1. Help to make this a safe and caring environment

We created the NowWhat community platform to offer all those whose lives have been or are being impacted by prostate cancer – patients, survivors, and their families – a safe environment in which to share their experiences and support each other.

Every member of the community should feel safe and welcome here at all times, and we take very seriously our responsibility to ensure that they do. If we see content or behaviour that compromises the safety or the welfare of our members in any way, we will intervene and take whatever action is necessary.

Ultimately, however, it is you, the members of the NowWhat community who will determine whether our dream of a caring and respectful environment, free of judgment and any kind of pressure, becomes a reality.

We hope that you will find in these guidelines a clear expression of the sort of place we want this to be, of what you should expect to find – and not find – here, and of what you as a member can do to ensure your own safety and the safety of others.  

2. Do not treat NowWhat as a source of medical advice

Before we address the question of what you should and should not send via our messaging system or post in our community discussion forums or in private exchanges with other members via our chat functionality, there is one point on which you should be absolutely clear: the NowWhat platform is not a substitute for professional medical advice, clinical diagnosis or prescribed treatment.

We are convinced of the value to be found in sharing experiences, but the platform is provided for the purposes of information and support. When making decisions about your health, you should not rely on the information on this (or any other) site – whether it is provided by us or by other members of the community – and you should always consult your doctor. Whilst all the information on the site has been reviewed and approved by our medical team of experts, we cannot guarantee the relevance or suitability of any of the information on the site to individual circumstances, or its applicability or permissibility in your country.

In addition we do not endorse or recommend any specific treatments, tests, procedures, products, opinions or other information on the site or linked to from the site.

IF IN ANY DOUBT CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR(S) WHO WILL BE ABLE TO CONSIDER AND ADVISE YOU ON YOUR INDIVIDUAL CIRCUMSTANCES.

3. Do not offer medical advice

For many members of the NowWhat community, prostate cancer will be a new, and quite probably frightening, experience. They will have come here looking for information and support. Many others – be they patients, survivors or supporters – will have joined with the intention of sharing their experiences, of giving something back.

If you fall into the second category, do be generous with your sharing – that is, after all, one of the principles on which the NowWhat community is built. But please, however much you may feel the urge, do not give medical advice to others. Share as little or as much information as you wish about your own experiences with prostate cancer, but do not play the role of doctor (even if you are one).

4. Protect your own privacy

When you join the NowWhat community, you are invited to create a profile and to provide a certain amount of information, some of it extremely private in nature. If you choose not to provide all of the data requested, this is not a problem.  Depending on the information missing, it may simply reduce the efficacy of the matching algorithm if you want to find members of the community with similar experiences, but it won’t prevent you from participating in matching, communicating over our messaging system, the discussion forums or benefiting from the other advantages of the platform. Whatever information you provide, we treat it as highly confidential and protect it accordingly. You decide how little or how much is shared using the controls in the profile page.

The same is not true of the public elements of your profile, or of anything you post on the NowWhat discussion forums – your first name and initial or username is public and anyone with access to the internet can see it, and your posts and replies on forums are visible to all members of the NowWhat community.

We recommend that you never use your full name or e-mail address as your username.

And we recommend that you do not post any personally identifiable information like your name, e-mail or physical address, or phone number anywhere in a discussion forum. We understand that you may make strong connections with other members of the community and want to exchange this information with some of them, but if this is the case you should do so only via private message.

We also urge you to be aware and reflect on your privacy before you decide to post or upload anything to a forum. Remember that, whether or not it is permitted, current or future members of the NowWhat community will have access to your posts and may disclose your information elsewhere without your knowledge or consent.

5. Respect the privacy of those close to you

The NowWhat platform allows the creation of Supporter profiles to allow those who are caring for or close to prostate cancer sufferers to share their experiences and find support from others who are or have been in a similar position. We believe this is one of the great strengths of the NowWhat community.

If you are a Supporter, please remember that you have a duty to respect the privacy of patients, family members and those close to you. If you post information about someone else, you must have that person’s prior consent. Whenever you post anything about that person, ask yourself whether you would feel comfortable if someone else were to post the same information about you – and if in doubt, don’t post.

6. Respect the privacy of every member of the community

We hope that you will build strong relationships with other members of the NowWhat community. Some may share intimate details with you, and it is essential that you respect the confidentiality of anything you learn in private exchanges. Similarly, you may know a member in the real world, or through another online community – please make sure not to post any information that might be used to identify the person (e.g., their name, the names of their spouse or children, etc.) or re-post information from another site (e.g., Facebook) if they have not themselves made this information public on the NowWhat platform.

Please do not share information about community members outside the NowWhat platform – remember that just because they have shared something here, this does not necessarily mean that they would be happy for it to be disclosed elsewhere.

And please do not ask other members for personal or medical information they may not wish to share or discuss.

7. Do not abuse other community members

You and the other members of the NowWhat community have come to the platform to share with and support others. But this does not mean that you will always agree with everyone you exchange with on every subject. Where you do find yourself in disagreement with another community member, please try to respect their differing point of view and avoid personal attacks. Remember that some community members may be under extreme pressure or (dis)tress following diagnosis or during treatment. Exercise compassion and pause for a moment before you reply and ask yourself whether your response brings something constructive to the discussion – and if in doubt, step away for a moment. You may find when you return that it doesn’t seem such a big deal, or that you had simply misunderstood.

We will not tolerate personal attacks, threats, intimidation, harassment, abuse, defamation, or discriminatory behaviour of any kind, and we will intervene swiftly to terminate the account of any member of the community guilty of such conduct.

