Community Guidelines (Required Reading!)

Who is the community for?

• Parents, carers and families of people with autism
• Teachers, professionals and experts
• People who experience autism

The community is for friendly, supportive discussion of the issues surrounding autism.

How do I join in?

Firstly create a profile by registering. You’ll need a valid email address to register. You can then upload a profile picture and fill out your public profile. We will keep your information confidential and if you wish to remain anonymous you can use a pseudonym (no offensive words or email addresses). Make sure you keep your password safe and always log out of shared computers. Any false profiles (pretending to be someone you are not) or duplicate profiles will be deleted.

For more specific instructions on how to join, as well as tips and advice on how to use the community, please visit the How to Use the Community page.

Safety

This is a public forum so can be viewed by anyone searching the internet and posts will be indexed by search engines such as Google. Therefore, please be careful what you post – do not post anything confidential, contact details or personal information which could put yourself or someone else at risk. Naming and shaming of healthcare professionals, specialists and other service providers is not a good idea. For your own safety, if you wish to refer to specific people, please replace their names with fake names or use Xs.

We hope you will make friends within the community but do not share personal information unless you absolutely trust that person is genuine. If you plan to meet anyone you have befriended on the internet, never go alone and always meet in a public place.

Be nice!

We encourage lively debate and discussion. However, please take care to exchange ideas in a civilised way, presenting ideas in a tactful way and NOT SHOUTING BY USING CAPITALS!

Take care with humour which might be misinterpreted on screen. Using a discussion forum means that body language and intonation is lost – so language may more easily offend. Assume good will in others – consider that a negative sounding post may be misinterpreted. Listen to other members and be sensitive to their feelings and viewpoints.

If by chance someone does misinterpret your words and you receive an angry-sounding reply, or if you’ve read something and you are preparing to post an angry reply, we encourage you to use the count-to-ten method. This means you step away from the computer, count to ten, and then come back and compose a response which gives the benefit of the doubt. If someone is not responding to your attempts to be kind, please contact the Community Manager or a Community Champion for intervention.

We hope that each of you will recognise that personal beliefs are deeply engrained and not likely to change, and we ask that you recognise when to let things go.

Sharing advice

We hope the communities will be a useful way for sharing information and resources. However, this should not be substituted by professional diagnosis, advice and support. Take any recommendations on the communities as you would treat any personal recommendation – check that it is authentic and suitable. Be careful in sharing information yourself also – don’t present opinions as facts and only share trusted resources. Please note that Talk about Autism and Ambitious about Autism do not necessarily support any of the recommendations given on the community.

Taking part in research and surveys

From time to time people visit the discussion forums to ask our members to participate in research. Please read our section about Safety (above) and note that the Research Ethics Framework from the Economics & Social Research Council (ESRC) applies to all research conducted in this Community. Whether you are running a survey or research, or participating, please view these guidelines and ensure that you have adhered to them before participating - http://www.esrc.ac.uk/_images/Framework_for_Research_Ethics_tcm8-4586.pdf (PDF 388KB). See also: The ESRC Research Ethics Framework.  Please note that Talk about Autism and Ambitious about Autism do not necessarily support research or surveys taking place on this website - these are independent initiatives.

No bullying

We do not tolerate any bullying, including racism, homophobia or ageism. Any threatening or abusive language will be removed. If someone offends you in this manner, report them immediately to the Community Manager or a Community Champion and do not enter into an argument with them.

Spam

If you have something to offer which may be beneficial to our community, please do not register solely to post a link to your product, services or website. Spam is likely to be deleted, most especially when you have posted the same information in multiple places. We would love to hear about what you do, but only after you introduce yourself and make yourself an active part of our community. Then we can work on how to support each other.

If you've joined our community and have your own initiatives, services, blogs, research, etc., you are welcome to share these with us - we ask that you help us by maintaining a good balance in your contributions, i.e. post your own things, but equally contribute to the other discussions happening here. Community membership is a two-way street.

Please refrain from posting the same information in multiple places.

You must not post…

Any posts with excessive self publicity, advertising, selling or soliciting. Personal details, private messages or emails. Unlawful material – such as indecent, racist or defamatory material or harassments and threats. Copyrighted material that infringes any legal rights. Anything intended to disrupt or vandalise the website. Please also refrain from posting the same information in multiple places.

If you see any of the above please tell us - either post in the Feedback & Help section or contact the Community Manager or a Community Champion. You can also email mike@talkaboutautism.org.uk.

Talk about Autism will ban anyone who continues to break the rules. We reserve the right to remove content if it is unsuitable but will send you a message if this happens. If you break the rules we will allow up to two warnings before a ban is placed and your profile is deleted. Serious offenses will result in an immediate ban.

We'd appreciate your views on these Community Guidelines - are there any improvements we could make?Anything that can be worded better or clarified?

Your insights are appreciated, as these guidelines will grow and change as we go along.

Please post your comments below.