Community Rules & Etiquette and Privacy Guidelines
Thank you for being part of our community. To ensure the best possible experience for all members, we have established some basic guidelines for participation.
By joining and using this community, you agree that you have read and will follow these rules and guidelines. You also agree to limit discussions and shared files and content to that best suited to the medium. This is a great medium with which to solicit the advice of your peers, benefit from their experience, and participate in an ongoing conversation.
Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with these important guidelines. Questions about this agreement should be directed to our Community Development Committee via the Contact Us link on this site. To preserve an environment that encourages both civil and fruitful dialogue, NCMS reserves the right to suspend or terminate participation in this community for anyone who violates these rules.
The Rules
- 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 stupid question.
- Respect the purpose of the community. Use the community to share successes, challenges, constructive feedback, questions, and goals. Use of this community to advertise and/or promote your own products and services is expressly forbidden. However, if you’ve used a product or service that you have found to be helpful and applies to the discussion, please share your experience with the group in a respectful way.
- Use caution when discussing commercial 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.
- All false, defamatory, abusive, hateful, reckless, sexually oriented, profane, threatening, offensive, deceptive/misleading, harassing, discriminatory, or illegal materials are strictly prohibited. Political statements and opinions are also not appropriate in this forum. NCMS further prohibits spamming, impersonating, or falsely claiming to represent another person or organization, or invading another party’s privacy, including posting personal details without their prior permission. Remember, 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.
- Respect intellectual property. ONLY post content that you are sure is readily available in the public domain (e.g. resources from CDSE, for example), or you have personally created, or you have permission to use and have properly attributed to the content creator.
- When posting items in our collaborative environment, please indicate if the item is not available for reuse. It’s also advisable to contact the owner of any material if you would like to reuse it.
- Post your message or documents only to the most appropriate communities. This helps ensure all messages receive the best response by eliminating "noise."
- The name within your profile must reflect your individual name (first and last). Members may not use alternative names such as their company name.
Marketing/Solicitation
Unsolicited marketing, sales pitches, or product advertising is prohibited in communities, with the exception of the Bulletin Board Community, which is specifically designated for these purposes.
There are no restrictions on posts within the Bulletin Board Community, to include the above, provided the following criteria are met first:
- The post content aligns with the goals and objectives of NCMS
- The post offers a benefit or added value to the NCMS member
- The post is factual and relevant
If community moderator(s) determine the post does not meet all of the above criteria, the post will be flagged and either removed or revised by the submitter.
Discussion Group Etiquette
- 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. If you plan to change the subject within the thread, please start a new post.
- 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. Communities are a collaborative forum established to benefit all and unnecessary comments to all simply detract from focused discussion.
- 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 the list and rejoin under your new email address. Simply change your settings.
The Legal Stuff
This site is provided as a service for the members of NCMS. NCMS is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on this site by others. We disclaim all warranties regarding information posted on this site, whether posted by NCMS or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall NCMS be liable for any special, direct, 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. By posting material, the posting party warrants and represents that he or she owns the copyright with respect to such material or has received permission from the copyright owner. NCMS is not responsible for any claim of copyright infringement by a third party resulting from the posting of your content. In addition, the posting party grants NCMS and users of this site the nonexclusive right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and use such information or other material.
No messages shall be posted if they encourage or facilitate members to arrive at any agreement that either expressly or implicitly 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 strictly prohibited: 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.
NCMS 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 NCMS, we will take all appropriate action. NCMS reserves the right to terminate access to any user who does not abide by these guidelines.
By participating in the Community and posting content, you agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless NCMS, its officers, directors, employees, agents, contractors, and members from and against any and all third-party claims, actions, causes of action, losses, judgments, liabilities, injuries or damages to persons or property, costs and expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees and court cost incurred or which may be incurred by NCMS and which arise out of or result from your violation of these Community rules and guidelines, or your violation of applicable Federal, state of local laws, your negligent acts, errors or omissions or intentional or willful misconduct in connection with your participation in the Community. This duty of indemnification will survive the voluntary or involuntary termination or suspension of your participation in the Community.
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 organization except as noted below.
With Whom Do We Share the Personal Information We Collect Through This Site:
Our Service Providers
We may share your personal information with companies (including our affiliates) that 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, reorganization, 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 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 recognize you each time you visit this site (personalization, 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 news feeds.
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