8. Do not post inappropriate content

We are committed to making the NowWhat community a safe and comfortable place for all our members. We hope that for most members distinguishing between content that is appropriate and content that might be inappropriate is just a question of common sense, but for the sake of clarity we’ve provided a list of prohibited content below.

Your posts and comments in the NowWhat discussion forums must not contain any element that might be considered as: 

• obscene, violent, pornographic, indecent, offensive, or potentially triggering to others in the community
• abusive, libelous, defamatory or which might violate any third party’s legal rights
• disrespectful to any race, origin, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability
• inciting hatred, or encouraging or facilitating anti-social behaviour
• violating any law, encouraging criminal behaviour, or providing instructions for conduct that would constitute a criminal offence under any law
• containing advice or information which, if acted upon, might pose a risk to another person’s safety, security or health or might cause injury, illness or death to any person
• infringing any right of privacy or violating any confidentiality obligations
• breaching any contractual obligation
• negligent, false or misleading
• serving any illegal, immoral or unauthorised purpose

In addition, you must not link to a page or site with content that would violate these prohibitions. And please try to avoid using profanity.

Any content that violates these guidelines, or which is, in our judgment, objectionable or inhibits any other person from enjoying our platform, will be removed immediately. If we feel that the content in question warrants such action, or if you re-post content which we have removed, we may terminate your account.

We want this community to be open to anyone who may benefit from its support, but remember – your presence here is a privilege, not a right, and we will always consider the greater good of the whole community when deciding on the right course of action.

9. Respect copyright, trademarks, and intellectual property

While we hope that the NowWhat platform will become your one-stop shop for all information relating to your prostate cancer and post-cancer journey, you may come across articles or information elsewhere that you think might be of interest to other members of the community. This will bring added richness to the content on the platform, and we heartily encourage it. However, please respect the following guidance on how to share such information.

If you wish to share information, post a short description and explain why you think it is of interest. Do not copy the material in its entirety, or significant extracts from it – rather, post a link to the original, so that other members may visit the source directly. This applies even if you own the material in question or the rights to publish it.

If we think a post violates the copyright of a third party, we will remove it. The accounts of members who repeatedly infringe copyright will be terminated.

You may not post any content that might infringe any trademark or patent, trade secret or other intellectual property right of any party.

NowWhat, nowwhat.health and our logo are trademarks belonging to us. We give no permission for the use of these trademarks and any such use may constitute an infringement of our rights.

10. Refrain from solicitation of any kind

We created the NowWhat discussion forums to allow members to share personal experiences. They are not intended to be used for any commercial purpose, marketing or promotion. This includes promoting a treatment or therapy; a company, product or service; a person or an organisation.

Commercial entities are not permitted to create profiles, and when you use the NowWhat platform, you agree to do so only for your own personal purposes.

All types of solicitation are forbidden, including, but not limited to, spam, political campaigning, asking members for money or seeking to establish romantic connections.

Linking to sources where you have a personal interest or stand to gain is also forbidden – all external links in member posts may be subject to review and to removal if found to contravene this rule.

It is illegal to use the platform to facilitate the exchange or donation of medication.

11. Do not misrepresent yourself or spread misinformation

We firmly believe that true support comes from authentic exchanges and that the success of the NowWhat community depends on the mutual trust between its members. Misrepresenting yourself or posting false or misleading information, however trivial you may think it is, can only diminish that trust.

You must not impersonate or post on behalf of another member of the community or any other person or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person.

You must not create multiple accounts.

Please do not post any content that contains statements or claims that you know not to be true, or which do not reflect honestly your views and experiences.

Medical misinformation can be extremely dangerous and, if acted upon, can pose a risk to health of individuals and communities, resulting in injury, illness, or even death. The accounts of members found to be disseminating false medical information or conspiracy theories will be terminated.

12. Report anything you think doesn’t feel right

Though they are founded in simple common sense, these guidelines may seem heavy, and it is quite possible that you feel that they do not concern you. However, as well as providing a framework for your own behaviour within the NowWhat community, they are also intended to help you understand what you should be able to expect from your fellow community members and recognise what is acceptable and what it not.

If you see a post or a comment by another member which you feel violates any element of these guidelines, you can report it to us by clicking on the “Problem” link below the item in question. The item will then be hidden within your feed, and we will receive a notification. We will endeavour to investigate and take the appropriate action as quickly as possible. Rest assured that the member who posted the item will not be alerted to the fact that they have been reported by another member, and we will never reveal who reported the problem to us.

If you are engaged in a private exchange with another member via our chat functionality and they behave in any way that contravenes either the letter or the spirit of these guidelines, we suggest that you remove that person as a connection, block them and inform us immediately.

13. Do not share accounts or passwords

You may not share your account or password with another person, as this will give them access not only to your profile and the forums in which you participate, but also to any private message exchanges you have engaged in with other members. This may compromise not only the confidentiality of your own information, but the privacy rights of other members. We will not be liable for any consequences suffered by you or by others as a result of someone else using your account, either with or without your knowledge.

NowWhat offers the possibility to create not only Patient accounts but Supporter accounts, thereby allowing family members to share the NowWhat community experience without the need to share the same account.

14. Enforcement of these guidelines

While our objective is for the NowWhat community to be a safe place, free of the inappropriate and prohibited content identified in these guidelines, we have no obligation to screen or monitor content posted by members. As such, the existence of these guidelines does not constitute a guarantee that no inappropriate content exists on the platform.

We strive to apply these guidelines fairly and consistently. The fact that we fail to enforce any aspect of them in certain instances does not mean that we do not have the right to enforce it in other instances.

If you have a complaint or think that we have not applied the guidelines appropriately, please do not create a post to that effect. Instead, please contact us directly.

If you require clarification concerning any aspect of these guidelines, please feel free to contact us.