Mission, Vision, and Values

What if I’m struggling?

We are a community and we support each other; your first stop is posting in Support so that others can help easily. If necessary, you can also contact @moderators privately or via moderators@ehealthforum.nz

How do I get started?

The welcome post is a great starting place (you must be logged in to read it in full):

Our How To guides (this is one of them) can take you through stuff in more detail.

For a more interactive experience, try the eHealth Forum Chatbot Tutorials.

To learn more about basics about our software platform (Discourse):

Is there an app for the eHealth Forum?

Absolutely!! But maybe not in the way you expect.

Discourse is a progressive web application (PWA) that runs smoothly as either an app or a webpage. This is a cutting edge technology which allows it to run on virtually any device with a single codebase - i.e. very cool! Once you’ve opened it on your device, it should prompt you to install it.

Detailed instructions here:

This is a Civilized Place for Public Discussion

Please treat this discussion forum with the same respect you would a public park. We, too, are a shared community resource — a place to share skills, knowledge and interests through ongoing conversation.

These are not hard and fast rules. They are guidelines to aid the human judgment of our community and keep this a kind, friendly place for civilized public discourse.

Improve the Discussion

Help us make this a great place for discussion by always adding something positive to the discussion, however small. If you are not sure your post adds to the conversation, think over what you want to say and try again later.

One way to improve the discussion is by discovering ones that are already happening. Spend time browsing the topics here before replying or starting your own, and you’ll have a better chance of meeting others who share your interests.

The topics discussed here matter to us, and we want you to act as if they matter to you, too. Be respectful of the topics and the people discussing them, even if you disagree with some of what is being said.

Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree

You may wish to respond by disagreeing. That’s fine. But remember to criticize ideas, not people. Please avoid:

• Name-calling
• Ad hominem attacks
• Responding to a post’s tone instead of its actual content
• Knee-jerk contradiction

Instead, provide thoughtful insights that improve the conversation.

Your Participation Counts

The conversations we have here set the tone for every new arrival. Help us influence the future of this community by choosing to engage in discussions that make this forum an interesting place to be — and avoiding those that do not.

Discourse provides tools that enable the community to collectively identify the best (and worst) contributions: bookmarks, likes, flags, replies, edits, watching, muting and so forth. Use these tools to improve your own experience, and everyone else’s, too.

Let’s leave our community better than we found it.

If You See a Problem, Flag It

Moderators (@moderators) have special authority; they are responsible for this Forum. But so are you. With your help, moderators can be community facilitators, not just janitors or police.

When you see bad behavior, don’t reply. Replying encourages bad behavior by acknowledging it, consumes your energy, and wastes everyone’s time. Just flag it. If enough flags accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by moderator intervention.

In order to maintain our community, moderators reserve the right to remove any content and any user account for any reason at any time. Except in some special cases, moderators do not preview new posts; the moderators and site operators take no responsibility for any content posted by the community.

Always Be Civil

Nothing sabotages a healthy conversation like rudeness:

• Be civil. Don’t post anything that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or hate speech.
• Keep it clean. Don’t post anything obscene or sexually explicit.
• Respect each other. Don’t harass or grief anyone, impersonate people, or expose their private information.
• Respect our forum. Don’t post spam or otherwise vandalize the forum.

These are not concrete terms with precise definitions — avoid even the appearance of any of these things. If you’re unsure, ask yourself how you would feel if your post was featured on the front page of a major news site.

This is a public forum, and search engines index these discussions. Keep the language, links, and images safe for family and friends.

Keep It Tidy

Make the effort to put things in the right place, so that we can spend more time discussing and less cleaning up. So:

• Don’t start a topic in the wrong category; please read the category definitions.
• Don’t cross-post the same thing in multiple topics.
• Don’t post no-content replies.
• Don’t divert a topic by changing it midstream.
• Don’t sign your posts — every post has your profile information attached to it.

Rather than posting “+1” or “Agreed”, use the Like button. Rather than taking an existing topic in a radically different direction, use Reply as a Linked Topic.

Post Only Your Own Stuff

You may not post anything digital that belongs to someone else without permission. You may not post descriptions of, links to, or methods for stealing someone’s intellectual property (software, video, audio, images), or for breaking any other law.

Powered by You

This site is operated by your friendly local moderators and you, the community. If you have any further questions about how things should work here, open a new topic in Support and let’s discuss! If there’s a critical or urgent issue that can’t be handled by a meta topic or flag, contact the @moderators.

Who can see my posts?

There are varying degrees of visibility within the eHealth Forum:

1. Fully Visible Categories. These are exposed to the internet, and this is clearly indicated. Only members can post or reply, and they are tightly moderated.

2. Normal Categories. These are invisible to the wider internet, but all eHealth Forum members can see them and interact freely with them.

3. Restricted Categories. These are marked by a , and are only viewable by specific groups. If you aren’t a member of the right Group, you won’t even know they exist.

4. Personal Messages. These can be for two or more individuals or a Group. They are only visible to those specifically added to them. @admins can access these if needed.

5. Chat. These are private ephemeral messages designed for synchronous (at the same time) communications. They are highly private, but can be "Quoted or converted to Personal Messages or Topics if they need to persist.

Is my personal information secure?

We collect this information in order to facilitate communication within and between groups. Only what is necessary is displayed to other members.

Your data remains within the eHealth Forum and will not be shared with any third party without your explicit consent. The one exception is that our user database is shared with HiNZ to ensure that membership privileges are distributed appropriately.

If you wish to leave the eHealth Forum, your account can be deleted completely.

Is my communication secure?

A secure connection is used for all data transfer (you will see a lock next to the browser address bar), and the site uses current best practice encryption technologies. Accounts are password protected, with multifactor authentication enforced for @admins accounts.

Of course, nothing is perfect. For example, a registered user may forget to log out with their computer left open with other people wandering past. People can choose to be sent email updates, and email is only as secure as the recipient’s email setup. As such it is best to treat this forum as ‘grand rounds’ level security - you can have frank discussions but you will not know every colleague present and should not identify patients (for example) by name without their express permission.

Are there any commercial interests at play?

The eHealth Forum has been created by health informaticians who are either working pro bono or utilising employer time. They will not benefit financially from its success and have minimal conflicts of interest.

Health Informatics New Zealand (HiNZ) has empowered the eHealth Forum with administrative support and hosting costs from very early in its roots in the UK-based Digital Health Networks. Any sponsorship or advertising revenue associated with the eHealth Forum will be directed to HiNZ.