Refor(u)m Decorum

Registered users who participate in discussions, document-sharing, and networking on State Refor(u)m should become familiar with these standards for discourse.

General Standards
Our community is professional at all times. Comments or discussion entries that include profanity, racial slurs, personal attacks, or other inappropriate language will be removed from the site, and users will be reminded of our standards.

Users who are not civil in their discourse, or who show a pattern of posting inflammatory or insulting remarks risk being blocked from participation on the site. This behavior often is known as “trolling” in online media communities, and will be prevented, patrolled against, and prohibited on statereforum.org.

Users who excessively employ the site feature that allows registered members to contact other registered members, or who use it to send the type of comments not permitted on State Refor(u)m, also risk being blocked from participation on the site.

Specific Guidelines
Every registrant must use his or her real name when registering. This is a best practice for online communities; it helps keep the discussions smart and civil. Each user may create only one profile with any given email address.

State Refor(u)m is an online resource to assist states as they tackle the implementation challenges and opportunities created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). All site activity, including use of the site's technology for contacting other users, must support these purposes.

Valuable user contributions include:
1. Asking clear and concise “how-to” questions regarding implementation of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
2. Requesting examples of how other states are planning to implement part of the ACA or use the ACA to achieve state policy goals.
3. Providing answers, recommendations for resources, or copies of documents in response to questions like those listed above.
4. Sharing solutions, plans, or innovations that you have used, studied, or analyzed, whether prompted by a question or not.
5. Posting questions, answers, and materials within the relevant topic areas.

Ineffective types of site activity include:
1. Political debate over health care reform in general.
2. Posting musings or rhetorical questions about reform or implementation.
3. Advertising or publicizing products, services or events
* not prompted by a state’s request,
* outside the context of a contracting and procurement discussion, or
* without a clear link to one of State Refor(u)m’s categories or topics.

Commercial, business development, and/or marketing activities may be judged inappropriate for the site, and its poster will meet the consequences enumerated below.

Consequences of misuse of the site
Community managers will both monitor the site and receive users’ reports of violations of State Refor(u)m standards. If you have a problem or a complaint, direct it to statereforum@nashp.org. Site moderators will ensure that the issue will be reviewed and appropriate actions will be taken.

We reserve the right to ban flagrant offenders, with or without prior warning.

Community guideline violations of varying severities will be met with consequences to match. Violations may warrant one or more of the following responses:
1. Warning—You will receive a note from our community managers explaining your infraction, and the offending comment or discussion post may be flagged as inconsistent with our guidelines.
2. Suspension of Account—A user will be able to view but not participate in site discussions or upload documents to the site. The user will still be able to view the site and its discussion.
3. Permanent Ban—Your account will be closed and your email address, first and last names will be placed on our “block” list.

In all cases, State Refor(u)m community managers will retain the final authority on consequences for users who violate these rules.