Community Rules & Etiquette and Privacy Guidelines

Online Community Rules and Etiquette

Thank you for being part of the ASCENT online community. To ensure the best possible experience for all community members, we have established some basic guidelines for participation.

We understand that the world and our members are becoming more social and connecting online. As such we encourage all to participate in our online community. ASCENT hosts several pages on public tools such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and our meeting app along with engagement, our private members’ only social network. All of these platforms are great tools to get the advice of your peers, learn from their experience, and participate in an ongoing conversation. By participating on social platforms that are ASCENT branded, you agree that you have read and will follow these rules and guidelines.

Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with these important guidelines. If you have questions about these guidelines or the tools themselves, contact the ASCENT engagemENT team info@askascent.org. 

In order to preserve a climate that encourages both civil and fruitful dialogue, ASCENT reserves the right to discipline engagemENT users, delete posts or terminate accounts for members who violate these rules.

The Rules

• Don’t attack others. The discussions on the community platforms are meant to stimulate conversation not to create contention. Let others have their say, just as you may.

• Don't post commercial messages. Contact people directly with product and service information if you believe it would help them.

• engagemENT messages should not contain promotional material, special offers, job offers, product announcements, or solicitation for services. ASCENT reserves the right to remove such messages and potentially ban sources of those solicitations.

• Use caution when discussing products. Information posted on any platform is available for all to see, and comments are subject to libel, slander, and antitrust laws.

• All defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials are strictly prohibited and may be removed.

• Send your message only to the most appropriate platforms.

• Do not post anything that you would not want the world to see or that you would not want anyone to know came from you.

• Please note carefully all items listed in the disclaimer and legal rules below, particularly regarding the copyright ownership of information posted to the Community.

• Remember that ASCENT and other participants have the right to reproduce postings.

• Do not use the online community(s) to post information relating to or conduct any private business or commercial activity without the prior written consent of ASCENT (commercial activities include, but are not limited to, posting or transmitting information or other material that could reasonably be construed by ASCENT as constituting promotional announcements, product-related press releases, marketing, advertising, solicitation of business, sale or attempted sale of products or services)

• Do not use the online community(s) to communicate with potential participants in formal research of any kind, or to conduct market research, surveys, or academic studies without prior approval of ASCENT. However, informal questions posted to the communities are encouraged, provided that such questions do not otherwise violate these terms and conditions.
  
  
  

General tips to help you maintain good etiquette when reproducing content:

• Be courteous. Please ask participants for permission to republish their words elsewhere (especially if elsewhere would be a publicly viewable setting).

• When citing engagemENT discussions, please include a link back to the original discussion or to the engagemENT homepage.
  
  
  

Discussion Group Etiquette

• State concisely and clearly the topic of your comments in the subject line. This allows members to respond more appropriately to your posting and makes it easier for members to search the archives by subject.

• Send messages such as "thanks for the information" or "me, too" to individuals, not to the entire list. Do this by using the "Reply to Sender" link in every message.

• Do not send administrative messages, such as “remove me from the list,” to the group. Instead, use the web interface to change your settings or to remove yourself from a list. If you are changing email addresses, you do not need to remove yourself from the list and rejoin under your new email address. Simply change your settings.

 The Legal Stuff

These social media pages, accounts and sites are provided as a service of ASCENT. ASCENT is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on these sites by others. ASCENT disclaims all warranties with regard to information posted on these sites, whether posted by ASCENT or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall ASCENT be liable for any special, indirect, or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data, or profits, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of any information posted on this site.

Do not post any defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials. Do not post any information or other material protected by copyright without the permission of the copyright owner. In addition, by posting material, you grant to ASCENT and the members of this community the nonexclusive, world-wide, transferable right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and use such information or other material in any way and in any medium, including but not limited to print or electronic form.

Content should not be posted if it encourages or facilitates members to arrive at any agreement that either expressly or impliedly leads to price fixing, a boycott of another's business, or other conduct intended to illegally restrict free trade. Content that encourages or facilitates an agreement about the following subjects are inappropriate: prices, discounts, or terms or conditions of sale; salaries; profits, profit margins, or cost data; market shares, sales territories, or markets; allocation of customers or territories; or selection, rejection, or termination of customers or suppliers. ASCENT does not actively monitor these sites for inappropriate postings and does not on its own undertake editorial control of postings. However, if any inappropriate posting is brought to ASCENT's attention, ASCENT will take all appropriate action.