere to the above rules. Warnings will be issued by a moderator, via the messaging system. If you receive three warnings your access to the message boards will be suspended. You will need to contact Asthma UK to ask them to consider reinstating your account in this instance.

Registering

To post in the forums you must supply an email address. Asthma UK will not pass this on to any third party. You can choose to give your email address to another user if you wish, although there is a messaging system which means you can contact another user without having to give them your email address.

If you're under18

  • why not try our Kick Asthma message board? – visit www.kickasthma.org.uk
  • get a parent or guardian’s permission before posting in the forums
  • remember people on the internet may not be who they say they are
  • do not reveal any personal information about yourself (for example: your telephone number, home address or email address)
  • do not arrange to meet up with people you talk to on the internet

Copyright and editing

Information copyrighted or owned by any individual or entity other than the member should not be posted on the discussion forum without the consent of the owner. You may not violate, plagiarise, or infringe on the rights of third parties including copyright, trademark, trade secret, privacy, personal, publicity, or proprietary rights. If such an event occurs, the individual posting the information shall be held solely responsible. Asthma UK shall not be held responsible for member-posted information that may violate copyright law.

Asthma UK reserves the right to edit or remove a post which does not meet with the criteria outlined above and to ban any member of the forum.

Asthma UK will not publish or provide your email address to anyone. We reserve the right to quote from your discussion forum posts in Asthma UK publications, appeals, press releases and other material. However, we promise to be sensitive in this effort. We will not republish anything you write that we think could be deemed personally endangering, inflammatory or embarrassing to you without your consent.

Asthma UK complies with the 1998 Data Protection Act.

If you have any concerns about posts or users in the forums, contact webeditor@asthma.org.uk


In this section