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Community Guidelines

The SANE Community provides a safe space for members where support is given and received mutually, and everyone can share experiences and feelings as well as creativity and ideas.

Membership requires you to be willing and able to engage with others in the spirit of mutual support. You are expected to take personal responsibility for your participation in this community, accepting and applying the guidelines and ground rules provided.

Please see below for more information:

Support Forum Guidelines

Your Images Guidelines

Your Blogs Guidelines

Your Audio Guidelines

SANE Social Media


Support Forum Guidelines

Our General Guidelines document (PDF 186KB) provides information on moderation, posts and comments, managing difficult or challenging situations and personal protection. Below is a brief outline of this information.

Membership

Choose your username sensitively – be mindful of the potential triggering effects of usernames. The moderating team reserve the right to address the use of potentially triggering names.

If you would like to change your username please contact the moderating team at supportforum@sane.org.uk. You will be asked to tell other members in a public post once the change has been made.

If you wish to end your membership, please contact the moderating team at the address above. Your account will be deactivated after five working days.

Personal Protection

Do NOT post any personal identifying or contact details as this is an open access site. The moderating team reserve the right to remove such content.

Consider carefully any decision to share any personal details in any way with other member/s.

Consider seriously any plans to meet other member/s. It is YOUR responsibility. If meeting, ensure sensible precautions are taken, eg let someone else know about arrangements, meet in a public place, arrange a limited meeting, ensure that someone meets or contacts you at the end of the meeting.

Do NOT post other people’s personal details, including photos. Such material will be removed by the moderating team.

Posting to the forum

Some topics, for example, suicide, self-harm or particularly distressed feelings can trigger difficult responses in others. Please mark such topics with *Trig* as some people may wish to avoid reading these posts.

When expressing difficult feelings about a situation, please confine posts to a reflection of your personal experience. For example, “I’ve had difficult experiences with profession/service/gender,” rather than, “All profession/ service/ gender are bad.” A wide range of people use the Forum and generalisations may feel excluding.

Do NOT post links to websites for commercial or advertising purposes. All links posted will be checked. Any action taken is at the discretion of the moderating team.

The role of moderation

The Forum is available for the provision of mutual support 24 hours a day on the basis that members take personal responsibility for their participation in the community, using the guidelines and ground rules provided for guidance and support.

The role of moderation is to ensure the wellbeing of the community as a whole, through supporting the objective of facilitating mutual support.

The moderation role also includes taking an overview of interactions, acting as necessary when members do not appear willing or able to take the personal responsibility expected.

The role of moderation does NOT include the provision of emotional support directly to members, including those who may be feeling suicidal or in crisis.

  • The moderating team will take action as necessary when members appear to be unable/unwilling to take personal responsibility for their contributions within the community as outlined in the ground rules and guidelines.
  • The moderating team reserves the right to remove any content that is not in keeping with the ethos and principle of mutual support.
  • Please accept and respect actions taken by the moderating team.

In order to ensure the wellbeing of the community as a whole the moderating team reserves the right to take action as necessary with regard to individual members in line with moderation boundaries.

This may mean, for instance, that there may be occasions when individual members who have demonstrated that they are not able or willing to take responsibility for the nature of their posts as outlined in the guidelines (PDF 186KB) may be allowed access to the Forum only at times when it is actively overseen by the moderating team.

Reports – if you have a concern about a post, select the red exclamation mark attached to the relevant post. All reports will be read; action may be taken as necessary. Reports will NOT be responded to directly.

Email – for any other communication about the Forum, your membership, username changes, concerns etc, please email supportforum@sane.org.uk. Responses will be at the discretion of the moderating team, and within the boundaries and procedures outlined above.

If you are feeling vulnerable, consider whether you wish to read threads marked with *Trig*.

Please consider your own wellbeing as a priority. If you feel you may be unsettled by someone else’s distress, please consider the effect of exposing yourself to such content.

At any time, the community will host established and new members, as well as people considering whether to join. Please keep an eye out for new members, acknowledge introductory posts, and welcome new members. The Forum is available to people across the full spectrum of mental illness.

Comprehensive guidance (PDF 186KB) is provided to enable you to take personal responsibility to manage your presence on the Forum. SANE cannot take any responsibility for any distress that may arise from use of the Forum.

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Your Images Guidelines

We provide a space under Your images where users can display their appropriate artwork/photography for the community to view.

By uploading an image you agree that it may be used on other pages on our website or on social media. If you would prefer your work not to be shared please let us know at info@sane.org.uk.

We request that you only upload original work that is your own and no-one else’s. Please do not upload images containing profanity or nudity, or imagery of a sensitive nature that could potentially trigger other users. Images must also be of a good quality and neither blurry or pixelated.

Whilst we welcome contributions, we have limited space on our website, and may not be able to post your work. We reserve the right to remove content at any time, and request that all content considers the wellbeing of people who may view or hear it.

While the image is in the gallery it will be covered by our copyright and should not be shared by any third parties. While you give SANE permission to show it in the gallery, if you would like an image removed from the gallery, please contact us at info@sane.org.uk and we will endeavour to take it down as soon as possible and stop using it anywhere else it has been displayed.

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Your Blogs Guidelines

We provide a space under Your blogs where users can display their writing for the community to view.

By uploading a blog you agree that it may be used on other pages on our website or on social media. If you would prefer your work not to be shared please let us know at info@sane.org.uk.

If you would prefer to upload a blog anonymously you can either check the box at the bottom of the Write a blog page or you can submit it via email at the address above.

We request that you only upload original work that is your own and no-one else’s. Please do not upload blogs containing profanity or of a sensitive nature that could potentially trigger other users. We may edit your work if we feel it may not be suitable but will contact you before publishing for your approval.

Whilst we welcome contributions, we have limited space on our website, and may not be able to post your work. We reserve the right to remove content at any time, and request that all content considers the wellbeing of people who may view or hear it.

While the blog is on the website it will be covered by our copyright and should not be shared by any third parties. If you would like a blog removed from the website, please contact us at info@sane.org.uk and we will endeavour to take it down as soon as possible and stop using it anywhere else it has been displayed.

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Your Audio Guidelines

We provide a space under Your audio where users can display their music for the community to listen.

By uploading your audio you agree that it may be used on other pages on our website or on social media. If you would prefer your work not to be shared please let us know at info@sane.org.uk.

If you would prefer to upload your audio anonymously you can submit it via email to the adress above.

We request that you only upload original work that is your own and no-one else’s. Please do not upload audio containing profanity or of a sensitive nature that could potentially trigger other users.

Whilst we welcome contributions, we have limited space on our website, and may not be able to post your work. We reserve the right to remove content at any time, and request that all content considers the wellbeing of people who may view or hear it.

While the audio is on the website it will be covered by our copyright and should not be shared by any third parties. If you would like your audio file removed from the website, please contact us at info@sane.org.uk and we will endeavour to take it down as soon as possible and stop using it anywhere else it has been used.

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SANE Social Media

SANE regards social media as having an important part to play in facilitating an exchange of views and experiences in relation to mental health.

For the most part, interactions on our social media platforms make a constructive and valued contribution to sharing information and developing/enhancing debate.

However, very occasionally, posts and comments can be made which we believe could be damaging to others because they are untrue, could cause distress or could deter people who may need help.

We seek to raise awareness and encourage debate through our social media activity. We do not wish in any way to infringe the rights of individuals to engage in a free exchange of views and opinions.

We will remove any content that we consider discriminatory or hateful.

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