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Vision and Values of the AOAO Forums

The AOAO Forum is you. A group of Orthopedic surgeons that come together to create this community of support for their peers. Members volunteer to serve as moderators of the community. YOU are the Moderators. This is a community of support and hope. We promote and celebrate diversity of people and ideas. We are open to discussion of challenging topics, but we demand all members behave professionally and treat each other with dignity and respect. Racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, and other ‘isms’ are not tolerated.

Forum Policies

  1. You are the moderator of AOAO Forums. We rely on fellow members (you) to report mean posts, false posts, spam, trolls and haters. Use the “Report Post to Moderator” Button. Once reported, a member of the volunteer team will review the post and take appropriate action. Please note it may take a few hours, but we do carefully review every post reported.
  2. Be courteous and contribute positively. If you disagree with someone, be courteous and stay positive in your response. Negativity is harmful to our community. Repeated negative posts will result in removal from our community. Please cite Articles / reports that support your position.
  3. Treat everyone with dignity and respect. We are open to discussion of challenging topics, but we expect all members behave professionally and treat each other with dignity and respect.
  4. Racism, sexism, heterosexism (homophobia), antisemitism and other ‘isms’ are not tolerated. We promote and celebrate diversity of people and ideas. Negative prejudgements purposely marginalize one group in an effort to establish a defined norm for another group; this kind of thinking is antithetical to the delivery of medical care. Even if you find an old thread that contains such ideology, please report it.
  5. Protect anonymity. Remember, students and doctors follow the AOAO Forums. Please keep patient’s name and health information private per HIPPA policies.
  6. Don’t stealth market/advertise. If you want to discuss your product or service in the forums, we ask that you do so in a transparent and professional manner. We do not want to dilute valuable discussion with fake accounts posting to secretly promote services or products. To discuss your service or product, you must be a recognized sponsor. Please contact Joye Stewart at the AOAO if you are interested in sponsoring an ad.
  7. Stay on topic. Our membership encourages open discussion and debate as long as it relates to the topic of the thread at hand. Posts that do not relate to the original purpose or topic of the thread may be moved to a more appropriate location.
  8. Don’t cross-post on the forums. Just post once. Posting a question or comment in multiple forums is annoying to other members and may be removed as a duplicate.
  9. The truth will set you free. Make sure what you write is true and correct to the best of your knowledge, and if you used medical/health information from another resource, give credit where credit’s due, and be sure to reference the source.
  10. Respect copyrighted information. Selling or trading illegally copied materials is a federal offense; if reported or otherwise notified of such actions, AOAO may report such piracy to copyright holders and appropriate agencies. Copying information from other Web sites hurts their ability to maintain sustainable revenue.
  11. Images / Videos / Medical Images: Pornographic, sexually explicit, harassing or degrading images are NOT permitted. This includes, but is not limited to, strategically covered nudity, sheer or see-through clothing, lewd or provocative poses, close-ups of breasts, buttocks, or crotches. If you find such posts, please report them. Note that medical images and videos are permitted when patient approval has been obtained, contains no Protected Health Information (“PHI”), and has no images of the patient’s full face. Images must meet HIPAA policies on PHI. You are responsible for any images posted as AOAO does not review any images or videos submitted to its Forums.
  12. Have fun and support each other! This is a great way to ask for advice, mentor, show interesting cases, and learn from each other. We’re all in this together.