Community Rules & Etiquette and Privacy Guidelines

Thank you for joining the IPA Group’s MyCommunity platform. This is a great platform to seek the advice of your peers, benefit from their experience, and participate in ongoing conversations.

To ensure the best possible experience for all members, we have established some basic rules and guidelines for participation. By joining and using this community, you agree that you have read and will follow these rules and guidelines (Community Rules). We may change these community rules at any time and will publish the updated rules on the Terms and Conditions page. You must ensure that you are complying with the current Community Rules.

Questions should be directed to our member services department via the Contact Us page. This platform should not be used as a way to request and manage member services and is not for The IPA Group to respond to membership or technical queries. The information posted on this platform does not constitute as professional advice. Any questions specifically relating to the management of the platform should be directed to our member services department via the Contact Us page.

The rules

o   Respect others. Focus on the content of posts and not on the people making them. Please extend the benefit of the doubt to newer guests and members; there’s no such thing as a silly question.

o   Respect the purpose of the community. Use the community to share successes, challenges, constructive feedback, questions, and goals instead of products or services that you provide. If you’ve found a product or service helpful, please share your experience with the group in a respectful way.

o   Do not upload or post any information to the Platform that is deemed “sensitive” or “special category” under applicable laws (sensitive information), including your own sensitive information or sensitive information about other people. Sensitive information includes financial account numbers, insurance plan numbers, protected health or medical information, protected student information, government-issued identifiers (e.g., Social Security numbers), and other similar information. If you are unsure about whether certain information is sensitive information, you must Contact Us before uploading or posting it. Examples of sensitive information include “sensitive information” as defined in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and “special categories of personal data” as set out in Article 9 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation.

o   Use caution when discussing products. Information posted on the discussion groups and in the libraries is available for all to see, and comments are subject to libel, slander, and antitrust laws.

o   All defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive or illegal materials are strictly prohibited. Do not post anything that you would not want the world to see or that you would not want anyone to know came from you.

o   Respect intellectual property. Post content that you have personally created or have permission to use and have properly attributed to the content creator.

o   When posting items in our collaborative environment, please indicate if the item is not available for reuse. You should have permission from the owner of any material you would like to reuse.

o   Reserve discussions and shared files and content to those that are best suited to the community.

o   Post your message or documents only to the most appropriate community discussion groups. This helps ensure all messages receive the best response by eliminating "noise."

·     Do not spam the community. This includes but is not limited to, posting the same content in multiple discussion groups, @tagging many users to a post, and private messaging members with the same or similar content. If you are being spammed, please report via the Contact Us page.  

·     In order to respect all members’ privacy, personal information may only be shared within the community if the individual whose information is being shared has expressed consent prior to the communication.

 Three strikes rule

 In order to preserve an environment that encourages both respectful and productive dialogue, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate membership of this community for anyone who violates these Community Rules.

 However, we understand that people may inadvertently violate the rules, and therefore in most cases we will not immediately suspend or terminate membership of the community following a single violation. To ensure we have an amicable   environment for our community, the IPA Group generally follows a three strikes rule:

• First violation: A written notice via email is sent to the member who has violated the rules.
• Second violation: A written notice is sent to the member who has violated the rules and the individual has a phone call with the community manager to discuss the violations. The individual’s community account is put into moderation for 30   days so that messages from their account are reviewed before being posted online.
• Third violation: A written notice is sent to the member who has violated the rules and their community access is suspended for up to six months.

 In addition to the three strikes rule, in exceptional circumstances the IPA Group may immediately suspend a Member and subsequently forfeit membership if the violation is serious.

Discussion group etiquette

o   State concisely and clearly the topic of your comments in the subject line. This allows members to respond more appropriately to your posting and makes it easier for members to search the archives by subject.

o   Send messages such as "thanks for the information" or "me, too" to individuals, not to the entire list. Do this by using the "Reply to sender" link in every message.

o   Do not send administrative messages, such as “remove me from the list,” to the group. Instead, use the web interface to change your settings or to remove yourself from a list. If you are changing email addresses, you do not need to remove yourself from a list and rejoin under your new email address. Simply change your settings.

