All members of the CAPS Community discussion boards voluntarily subscribe to the following engagement guidelines when you join the group. CAPS and the discussion list managers reserve the right to terminate access to any user who does not abide by these guidelines.

• When posting a message, identify yourself and include at a minimum your name, affiliation, and e-mail address. Be specific in the subject line to describe the subject matter of what you are posting.
• When replying to a message, include only the relevant information to which you are responding. This will allow others who read your message to understand the context of the conversation. Economize space by including only the relevant portion of the original message, and delete the header information from the previous message. The minimum asked of subscribers is to put your response at the top of the original posting.
• Only send messages to the entire discussion board when it contains information everyone can benefit from. If you are replying with a message that just says ?thanks for the information,? ?may I have a copy of?, or simply to agree with someone (such as ?me, too?), please do not reply to the entire group. Instead, send your response directly to the email address of the person who posted the message. This may entail cutting and pasting the email address from the footer of the posting into your email box, but your fellow community members will appreciate that extra step to cut down on email that is unnecessary for them to see.
• Attacking others is unacceptable. Respectful disagreement is not. The conversations put forward in the discussion board are meant to stimulate discussion and dialogue but not to create a contentious environment.
• Do not post copyright-protected materials to the discussion list or the shared files directory.
• The copyright for each message resides with the poster. Community members are required to contact the original author (poster) of any communications appearing on the board to reprint, repost or forward any item in any, publication or web site, electronic email forum and/or discussion list, private or otherwise.
• Do not post commercial messages. It is considered bad form and annoying to other community members. Contact people directly with products and services which you believe would help them at your own risk and liability.All defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials are strictly prohibited. Violation of this guideline is subject to immediate removal from usage of the CAPS discussion board.

Dos:

• Network by asking questions and sharing your personal experience of managing medical error and supporting efforts for change.
• Respond to the discussion board with comments and answers to questions of common interest to all the members.
• Include your name, title, organization or affiliation (as appropriate) as standard to all postings to the list.
• Take surveys where the response goes directly, and only, to the members requesting the information; and then that member compiles and posts a summary of the results to the list.

Don’ts:

• Do not advertise for services.
• Do not use the list for commercials or sales presentations.
• Do not respond to the entire list when sending a message to an individual is more appropriate.
• Do not distribute copyright protected materials without express written consent of the owner.

Note: All discussion list exchanges are public domain.

If you have questions regarding these guidelines please contact CAPS at info@patientsafety.org