Group Guidelines - The Rules

 The Rules:

Privacy: This group is a closed group, as such, non-members cannot see anything you post here. It is understood that any personal thoughts/words/conditions posted here and shared here stay within the group, or at the very least are not shared to a member's friends or family that are not in this group. We want to keep this a safe place for our members to share and vent, as most of us do not have any other outlet where people will understand. Thank you for understanding.  See also:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/cornallergy/permalink/10154433716417420/ 

Posts: 

1. Be Polite and Add Value. Please be polite and constructive in your posts. We're not always going to agree, and disagreement is a natural way of life.  
2. Disagreements and even lively discussions are allowed if not encouraged, as it allows people to see all sides of a discussion and differing viewpoints often help people find the right path for them.  
3. No Namecalling or Abusive Speaking: Do not personally attack another member by name calling or being abusive. There is a fine line here between discussing a point, and attacking a person. If your post is found to be crossing the line, it will be removed. If you're repeatedly found to be making disparaging remarks about members or picking fights, you will be removed from the group.  
4. Giving advice. Please feel free to share your experiences. However, it is also expected that you educate yourself about avoiding corn throughout your journey. Persons found to regularly and continuously give out misleading or potentially harmful information or advice will be removed. No one here is a medical professional, unless they proclaim so, so all advice should not be considered professional medical advice, but sharing experiences. Your decisions to take any advice are your own and at your own risk.
5. Lifestyle Choices: It is sad that this rule is even necessary. We're here to support each other on a corn-free journey so please keep your comments along those lines. Statements which condemn someone for their personal lifestyle, religion, diet, vaccine preference outside of "living a corn-free life" are beyond the scope of this group, and will NOT BE TOLERATED. (The discussion on this rule can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cornallergy/permalink/10153888701622420/ Religious preaching or unwarranted religious commentary banned here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cornallergy/permalink/10151379135042420/)
6. Self-Promotion: (See also Links) This group is a support group. It is expected that you add as much if not more than you take. We face a lot of opposition, and this group is a home and a safe place that most of us do not have anywhere else in our lives. As such, our administration tries to protect this space from people seeking to use this group for their own gain. There is a fine line between saying what it is you do or posting a link to a helpful article on your blog and attempting to use this group to gain clients, traffic, business, etc. If you have a question if something is acceptable, please ask the moderator or admin for approval before posting. Those found blatantly crossing the line will be banned with no warning. 
7. Deleting posts: Once a post is made, it takes on a life of it’s own and members devote a lot of time providing educational information to it. If you’d like to delete your post, ask the Admin for approval. Deleting posts does a great disservice to the group as it causes a loss of educational material for other members.  Members found routinely deleting posts and comments will be subject to removal from the group. 
8. Anonymous Post Option: If you would like to make a post “Anonymously”, we do offer that option on a case by case basis.  Message me or any of our moderators with what you’d like to post. The following topics are valid reasons for wanting this service.
• a. The topic would be considered “scandalous” in some circles or emotionally charged such as sexual topics or abuse questions. 
• b. You are in a situation where the post could cause you real legal trouble such as a divorce.
• c. You are in a situation where the post could cause you physical injury due to an abuse situation.
9. Alternative Diets & CoMorbid Conditions: We focus on corn removal and avoidance in this group, as such conversations are to be focused on corn removal and avoidance. Please see pinned posts for further details.
• This includes but is not limited to, vilifying foods that are not corn.

Recommending products:

1. Feel free to recommend any products that work for you.
2. No Corn-Free Claims Allowed. Do not claim them to be 100% corn-free or even just corn-free. Here's a list of possible corn allergens: https://corn-freefoods.blogspot.com/2017/11/corn-allergen-list-corn-derivatives.html also any enriched products are not corn-free as a general rule (Do not claim anything to be corn-free at all). Please try to be as accurate in your product recommendations as possible. Ex: "This product has been a life-saver for me. I’m corn-lite." or "I was looking at this product, does anyone know if this corn-free?" or "I'm corn-moderate and I do fine with this product. Has anyone else tried this?"  All are ok. Please also read the following article on what is sensitivity: http://no-corn.blogspot.com/2011/06/grading-severity-of-your-allergy.html  
3. Company confirmations or claims of corn-free - must be stated clearly that the company is claiming corn-free, but must NOT indicate that the product is actually corn-free, that you are claiming it to be corn-free, or be used as evidence to argue with another person's reactions to that product. Companies are wrong a LOT.
4. Unsafe product recommendations may be removed if it is deemed that the post is misleading or might cause someone harm.
5. Persons who continually post misleading product recommendations that are unsafe, even after being educated about what is safe vs unsafe, will be removed from the group.

Links:

1. Any links posted should:
1. Educate the group or a person in a thread about a specific topic, news, event, or product.
2. Link directly to the original content. Links to copied or reposted content will be removed at the discretion of the group moderator.
3. Include Reason for Posting: Links should be accompanied by some kind of explanation of why you posted the link. Links posted with no reason will be removed at the discretion of the moderator.
2. No Self- Promotion: Links found to be posted for self-promotion or to drive people to your site, will be removed. Person's found continually posting self-promoting links will be removed from the group.
3. Unsafe/Misleading Content: Links to unsafe or misleading information may be removed at the moderator's discretion. In some cases, the links will be replaced with a link to the correct information.
4. Funnies/Memes: We limit the use of these in our main group. If you'd like to share funnies or other fun stuff, please join our Social Club (group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/914208162331962

Files/Documents:

Only approved files/documents will be allowed to remain on the group. This is to ensure that the most important information is available and that this site remains uncluttered.

Messaging Members:

 

1. Yes! Make Friends! - You should only message members directly if you want to get to know them better or join forces with them personally in avoiding corn in your lives. When messaging members from the group, make sure to state where you met them and why you're messaging them individually. 
2. No Taking Health Conversations Off Group: It is against the rules of this group to respond to questions or posts here with “PM me” or to attempt to get people to discuss a post or respond to a post through private messaging.  See also: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cornallergy/permalink/10152928322652420/
3. No Mean Messsaging, Harrassment, or Self-Promotion: Please report to the moderator, Yvonne Young, anyone who messages you from this group who is harassing, messaging you with self-promotion links, or responding to your questions here through personal replies. Copies of the messages may be asked for as proof of the claim, so please do not delete any of these messages until the matter has been resolved. Thank you.
4. Violation of this policy will have you permanently banned. Persons reported and found to have been harassing members or trying to message members individually in order to circumvent the above rules, will be removed/banned from the group.

Moderation: 

1. Report to Admin: If you see a post that needs moderating or that is breaking the rules, please feel free to use "Report to Admin" function. You may also contact Admin Yvonne with a link. 
2. Impersonating a moderator may result in your removal from the group at the moderator's discretion. We encourage members to correct each other and help remind each other of the rules, HOWEVER wording your comments as if you are a moderator or authority of the group when you are not, will get you booted.
3. Do Not Block Any of the Admin/Moderator Team: If you block any of the admins or moderators, you will be removed from the group. If you have a problem with any of the Admin Team, please bring your concerns to Admin Yvonne and it will be addressed. 

Thank you to everyone for their cooperation in making this such a great group. Thank you.

(if you have a rule idea you'd like added to the rules, please contact the forum moderator.)