SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNITY USE POLICY

BERNIE BANTON FOUNDATION SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNITY USE POLICY

By joining or participating in any of the Bernie Banton Foundation’s groups or pages, you are agreeing to be bound by, and adhere to the Bernie Banton Foundation Social Media Community Use Policy.

The Bernie Banton Foundation, any persons associated with the Bernie Banton Foundation and/or the admins and moderators of its’ groups and pages are not accredited to give advice. Any information given is for assistance only.

The Bernie Banton Foundation and the group or page administrators or moderators do not endorse or vouch for the accuracy of any posting or comment that appears on these groups, pages or sites, before relying on and/or using any such information, you should satisfy yourself on its authenticity and/or suitability for use. All descriptions and comments made about or in the articles posted, or in stand alone postings are the responsibility of the individual (including said administrators or moderators) making the description, comment or posting, and are not representative, and cannot be implied to be representative of the Bernie Banton Foundation.

We monitor our social media sites/pages as much as possible – and will respond and participate as often as possible.

EXISTING MEMBERS ADDING PEOPLE TO GROUPS

We ask that members of any of the Bernie Banton Foundation MARSupport groups, DO NOT add family members to the group(s) they are a member of.  Anybody applying to become a member must complete the joining requirements. If you add a family member or other person to the group, the request to join will be automatically deleted.

POSTING and COMMENTING GUIDELINES

Second Person Use of a Members Account – Use of a member’s Facebook account by a second person to post or comment in a specific group is not permitted.  Specific groups are only for the person who is actually a member, their membership account should not be accessed by anyone else and must not be used to post or comment by a second party.  For example: The MARSupport Sufferers Support Chat Room group is only for Sufferers, not for their carer or other family members (daughters and sons, etc.) to view, post or comment on.  If it is found a person other than the group member is using a member’s account to view, post or comment in a specific group, then the member will be automatically removed from the group.

What is posted, commented on or discussed within a ‘Private‘ group must stay within that group, it must not be copied, transmitted or conveyed verbally to any person or entity outside the group.

MUTUAL RESPECT: Please treat other people’s opinions and comments with the mutual respect you would like to receive yourself. However, please bare in mind not all comments will be based on correct or factual information and may only be a person’s personal opinion, and thus, should not be relied on when making decisions.

APPROPRIATE POSTING and COMMENTING: We reserve the right to delete, without notice, posts and comments that contain any of the elements listed below, therefore, please do not submit any postings or comments containing any of the following:

• Anti-social Behaviour – We ask you refrain from using anti-social behaviour on the sites, we would like people to feel welcome and comfortable being involved in, or viewing our social media.  Anti-social behaviour includes:
  • Personal attacks (including on, or against politicians and public figures),
  • Profanity (swearing of any nature will not be condoned)
    
