RealSelf.com Community Guidelines

RealSelf.com a health & beauty community in which real people can share experiences (consumer reviews), provide opinions, and ask questions on a wide range of aesthetics topics.

For doctors who are core aesthetic specialists: get a free profile

Our guidelines

1. The basic rules for all community members and site visitors.

a. All posts must be in English.
b. Excessive typos may result in content being removed.
c. ALL CAPS is not acceptable and may be removed.
d. Content must be posted in the appropriate category. RealSelf reserves the right to re-categorize or remove questions it determines to be categorized incorrectly.
e. Commercial postings are not allowed (see more below “How to waste your time”).  If you wish to discuss a business, service or product line with which you are affiliated, you must make your affiliation(s) known in every related posting. Question, comment, and treatment review posts are intended for non-commercial use only.
f.  Do not include personal contact information in your posts (email address, phone number, IM handle).  This will be removed.  You can connect to another user by joining the site and using our private contact form.
g. Helpful votes - you may add your vote to answer posts ONE TIME ONLY. Voting for the same answer multiple times may cause all of your votes to be removed from RealSelf.com answers.

2. Ask a question… look for link on the bottom of any RealSelf.com page to pose a question.

a. New questions may be edited by RealSelf to improve readability and coherence.
b. Questions that are repeats of existing questions may not get published.
c. Questions that are very similar may get displayed under the existing similar question.
d. Off-topic questions may not get published.
e. Question submission is intended for consumer use only and may not be used for commercial purposes by professional contributors or others.
f.  RealSelf.com reserves the right to remove any content that we determine, at our sole discretion, to be inappropriate and/or in violation of the RealSelf Q&A Guidelines, our Code of Conduct or the RealSelf Terms of Use.

3. Provide an answer… for doctor contributors.

a. Complete this form to register on RealSelf and claim or request a RealSelf professional profile. ONLY ONE USER ACCOUNT AND PROFILE IS ALLOWED PER INDIVIDUAL/EMAIL ADDRESS.  Please note RealSelf.com professional identification policies.
b. Be helpful. Attacks on others are not allowed.
c. Provide original posts and refrain from copying material from commercial sources. Cite your source, if applicable. Plagiarism will not be tolerated.
d. Refrain from duplicate postings; do not post the same content, in whole or in part, in response to more than one question.
e. Refrain from adding URLs or links to posts. Exception: Platinum status participants may add one link to answer posts in the field labeled "Web reference."
f. Refrain from adding unnecessary spaces between paragraphs or at the end of your post(s).
g. Refrain from embedding before and after photos in answer postings.  Small, educational illustrations, such as relevant charts or diagrams, are permitted.
h. Adhere to RealSelf rules for uploading before and after photos.
i. Refrain from postings that include your signature, location, or contact information.
j. Refrain from postings that suggest readers depart RealSelf.com to view content that can be made available, or is already available, on RealSelf.com.
k. Refrain from postings that are overtly promotional.
l. Refrain from suggesting that community members contact you privately as part of a public post; rather, use our contact form to initiate private contact.
m. Posts containing superfluous information or propaganda that does not address the question posed are not allowed.
n.  Refrain from postings that include a disclaimer or legal declaration.
o.  Posts should be in first-person tense; do not refer to yourself in the third person.
p. "Helpful vote" abuse is not allowed.  Examples of "helpful vote" abuse include repeatedly casting "helpful" votes for your own answer submission and arbitrarily casting "not helpful" votes for other participants' answer submissions.
q. Refrain from antagonistic postings, or postings that name other professionals for the purpose of engaging in exclusive argument.
r. Refrain from postings that depreciate, diminish, or disparage the credentials, qualifications, or capabilities of individual or groups of medical specialists who qualify for designation in one or more specialty areas included on RealSelf.com.
s. Refrain from posting treatment reviews, questions or any other content that is intended for non-commercial use by RealSelf community members and site visitors only.
t. A review process, which may include potential removal of a participant's RealSelf profile and posts, will be initiated in the event that three or more geographically non-competitive peers negatively report a participant's posts or behavior on RealSelf.com to the RealSelf Team.
u. Professional contributors may not post content that challenges, conflicts with, or attempts to circumvent RealSelf.com policies, guidelines, or terms of service.
v. RealSelf.com reserves the right to prevent any individual or group from obtaining a provider directory listing, establishing a professional profile, and/or becoming a professional contributor on RealSelf.com at any time, with or without cause.
w. Provider directory listings, professional profiles, and/or content submitted by professional contributors may be removed or revised at any time, with or without cause.  RealSelf.com is under no obligation to provide practitioner listings or host content submitted to the site.  RealSelf.com is a free service (see terms of service).

