Am I Alright?

Thanks. Are you referring to the following?



Aside from the fact that I doubt anyone reads the TOS in great detail, this could be to the benefit of users, but let's be honest, it's mostly for the protection of the site owner. In today's litigious society this is perfectly reasonable. I would hate to see a verdict rendered against Robert or anyone else for content posted in this forum.

Unless there is other specific wording though, I don't see how this make providing medical advice in a post a violation of the TOS. (not-with-standing that telling someone to call 911 hardly amounts to medical advice)

Yes, I am referring to this.

And of course the TOS is for the protection of the site owner, yet it applies whether users read it or not. I agree with you that telling someone to call 911 does not constitute a TOS violation. In fact, it's the antithesis of one to tell someone, go and see a doctor rather than to try to spin out some sort of pseudo-medical advice without ever seeing the patient.

We point people to the TOS because someone could be injured if they took pretty much any online medical advice apart from go see a doctor. If someone sues for damages, they'll go after A2K. Just because this is a free to use website does not mean that people don't think there's a deep pocket in there, somewhere.

For my future edification...is, "go jump in the lake" medical advise?

No. In advertising, it is recognized that claiming "The Worlds Best Hamburger" is to be taken with a *grain of salt.

*Consult your physician before taking salt.

Was I advertising?? Who knew!

I'll agree giujohn wasn't giving medical advice - it was sort of anti medical advice, so I misspoke - sarcastic about her taking the pill possibly being a problem, when she was concerned. Sarcastically saying, Call 911!! Not funny.
We don't know the person's history, what pills she took earlier in the day.

We can and do point things out for people to go search online about and ask their doctors about. This one, we just don't know, and more pointedly, she didn't know.

As I've stated elsewhere, I fully accept that this site can be run anyway it wants, and I certainly appreciate that getting sued (regardless of what the result) means defense costs that you don't want to pay. I think this clause is most effective in terms of winning any suit brought but I can imagine that a plaintiff's attorney when presented with a copy of the TOS might decide there's little profit in putting the matter into litigation. Having said this, I have dealt with enough plaintiff attorneys over the years to realize this isn't, by any means, a sure bet. Even when they know they can't win a suit they will use the cost of your having to defend it try and extort you into a settlement.

What I'm not clear on though is whether or not you use or would use this clause to justify deleting a particular post? It really doesn't say that posters are not permitted to offer medical advice.

It's really more of a case of curiosity than anything else, because I acknowledge you have the right to delete whatever post you want for whatever reason.

While I have you here...How are first time users made aware of the preference settings and the fact that they can change them?

It was a little funny...lighten up...jeeesh!

A very little funny, but certainly no horrendous offense.

Ok, I'll conceed to very little funny.

Depends if you are the person who took a pill - re the funniness.

Ever been having medical anxiety on a Saturday?

There is a backstory for me. I have a "bad eye" with many problems, most resolved but one part of it worse, which is called blepharitis. That is treated in many ways and I'd not had a problem with it, you get used to stuff, over years, crispy eyelid, so it goes.

Bad eye felt funny in the morning. I did the usual remedies, hot compresses to get the lipids moving. In the afternoon I started to worry a little, it was getting puffy. Around six, my eyelid was like a fat pig. And then a fatter pig. At nine or so I gave up and called 911, after which I spent a night in emergency with no sleep and music ongoing (you know the music in Cracker Barrel?)

Somewhere around three in the morning my eye exploded with green glop. I still wasn't seen. I dearly did not want to lose that eye. People all over trying to sleep in the hell room.

Seen later in the morning by a nurse practitioner who misdiagnosed it (she did call ophthalmology, not her fault; I couldn't reach them on Sat.) and told me I had an infection and worried at me about eye hygiene. (I know all that, I was a bacteriologist years earlier).
No, it wasn't an outside infection, I found out later, just the nature of blepharitis and how chalazions can happen.
If you look online though, sometimes this can all go bad, lucky I hadn't looked.

So - I wasn't seen fast since they must have figured it out and everyone in the place was taken before me. But I was not informed re any of that.


I don't like 911 jokes. Give me a while, maybe later.

No, but I've had a hell of a hang over on Sunday!


Stop me if you've heard this one...
------------------------------------

Dispatcher: 911
Caller: Yeah, I'm having trouble breathing. I'm all out of breath. Damn it I think I'm going to pass out.
Dispatcher: Sir, where are you calling from?
Caller: I'm at a pay phone. North and Foster.
Dispatcher: ! Sir, an ambulance is on the way. Are you an asthmatic?
Caller: No
Dispatcher: What were you doing before you started having trouble breathing?
Caller: Running from the Police.

(I Kill Me)

Ok, ok, I won't yell at you any more for a while.

ok, deal.
Sorry about your eye.

It's ok, still.

I like it there for balance, but it's a brat.

So, anyway, going to emergency may involve countless hours of horrible music.

Prepare.

This is why sections like Medical, Health etc need moderators because it is quite dangerous to discuss subjects like this if there aren't any certified physicians on the forum. I feel like the wrong type of advise can lead to a person's demise.

In the meanwhile, I wonder how darthtig is.

I mean, not that it matters.

First off, thanks for asking, but I'm not going to share our moderation methods /decisions/etc. - that's a question for Craven and he's unlikely to answer it. Whatever we say is inevitably misinterpreted, or we make a change of some sort and people only recall the older methods or whatever. This topic is also hardly the place to discuss any sort of official policy.

We have a blog, and a contact link, for such things.

As for the question about the settings, the initial email that users get when they join is pretty short. Why? Because the chances are extraordinarily good that they won't read anything long. The online landscape is changing (it always is). People who join today are highly likely to also be members of Facebook. They are likely to know that there are settings on nearly every website they encounter (although they might not be able to locate those settings readily), and that those settings can be changed.

Now theres an idea...