LUPUS Logo Welcome to LUPUS
A Moderated Listserv Group for caring support and information for those who have lupus and the people who love them.

LUPUS Topics

How to Subscribe

How to Unsubscribe

How to Set Nomail

How to Set Topics

Other Listserv Commands

LUPUS Archives

LUPUS Guidelines

LUPUS Code of Conduct

LUPUS-KIDS

LUPUS Links

FAQ

LUPUS Home

CODE OF CONDUCT

While using the LUPUS Electronic Forum, you agree not to:

* Post or transmit any commercial advertising regarding the sale of products or services of any kind;

* Post or transmit any unlawful, fraudulent, threatening, abusive, libelous, or otherwise objectionable or harmful information of any kind;

* Post or transmit any information or software that contains a virus, worm, trojan horse or other harmful or disruptive component; or

* Post or transmit materials in violation of another party's copyright or other intellectual property rights.

THE USE OF THIS ELECTRONIC FORUM FOR ANY COMMERCIAL PURPOSE IS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN AND WILL RESULT IN THE IMMEDIATE TERMINATION OF YOUR SUBSCRIPTION.

REPEATED USE (INCLUDING VIA MULTIPLE EMAIL ALIASES) OF THE LUPUS FORUM FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES BY ANYONE MAY RESULT IN LEGAL ACTION.

We also reserve the right to prohibit any user who, in our sole discretion, violates the Code of Conduct or other terms of this Agreement from using the LUPUS Electronic Forum. Such prohibition may occur without notice to the user. You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless the volunteers of LUPUS against any and all claims, damages, costs or other expenses that arise directly or indirectly out of or from

(a) your breach of this Agreement,

(b) your violation of the Code of Conduct and/or

(c) your activities in connection with the LUPUS Electronic Forum.

OTHER IMPORTANT NOTES

You should have received a standard "you are subscribed" message from the software that runs the LUPUS mailing list. This message repeats some of the information you originally received and provides additional information specific to LUPUS.

Please file this message permanently. It contains useful information that you'll need if you want to change your subscription status. Please do not delete this message! Saving this message might look like a waste of disk space now, but in the future you will be glad you saved this information when want to suspend message delivery to avoid filling up your mailbox while you are on vacation. We recommend you create a LUPUS mail folder for this message.

Please take the time to read all the information in this subscriber welcome message. It will help you get the most from your subscription to LUPUS. If you have any problems or questions, send an email message to:

LUPUS-request@LISTSERV.ACOR.ORG

DISCLAIMERS

Information posted to LUPUS list is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace or give any medical advice or treatments. Any information pertaining to your health should be reviewed with your personal healthcare professional(s).

No liability, explicit or implied, shall be extended to the owners, maintainers, or sub-contracters of this listserv location for messages posted to the list. The owners make no assurances of the accuracy and/or the relevancy of the information posted to this list or to information referred to by messages to this list.

Posting of copyrighted material to the list without permission of the copyright holder may be an infringement of copyright, and could subject you to civil penalties including fines of tens of thousands of dollars.

The list owners are not copyright attorneys and cannot presume to advise you which postings may be an infringement. We also do not review messages for copyright or any other legal infringement before they are sent to the list. When in doubt get permission before posting. You alone are responsible for any copyright infringement caused by your posting of copyrighted materials, and you are strongly discouraged from posting material if doing so might infringe copyright. However, you may quote messages posted to this list when you are replying to the list, as long as you indicate who the quote is from. For any other use of messages you see on this list, you must contact the originator of the message for permission.

LUPUS TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

LUPUS and its associated sublists by topic are moderated in order to provide an open forum for the exchange of information without the disruption of verbal abuse, sales promotions, disrespect for fellow subscribers, and general disregard for accepted netiquette and the posting of appropriate information to the topic sublists.

By dividing the list into sublists, subscribers may customize their subscription to receive only those topics of interest to them, with one mandatory sublist subscription for all. All subscribers will be automatically subscribed to the sublist ADMIN for the purpose of disseminating administrative information. As this will not be a high volume sublist, but rather one of assistance and list information, it is expected that posts to ADMIN will be read thoroughly, and saved as necessary, as with your initial subscriber and password information.

