Mastodon Comments Policy ~ Pallimed

Thursday, June 9, 2005

Comments Policy

The editors of Pallimed reserve the right to remove any comments we deem offensive/hateful, mean-spirited, commercial, a potential violation of patient privacy, or in any other way inappropriate. This blog is intended to foster collegial, well-informed discussions about research and news relevant to clinicians working with patients facing severe/life-limiting diseases: it is not a forum for discussing individual cases or airing complaints or concerns about specific cases, clinicians, or institutions (whether from the clinician, patient, or family perspective). Such comments will be removed at the discretion of the Pallimed editors, and we make no apologies for maintaining an open, professional, friendly tone on Pallimed.

Health care professionals should refrain from providing specific details about cases because of HIPAA restrictions. But if you want to discuss a case more broadly, that would be more appropriate.

We welcome and encourage comments that challenge, contest, or otherwise disagree with Pallimed's content, as long as they are written in a thoughtful, constructive manner.

Patients who want to comment about their own experience are welcome to do so, as long as such comments conform to the guidelines outlined above.

Personal attacks (on clinicians, other commentators, etc.) will not be tolerated - this is outside the scope of the blog's mission and intent.

The contributors to Pallimed often discuss amongst ourselves if we should delete a comment: we take our vision of balancing open discussion with maintaining a family-friendly and professional platform very seriously. What comments are likely to be deleted (besides obviously hateful or commercial or privacy-busting ones)?

  • Ones which name individual patients or clinicians directly (unless it's posted by a patient her or himself, and conforms to the above guidelines)
  • Ones which have a primary theme of complaining/sharing grievances about an individual case (whether from a patient, clinician, or family perspective) - we may be sympathetic but this blog is not the forum for airing such concerns.
  • Ones which provide personal or individual judgments on contributors or commenters on Pallimed (e.g. rhetorically framed as 'you are immoral/depraved/wrong' as opposed to 'I disagree with what XXX said; instead I think ZZZ is a more appropriate response to this situation. Here's why....."). 
  • Generic, unsupported, blanket accusations/complaints/conspiracy theories leveled at anything. E.g. "People are getting killed in hospices," "Oncologists are always lying to their patients," etc. If you wish to share such sentiments, we ask that you present such complaints in an organized, well-grounded fashion, provide references, and limit yourself to things you would be comfortable saying in a public forum (not anonymously). 
If your comments have been deleted, and you think your comments conformed to our comments policy above, please email Pallimed editor Christian Sinclair, MD, at christian@pallimed.org - we are willing to reconsider any decision, and don't mind at all being contacted about these issues!

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