Community Guidelines

Using this site
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Community Guidelines

The Sue Ryder Online Bereavement Community provides support to anybody over the age of 18 who is caring for someone at the end of their life and to anybody in need of bereavement support. This is your community. To help keep it an inclusive and safe place for support and discussion, we expect that all of our users will agree to and follow these guidelines, as well as our terms and conditions.

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We ask you to:

We will:

We ask you to:

Be supportive

Many people using the community are going through difficult times. Please be supportive and understanding and welcome new joiners.

It’s always a good idea to re-read what you write before you post – and if you’re unsure about how something may be received, it’s often best not to post it. We are always available to offer help here where needed and you can get in touch by emailing us at online.community@sueryder.org.

We don’t approve posts before they go live. This is why we ask that you take responsibility for your own postings, and to help us by reporting anything you don’t think should be here.

Keep it friendly

We are a diverse community and we ask everyone to be respectful. Please don’t post any content that treats anyone unfairly because of their sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, race, physical or mental health, religion, disability, marital status, family circumstance or age; or anything that is threatening, obscene or offensive. As this is a community for over 18s, it is okay to swear. However, please do not swear at other members or use terms that people find offensive. Please don’t use violent or threatening language, or make threats of violence towards someone.

It is fine to disagree with someone, but do so respectfully and concentrate on disagreeing with the opinion without attacking the person who posted it. We will remove posts which we deem as personal attacks, and will take action against users who repeatedly break our guidelines.

Don’t give medical advice

This could be quite a dangerous thing to do without knowing someone’s medical history, and we need to look after you and your loved ones. Contacting your GP, Doctor or NHS 111 is the best course of action. Remember you should always talk to a healthcare professional before acting on anything you read online that could impact your or someone else’s health. In an emergency, call 999.

There’s a lot of questionable advice about health out there on the internet. We’ll always respect your opinion, but we will remove any posts or links that are shared relating to information we deem to be unsafe. We have a responsibility to look after everyone who uses our community and take this very seriously.

Be mindful of your privacy

The community is public and it’s not necessary to become a member in order to read posts. Please be careful with your personal information and be mindful of sharing information or photos that may identify you.

  • Don’t use your email address as your username and do not post your contact details on the community (we will remove them) - and of course please do not share anyone else’s personal information.

  • The community guidelines apply to photo and videos as well as written posts. Offensive or distressing photos or videos may be removed, as will photos that have identifying information (eg a photo of a child with an identifiable school uniform). Please make sure you have permission to use any photos and videos that you post.

  • Think about your safety if you ever arrange to meet people you have met on any online community. If you are doing this, always tell someone else about your plans.

  • Staying anonymous is the best way to protect your privacy. We will remove things that could identify you, such as details of where you live, contact information, social media profiles etc. It is however okay for you to use a photo of yourself or your loved one as your profile image if you are comfortable doing so.

  • It’s also okay to share contact information through private messaging. However, if you receive unsolicited messages asking for your details, or feel under pressure from another user to provide them, please flag the message to us or contact us at online.community@sueryder.org

Report posts which break these guidelines

If you come across a post that you feel infringes our guidelines please do not respond to the post - often people who post offensive material are looking for a reaction. Use the ‘flag’ button at the bottom of any post to privately alert the moderators. The moderators will then review the post and take appropriate action if it breaks the community guidelines. Your help reporting posts can make this community even more helpful to everyone who wants to use it.

We will:

Be here for you

We have a team of moderators who ensure that the community is a safe and friendly place to get the support you need. The community is normally moderated:

  • 9am-5pm and 8-10pm Mondays to Fridays

  • 8am-10am and 8pm-10pm on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays

We endeavor to help out as quickly as we possibly can. Any posts that we feel are inappropriate will be removed and we will always contact users with an explanation should we need to do this. Anybody who spams the community with either sales, unrelated or offensive materials will be banned from the community – however we will always see this as a last resort and will give notice where possible.

We will base all moderation decisions on these community guidelines, and terms and conditions and will always do our best to apply these fairly to all users. Sue Ryder will make the final decision on whether a post breaks the guidelines and we reserve the right to remove or edit any post that we feel is inappropriate for the site. If you disagree with any of our decisions, you can contact us to discuss this, and your feedback will be escalated if necessary.

Always be fair

We will always do our best to moderate according to the guidelines and apply them to everyone fairly. There might be times when we have to remove posts from the community, but we’ll always do our best to explain why. Sometimes it might be necessary for us to stop people from using this community if they persistently disregard for our guidelines. We’ll only do this as a last resort but will act in the best interests of everyone who uses this site, and Sue Ryder as a charity.

Keep the community and our members safe

In order to safeguard our users, all mentions of intention to die by suicide, assisted suicide or self-harm, or methods of suicide will be removed from the community. Expressions of thoughts and feelings about these issues are allowed.

If you are worried about another member of the Community, please report their post or contact us at online.community@sueryder.org. It is not your responsibility to offer counselling, so please don’t take on more than what you can cope with. We take any messages like this very seriously and will offer members guidance to appropriate support and advice.

If we are concerned that you are at immediate risk of harming yourself or others, or if we feel a child is at risk, then we may have to contact the emergency services. You can find out more about this in our terms and conditions.

Protect your privacy

We encourage users to keep communications within the community because we have staff and moderators who work to keep the community safe and supportive. We’re unable to moderate anything outside of this platform. This means that when communication is taken offline, or outside of the community, we can no longer keep you and our members safe.

Please remember this is a public community. Never, ever post personal details anywhere online - even in private messages. Please report anything you think is suspicious. For more information about being safe online, check out GetSafeOnline.org. If you post personal or identifying information on the community, we will remove it and get in touch to explain why.

If you need help getting around

Check out our guide to how to use the community here.

Get in touch

Our Community Manager likes a chat and is here to help you use this community or answer any questions you might have. We’re also always happy to listen to suggestions on how to make this community even better. Remember, it’s your community, and your input is invaluable. You can contact our Community Manager and moderation team by emailing online.community@sueryder.org.