Communities of Practice Rules and Etiquette

ISPE Communities of Practice (CoPs) are provided as a service to the ISPE Member community to share stories, tips, and insight into your industry.

We encourage all ISPE Members to participate in the online community and, to ensure a positive experience for our Members, we have established some basic guidelines for participation.

In order to preserve a climate that encourages both civil and meaningful dialogue, ISPE reserves the right to moderate, delete, and modify posts that do not follow the basic guidelines listed below. In addition, ISPE may discipline and/or terminate accounts for members who violate these rules.

The Rules

  • Keep it friendly. Every post should make a positive contribution. The Community is open to all points of view on the intended topics; mature, polite debate is encouraged. Attacks or cyber-bullying will not be tolerated. The Communities are meant to stimulate conversation and trigger the exchange of best practices not to create contention. Contradictory opinions are of course welcomed, but should always be thoughtful and respectful, rather than emotional, impulsive or anger-driven.
  • All defamatory, derogatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials are strictly prohibited and may be removed.
  • Community posts should not contain promotional material, special offers, job postings or offers, product announcements, or solicitation for services.
  • Refrain from posting commercial messages. If you have a product or service which would be beneficial to the poster, please contact the member directly.
  • ISPE reserves the right to reproduce the postings shared to the Community.
  • Copyrighted materials should not be shared without permission from the publication or author. Links to original materials may be shared when attributed to the owner.
  • Transparency is very important in gaining trust in online relationships, therefore, please be clear who you are and who you work for when posting to the Community.
  • Be honest, be yourself. The Community is intended to be used for the helpful exchange of information between Members. False, inaccurate, or otherwise misleading information is not helpful. Please be sincere in your Community participation by only contributing content you know is accurate. Be mindful to respect the "closed" environment of ISPE’s online communities and do not forward messages to non-members.

ISPE is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on these sites by others. ISPE disclaims all warranties with regard to information posted on these sites, whether posted by ISPE or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall ISPE 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 site.

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. In addition, by posting material, you grant to ISPE and the members of this Community the nonexclusive, world-wide, transferable right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and use such information or other material in any way and in any medium, including but not limited to print or electronic form.

Content should not be posted if it encourages or facilitates 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. Content that encourages or facilitates 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. ISPE does not actively monitor these sites for inappropriate postings and does not on its own undertake editorial control of postings. However, in the event that any inappropriate posting is brought to ISPE’s attention, ISPE will take all appropriate action.

If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact communities@ispe.org for more information.

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