4. Ways to waste your time. You may not create posts …

a. To exploit, solicit or harm minors.
b. That are violent, racist, incendiary, or otherwise objectionable.
c. That are abusive, threatening, harassing, defamatory, libelous, fraudulent, invasive of another's privacy, or belligerent against any individual or groups of individuals for any reason.
d. That violate federal, state or local law, including but not limited to HIPAA.
e. That contain profane, obscene, vulgar or sexually explicit language.
f. That glorify self-harm, suicide, anorexia, bulimia, or any other practice that is clearly unhealthy or harmful.
g. That are for commercial or advertising purposes, including classified ads and product promotion.
h. To vent your frustrations, rant, make statements, or otherwise violate the spirit of RealSelf.com.
i. To create personal ads or your own or others' personal information.
j. That violate the RealSelf Community Guidelines or the RealSelf Terms of Use in any manner.
k. That are copyrighted. Examples include a company logo.
l. That contain content in fields that aren't intended for that content. Example: Putting a link in a name field or email address as a username.
m. That impersonate any business, person or entity.
n. That contain viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment or venue.
o. For the sole purpose of soliciting business or for the sole purpose of directing commercial activity to a non-RealSelf site.
p. That are similar or identical postings. Multiple identical postings, even if legitimate, may be considered spam.
q. To promote or redirect traffic to third-party sites, post links to sites that force the download of a virus, programs, or other content, in any way interfere or disrupt the RealSelf.com service, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations connected to RealSelf.
r. To upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any content or initiate communications which include information that you do not have the right to disclose or make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as insider information, passwords or proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements).
s. That falsely state, impersonate, or otherwise misrepresent your identity, including but not limited to the use of a pseudonym, or misrepresenting your current or previous positions and qualifications, or your affiliations with a person or entity, past or present
t. That are copyrighted, protected by trade secret or otherwise subject to third party proprietary rights, including privacy and publicity rights, unless you are the owner of such rights or have permission from their rightful owner to post the material.

More information

RealSelf is not a publisher of content supplied by third parties and users of the site. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including information providers and users, are those of the respective author(s) or distributor(s) and not RealSelf.

In many instances, the content available through this Site represents the opinions and judgments of the respective information providers or users. RealSelf does not endorse, and is not responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice or statement made on the site by any third party. These guidelines are to help in making the community a safe and useful place for personal care and wellness information. Your use of RealSelf Q&A is subject to these Community Guidelines and the RealSelf Terms of Use.

RealSelf does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any RealSelf user-generated content.

We reserve the right to remove content that we determine, at our sole discretion, to be inappropriate and/or in violation of the RealSelf Community Guidelines or the RealSelf Terms of Use. Depending on the level of offense, you may risk deactivation of your RealSelf account and consequently everything associated with it.

We reserve the right to modify these guidelines at any time without notification.

***Updates Log***

5/8/09- Item 3m. Answer the question; information unrelated to the question posed may be removed.
5/7/09 - Item 3r. Specialty-focused turf battles, mudslinging, and propagandizing are not allowed on RealSelf.
3/23/09 - Item 3f. Unnecessary spacing between paragraphs and at the end of posts are not allowed.
3/17/09 - Item 3t. A review process will be initiated if three or more peers negatively report a participant's posts or behavior
5/14/08 - Item 3e.  Links/URLs may not be added to posts, except in answer posts belonging to Top Participants.
7/30/08 - Item 1e. Question, comment, and treatment review submission are intended for non-commercial use only.
8/4/08 - Item 3o. Disclaimers and legal declarations may not be included in postings.
10/22/08 - Item 3u.  Professionals may not post content that challenges or conflicts with RealSelf.com policies, guidelines, or terms of service.
11/25/08 - Item 3i. Professionals may not include their signatures, locations, or contact information in posts.
12/2/08 - Item 3g. Professionals may not embed photos in answer posts.
2/9/09 - Item 3p. "Helpful vote" abuse is not allowed.