Higher Logic Acceptable Use Policy and Anti-Spam Policy

In addition to these Community Rules and without limiting them, you must also familiarise yourself with and comply with the Higher Logic Acceptable Use Policy (https://www.higherlogic.com/legal/acceptable-use-policy/) and Higher Logic Anti-Spam Policy (https://www.higherlogic.com/anti-spam-policy/) (including as updated from time to time by Higher Logic) (the Higher Logic Policies). If there is any conflict between these Community Rules and the Higher Logic Policies, the Higher Logic Policies will prevail.

The legal stuff

This platform is provided as a service for the members of The IPA Group.  The IPA Group is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on this platform by others. We disclaim all warranties regarding information posted on this platform, whether posted by The IPA Group or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for purpose. In no event shall The IPA Group be liable for any special, indirect, or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data, or profits, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of any information posted on this platform.

Do not post any defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials.  Do not post any information or other material protected by copyright without the permission of the copyright owner. By posting material, the posting party warrants and represents that they own the copyright with respect to such material or has received permission from the copyright owner. In addition, the posting party grants The IPA Group and users of this site the nonexclusive right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and use such information or other material.

Messages should not be posted if they encourage or facilitate members to arrive at any agreement that either expressly or impliedly leads to price fixing, a boycott of another's business, or other conduct intended to illegally restrict free trade. Messages that encourage or facilitate an agreement about the following subjects are inappropriate: prices, discounts, or terms or conditions of sale; salaries; profits, profit margins, or cost data; market shares, sales territories, or markets; allocation of customers or territories; or selection, rejection, or termination of customers or suppliers.

The IPA Group does not actively monitor the site for inappropriate postings and does not on its own undertake editorial control of postings. However, if any inappropriate posting is brought to the attention of The IPA Group we will take all appropriate action as outlined in the three strikes rule and reserve the right to terminate access to any user who does not abide by these rules.

Privacy policy

Any personal information you provide to us including and similar to your name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address will not be released, sold, or rented to any entities or individuals outside of our organisation except as noted below.

With whom we share the personal information we collect through this site:

Our service providers
We may share your personal information with companies (including our affiliates) which perform services on our behalf, for example, companies that help process credit card payments. Our service providers are required by contract to protect the confidentiality of the personal information we share with them and to use it only to provide specific services on our behalf.

Business transfers
Your personal information may be transferred to another entity (either an affiliated entity or an unrelated third party) in connection with a merger, reorganisation, dissolution or similar corporate event. If such a transfer were ever to occur, the acquiring entity’s use of your personal information will still be subject to this privacy policy.

Government and legal disclosures
We may disclose the personal information we collect through this site, when we, in good faith, believe disclosure is appropriate to comply with the law (or a court order or witness summons/subpoena); to prevent or investigate a possible crime, such as fraud or identity theft; to enforce our terms and conditions or other agreements that govern your use of this site; or to protect the rights, property or safety of our company, our users, or others.

External sites
We are not responsible for the content of external internet sites. You are advised to read the privacy policy of external sites before disclosing any personal information.

Cookies
A "cookie" is a small data text file that is placed in your browser and allows us to recognise you each time you visit this site (personalisation, etc). Cookies themselves do not contain any personal information, and we do not use cookies to collect personal information. Cookies may also be used by 3rd party content providers such as newsfeeds.

Remember the risks whenever you use the internet
While we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information that you transmit to us and you are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of any passwords or other account information. In addition, other internet sites or services that may be accessible through our site have separate data and privacy practices independent of us, and therefore we disclaim any responsibility or liability for their policies or actions. Please contact those vendors and others directly if you have any questions about their privacy policies.  For any other information please contact us using the Contact Us page.