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WebMD Health News

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Policing Your OWN Communities

WebMD message boards are wonderful forums where members find friendship and share ideas. However, there are occasions when a post that is made violates WebMD's Terms and Conditions.

While using our boards you may come across a flame war (a series of insulting posts) or simply a disrupter (called a "troll" in internet-speak because they "troll" message boards or chat rooms simply to cause trouble) or someone trying to sell their products. None of these behaviors are allowed at WebMD, and if any of these things appear on our boards, we want to know about it right away. We rely on our members to help WebMD maintain a safe and comfortable environment where everyone feels at home.

Here are some of the other T&C violations you will want to report:


  • Spam
  • Advertising
  • Personal Attacks
  • Copyright Infringement
  • Inappropriate Member Nicknames
  • Use of inappropriate slang (especially on our sexuality boards) and/or masked/veiled profanity
  • Members discussing their personal physicians by name or recommending physicians
  • Members who identify themselves as under 13 year of age
  • Too much personally identifying information (phone numbers, home addresses, etc)
  • Posts containing links to inappropriate sites (pornography, etc.)
  • Posts which are nothing more than erotica or soliciting cyber sex



  • The best way to handle any board problem is to not reply. Instead, you can help your community by alerting the WebMD Community Moderator staff.

    To empower our members with more control in "policing" their own communities here at WebMD, we've recently added a wonderful, new tool which allows members to send alerts simply by clicking on the "report a post" button found on the bottom right corner below each message. The moderator staff will receive a report and will review the post to determine whether or not it violates the WebMD Terms and Conditions. If the message is in violation of our rules, it will be removed along with any replies.



    Please keep in mind that you should only report posts that you feel are violations of WebMD's Terms and Condition. Do not report posts simply because you disagree with the information contained within another member's post. Misuse of this tool is detectable.

    Thank you for helping WebMD message boards stay on track. It really does "take a village," and we appreciate everyone who helps us to keep our communities a great place to gather together in our quest to stay happy and healthy.

    Posted by: Leona_WebMD at 11:13 AM

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