Terms and rules

The basic ground rules for discussions on our forum are simple: be polite, use common sense, don't break the law and don't post any message that even hints at advertising.

We take the "Be Polite" rule VERY seriously! We consider it our "First Rule". We do not tolerate ANY rudeness, profane or offensive language whatsoever. Any member who is intentionally unpleasant or disruptive may be suspended or banned.

In light of our policy of encouraging candid, open exchanges of views and the rapid distribution of information originating from many sources, EMTLIFE.com can not determine the accuracy of information that may be uploaded to the forum. Opinions, advice and all other information expressed by participants in discussions are those of the author. You rely on such information at your own risk. Participants are urged to seek professional advice for specific, individual situations and not rely solely on advice or opinions given in the discussions.

We don't intend to censor messages based on the opinions expressed within posts, but we will enforce the policies outlined here. We reserve the right to remove, modify or move posts at our discretion and without explanation. If a thread or post of yours gets deleted by one of our Community Leaders, it means it was deleted for a violation of the rules - do not repost it.

It is the participant's responsibility to check the Community Rules often. These rules may be changed at any time without notice.

If you have any questions regarding the site or forum you can contact the Community Leadership team by clicking on "Contact Us" found at the bottom of every page.

Please make sure that you are familiar with each of our rules.

• Each member is allowed one login account. Registering with multiple accounts is not allowed.
• While registering, each member will provide us with an accurate date of birth.
• Accounts created solely for trolling our community will be banned permanently and without warning.
• You agree that you will not use this site to post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise in violation of any law. We have the ability to remove objectionable content and we will make every effort to do so, within a reasonable time frame, if we determine that removal is necessary.
• You agree not to post any copyrighted material unless the copyright is owned by you or by this site. We abide by the Fair Use Principle concerning posting copyrighted information that is owned by somebody else. (See Fair Use Principle below.)
• While we promote debating and discussion, we will not tolerate rudeness, defamatory or insulting posts, personal attacks or purposeless inflammatory posts. Our decision in these matters will be final. As a reminder, violations of this rule will result in one of the following: Warning, 15 day ban, 30 day ban, 90 day ban, 365 day ban, or a permanent ban.
• We reserve the right to close, remove or edit posts without notice.
• EMTLIFE.com is a forum that is dedicated to EMS. As such, there may be material (such as photos and videos) that are of a graphic nature and may offend some members or readers. Our policy is that all graphic images must be hosted off-site, and a link will be placed in the post. The post MUST have a graphic image warning so that participants may decide if they want to view the material. The Community Leaders will edit any post that does not meet this requirement by removing the picture AND the link to the picture from the post. The common sense rule of thumb that you can use is the PG-13 rating. If it exceeds PG-13 then it needs the warning.
• Discussion of illegal activities such as software and music piracy and other intellectual property violations or posts that infringe any patent, trademark, copyright, trade secrets or proprietary right(s) of any party are not allowed.
• We do not allow posts that are sexual in nature or violate EMTLIFE community standards. The Community Leadership team shall be the sole arbitrator of what does and what does not violate community standards.
• Participants may not use the forum for commercial gain. (Please see Advertising Services below.)
• Participants may not use the forum to direct others to any pages which they have commercial interests in; these include commission, affiliate or referral hyperlinks. Indirect links, such as tinyurls, goo.gl, ow.ly, etc. used in this manner is also prohibited.
• Participants may not create duplicate threads (cross posting) or direct others to threads they have started.
• Participants may not impersonate, or attempt to impersonate EMTLIFE.com staff or Community Leaders.
• Participants may not bump threads. Bumping can refer to posting useless information, making corrections or updates in a new post, posting one-liners or any other action to deliberately keep a thread hot or to bring it to the top of Recent or Today's Posts. Community Leaders will use their discretion, depending on the nature of the post, as to whether to take action or not.
• Participants may not add spaces, dots, substitute characters or by any other means attempt to defeat the word censors. This includes URLs.
• Participants may not use ALL CAPS or AlTeRnAtInG CaPs in thread titles, posts, or signatures.
• Participants are not to post any testing questions or answers from the NREMT or any other licensing or testing agency.
• Participants may not post email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers, other screennames or any other methods of contact. Such information should be set up in your profile, or communicated to another member via the Private Message (PM) or Email feature.

EMTLIFE.com allows members who have met certain criteria to post signatures in their profiles. These signatures are then shown on every post a member makes, throughout the forum. As such, the following are the criteria for members wishing to use signatures in their profile:

• A member must have over 10 posts to be allowed to use the signature feature.
• Signatures are limited to four lines (when viewed at 1024x768 resolution).
• Signatures may not contain links to other websites. The EMTLIFE Leadership Team may allow links in signatures on a case by case basis. Our decision in these matters is final, and not subject to debate or appeal.
• Colored font is allowed as long as it's not disruptive.
• Images including smilies are not allowed.
• ALL CAPS or AlTeRnAtInG CaPs are not allowed.
• Signatures may not contain wording that violates any of our forum rules or be political in nature. This includes both real-world politics and the politics within the EMTLIFE community.

For the purposes of this forum, advertising is defined as promoting ANY product/website/forum/service/blog/etc... that is not directly part of EMTLIFE.com. Advertising in any way is restricted until you have 10 non-advertising related posts. This gives our participants a chance to get to know you first.

We do not allow participants to post threads in the general forum or send private messages or emails to users here that advertise or solicit any products or services. Explicit advertising in usernames, signatures, avatars and profile photos is also prohibited. All advertising must be placed in the appropriate forums. The Community Leaders have the responsibility for determining what is advertising, and their decision is final.

To ensure the safety of everyone, EMTLIFE participants are not allowed to provide or seek medical advice via the forum, private message, or via EMTLIFE's email feature. Information contained on or made available through EMTLIFE is not intended to and does not constitute medical advice or recommendations of any kind. Participants seeking medical advice or treatment should contact their physician or local emergency services.

From time to time it might be necessary to quote someone, a website or an online article. To comply with common Fair Use policies we ask that you provide the following information any time you are referencing one of the above:

• The title of the source your are referencing
• No more than three paragraphs of the quoted material; (never quote the entire article)
• A hyperlink back to the source
• If you cannot provide a hyperlink back to the source (for example, in such cases of a document, magazine or newspaper) please provide:
  • The name of the publication
  • Author
  • Date published
  • Page number of source

Information contained on or made available through EMTLIFE forums is not intended to and does not constitute legal advice, recommendations, mediation or counselling of any kind under any circumstance and no attorney-client relationship is formed. Do not act on or rely on any information from EMTLIFE Message Boards without consulting with a licensed attorney.

EMTLIFE does not control the information delivered to the forums, and has no obligation to monitor their content. However, EMTLIFE reserves the right at all times to disclose any information as necessary to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, or to edit, refuse to post or to remove any information or materials, in whole or in part, for any reason whatsoever, at its sole discretion.

The forums are public and not private communications, and therefore others may read the communications and posts of any user without his knowledge. EMTLIFE recommends you should always use caution when giving out any personally identifying information about yourself in any posting or message. Generally, any communication that posted in the forum, including profiles, is considered to be non-confidential.

Any participant who feels any content of the forum is objectionable is encouraged to contact us immediately by contacting the EMTLIFE Team through the Contact Us section found at the bottom of every page. You may also report a rules violation via the reporting button located in every post and private message. We have the ability to remove objectionable content and we will make every effort to do so, within a reasonable time frame, if we determine that removal is necessary.