Your use of LymphedemaPeople.com is conditioned upon your continued acceptance of and compliance with our Terms of Use and Rules of Conduct. Please take this time to familiarize yourself with these important policies and rules.

You must abide by the following rules when accessing or using LymphedemaPeople.com, including the community forums:

• You agree not to use this website for any unlawful purpose.

• You agree not to defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise violate the legal rights of others

• You agree not to impersonate any person or entity, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity.

• You agree not to post messages that contain material that is inappropriate, unlawful, threatening, abusive, hateful, profane, defamatory, infringing, obscene, pornographic, or indecent.

• You agree not to violate the property rights of others, and you agree not to post any content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party.

• You agree not to upload files, or cause users to upload files, that contain viruses, worms, “Trojan horses”, corrupted files, or any similar software or programs that may adversely affect the operation of another's computer.

• You agree not to advertise or promote any goods or services in the Community Knowledge Exchange. “Junk mail”, “spamming”, “chain letters, “pyramid schemes” and similar activities are strictly prohibited.

• You agree not to solicit anyone to buy or sell products or services, or to make donations of any kind, without our express written approval.

• You agree not to violate any applicable local, state, national or international law in connection with the use of the Forums.

Remember when you were really little and your mother told you to treat others like you would like to be treated? That is the backbone of group participation on the internet. Be nice! It's simple, yet complicated, mostly because life is relative to surrounding circumstances and not black and white. Also, it is very likely that when you were little, there was no Internet to speak of so how could you possibly learn about its etiquette. Learning cyber etiquette is a lot like learning about another culture; in that, it is very possible you are un-willingly offending people. Here are some basic rules to follow:

1. Don't YELL:

If you walked into your friend's house and started screaming loudly, chances are your friend would question your sanity and ask you to leave. We feel the same way. But wait, how do you yell in a group? BY DOING THIS, I AM TYPING IN ALL CAPS AND THE WEB TRANSLATION IS I AM YELLING! When avid Web surfers see capital letters, it immediately puts them on the defensive. No one wants to be yelled at, so you should not yell either.

2. Don't troll:

Trolling can take many forms, but it basically means that you are harassing other users. There are many types of trolls ranging from mildly irritating to destructively irritating. Doing the latter is likely to get you kicked out of your group.Trolling can also constitute behavior that is so upsetting, it causes all member to be silent or leave. You don't want to be harassed, so you should not harass others either.

I would say the same applies to off list posting to other members. If you disagree with something they said, the last thing that you need to do is to harass them privately or to send them a cruel and unkind note. if I get wind of this, I will have no choice but to ban you from the group as well. We are here to help one another, not cause more harm.

3. Don't ever spam:

Spamming will result in fast removal.

4. Use accurate subject lines:

Ask yourself, is what I am saying reflective to the subject line? If not change the subject line to your topic. don't use old subject lines to post new topics, some people delete a topic if they are not interested, they will never see your message.

5. Do not send chain mails:

Nobody likes them and wants to forward them on and on and on.

6. Do not forward list mail without permission from the owner or co- owners this is important as this could generate spam for the group that the filters might not catch.

7. Be polite and respectful when posting:

Think to yourself is that what I want to say or could I say it better? Example: “You were wrong, you got your facts mixed up and nobody believes you” couldn't that be better said to not put people on the defensive? How about “I thought I saw something differently, what is the source of your facts so we can better understand what you posted” Words can display an undertone that people can mistake for hostility.

8. Be respectful of others privacy when considering writing them off list. Only do so if they have specifically said that it is ok.

9. Part of having lipedema or any medicaly condition is that frustration and anger can build up in us. But, please remember that everyone here is in the same boat and taking our anger out at other group members is destructive both to the group and to ourselves individually. So be kind and remember others have/do hurt as you do.

10. Always…always remember “The Golden Rule”: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.