PLEASE NOTE: You must "SET LUPUS TOPICS" for those topic sublists you wish to receive and participate in by posting. Instructions follow in the "COMMANDS" section. Any posts not headed with the appropriate topic in the subject line will not be posted to the appropriate list, and will default to "other", which most subscribers will not receive. Although the listowners will attempt to assist in proper posting to the appropriate sublist by topic, it is your responsibility as a subscriber to learn basic list commands, and ask questions via ADMIN posts or send a message requesting help to:

LUPUS-request@listserv.acor.org

IMPORTANT:

By subscribing to LUPUS, you receive these terms, guide to basic commands and listing of unacceptable types of posts. By receipt, and/or submitting a post to any of the topic sublists, you agree to the terms of use of this list, and agree to hold harmless the administration of this list from any action taken to assure this list's integrity is upheld. Please read the ACOR legal terms of use in its entirety as included at the beginning of this welcome message.

POSTING RECOMMENDATIONS AND GUIDELINES FOR LUPUS AND THE TOPIC SUBLISTS:

"Flaming", or verbal abuse, will not be tolerated, and the offending party will be immediately removed from LUPUS.

Examples:

Opinion:

Please don't use all caps in messages. It is considered "yelling" in email.

Flame:

YOU MORON! STOP USING ALL CAPS! CAN'T YOU SEE HOW IRRITATING IT IS?

A true "flame" may include YELLING, profanity, name-calling, direct attack on a named person, or the subscribership in general.

Questioning without derogatory tone or commentary is not a flame; offering an opinion with civility is not a flame; and should the moderators and list owners approve a message as a non-flame, a flame in response to said message will be grounds for removal of the responding party.

Emotion shown within a message is not necessarily a flame, but can easily become one. If you are highly emotional about a subject, thread or message, please do not post until you can do so with civility and responsibility. Should you wish to carry on an argument with another subscriber, please do it via private email.

2) "Spam", or unsolicited sales promotions of goods and services, will cause the subscriber to be removed from LUPUS immediately.

Example:

Recommendation within a thread of discussion: "I use Fluffy Face Cosmetics for my sensitive skin, and have no reactions."

Spam: "Visit my website! You'll look great and never have skin problems again if you use my products!"

Other types of "spam", or mass mailings, will also NOT be tolerated, including virus warnings, chain letters, and other hoaxes.

**PLEASE BE ADVISED: Forwarding chain letters, solicitations, and virus warnings/hoaxes to LUPUS may result in your removal from the list!**

If you receive any such messages in your private mail you may check them out at the following URL's:

*NOTE: Listing a website in your signature is allowed as long as no other marketing information is listed. It then becomes an issue of personal choice for a subscriber to seek out said website.

3) Requests for donations on the list will not be tolerated, whatever the purpose. Reference to known and respected charities will be allowed, but any specific request for financial donation to any charity/group will be just cause for removal from LUPUS.

4) Posting of a private message without the original sender's express approval within said message is grounds for immediate removal from LUPUS.

5) "Yelling" in all caps, telling people to "shut up" or "stop" a discussion which has been approved by the moderators as acceptable, shows general disrespect for others' opinions and will not be tolerated. It is grounds for immediate removal from LUPUS.

NOTE: Should a thread become unmanageably long or veer off-topic, it will be re-directed to a private discussion or the appropriate sublist.

6) General discussions of meditation and spirituality as coping mechanisms on the sublists COPE and EMH will be approved; proselytizing for any religion or philosophy will not be tolerated, and the offending party removed from LUPUS.

7) General discussion of political effect on disability issues, health care and funding will be allowed on COPE and NEWS; proselytizing for or defaming any political party or group will not be tolerated on any sublist and will be grounds for immediate removal from LUPUS.

8) It is firmly requested that in replies to posts the original be "snipped", or extraneous material deleted, and only that part of the original to which you are responding be included in your reply post. Continued disregard will be grounds for administrative review/action.

**Please also <snip> the original bottom banner listing the LUPUS URL and listserv help addresses from your reply.**

NOTE: This is an issue of consideration for those with visual, dexterity, and/or e-mail time/expense limitations.

9) General disregard for confidentiality and mutual subscriber civility will not be tolerated. "Do no harm."

10) All posts approved by the moderators and posted to LUPUS and its sublists are archived. As an issue of legality, archives of the public, open, and moderated list will NOT be edited in any way. If you are not comfortable with seeing what you've written on the Nightly News, please do not post it, but write to others privately. Please also know that even mail sent privately may be forwarded to others by the recipient, and protect yourselves accordingly. While archives are searchable and *available only to subscribers via password protection*, it is YOUR responsibility to assure that private messages are sent privately, and that posts are sent to the appropriate topic sublist so they may be responded to within the community of LUPUS subscribers.