  • Nastiness
  • Undue negativeness
  • Inappropriate or offensive comments or posts
  • Non-constructive derogatory comments
  • Sexually explicit language or images
  • Comments regarding fraud, dishonesty, or other unethical behaviour
  • Libelous comments or comments that could be construed as being libelous
  • Anything that is illegal, harassing, harmful to reputation, hateful, racist, or otherwise objectionable
• DIscrimination – The Foundation does not discriminate on the basis of political, corporate, union or religious belief, age, race, gender, sexual orientation or creed – we ask you respect this and do the same.
• Commercial or Self Interest Content – Content (postings, links, comments, articles, blogs and press releases) that promotes a business, government agency, union, research institute, organisation (not for profit or otherwise), or individual (or the works of an individual) that is not sanctioned by the Bernie Banton Foundation (and its Admins) is not acceptable, such content will be removed without explanation or warning.  Examples include:
  • Promotion of an individual, organisation or company in pursuit of:
    • escalating self interest, or peer or public recognition or support of an organisation or business
    • provision of goods and/or services, or
    • attracting clients, following or members
  • Any form of advertising
  • Articles emanating from web and social media sites sponsored by specialist asbestos or dust litigators, or their agents
  • Unsolicited works by authors:  Unauthorised blogs, videos, podcasts, documents, manuscripts, songs, poetry, stories, books, copies of/or works of art, etc. will not be accepted as a posting on publicly accessible groups and pages.
  • Articles, press releases or blogs originating from corporate service providers involved in the asbestos or occupational dust, diseases, assessment or removal fields
• Comments That Are Not Actually Comments: Comments that are not actually commenting on the original posting, such as photos, videos, poetry, stories, links and the like may be removed without notice at the discretion of the site admins.
• Postings and Comments Containing Links: Postings and comments containing live links to any organisation, individual, private or public entity, blog pages or websites must not be posted unless sanctioned by the Bernie Banton Foundation or its’ social media admins – such postings and/or comments may be removed without prior discussion or notice.
• Optimistic Medical Research Reporting: Articles promoting very early research into mesothelioma asbestos cancer, other asbestos related diseases, and other cancers and similar occupational dust related diseases often give false hope, for this reason, articles promoting optimistic research that is only at the ‘mice’ stage and hasn’t been proven to be ‘safe for use’ on humans will not be posted, or allowed to be posted.  Any call outs for participants in Clinical Trials will be posted – providing they are very clear on the purpose of the trial and do not, in the Admin’s opinion, foster false hope.
• Questionable information Postings and comments must not contain information that:
  • is known or proven to be incorrect
  • is questionable (cannot be substantiated)
  • is spam
  • is off-topic or irrelevant subject matter
  • infringes on copyrights or trademarks
  • promotes illegal or questionable activities
  • promotes treatments that have not been vetted in peer reviewed respected scientific journals
  • promotes unproven theories, methods, ideas or research

• Anything that is contrary to the vision, mission or objectives of the Bernie Banton Foundation

PERSONAL INFORMATION: Please never make postings or comments that include your own, or another person’s personal contact details.

BLOCKING OF ADMINS or  MODERATORS: Blocking of Admins or Moderators from seeing posts or comments will mean automatic expulsion from a group and/or banning from a page.

POLITICAL COMMENTING: The Bernie Banton Foundation is apolitical –  the Foundation’s Social Media must not be used as a forum for group members or the public to make political comments, advocate or launch personal attacks. Please Take Notice: It is NOT okay to make personal attacks on any politician or against any political party – anyone doing so will banned and blocked from being a member, contributing to, or viewing (wherever possible) any of Bernie Banton Foundation social media platforms.

EDIT & REMOVAL OF CONTENT: If necessary, and without notice, the admins and moderators reserve the right, at their sole discretion, to screen and edit or remove any content, including comments, photos, videos or other content, that are deemed not to meet these guidelines. Please particularly note – we also reserve the right to, and will,  remove unsanctioned posts or comments containing links. Although we may screen and edit or remove content, we are not responsible for the content posted by others.

FACEBOOK TERMS OF SERVICE: We accept the Terms of Service administered by Facebook, in addition to agreeing and adhering to the Bernie Banton Foundation Social Media Community Use Policy, by using Facebook you agree to Facebook’s Terms of Service as well.

VIOLATING POLICY: If you violate this policy, your comments will be deleted and you may be banned from the groups, pages or sites.

PERMISSION TO USE: Please note, by submitting a photo, post or comment, on our Facebook pages and Community Hub group site (as distinct from our ‘Private’ Facebook secret ‘closed’ support ‘chat room’ and ‘group’ sites), you hereby grant the Bernie Banton Foundation, a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free license, in perpetuity, to use the submitted, image, post or comment, together with your name for educational or promotional purposes, in any media. This includes, but is not limited to, websites, social networks, television, and newspaper and is without restrictions or limitations.

QUESTIONS: If you have any questions regarding the Bernie Banton Foundation Social Media Community Use Policy, please Contact Us by [clicking here].

If you wish to continue and apply to join the MARSupport Online Support Chat Rooms or Groups please go to the Online Membership Application Form by [clicking here]

Note: The Bernie Banton Foundation is not accredited to provide advice.  The information and/or advice provided is for assistance only.  The advice of a qualified specialist should always be sought before making legal or medical decisions.