Community Rules, Etiquette and Privacy Guidelines
Thank you for being part of our OPA Communities (previously known as the OPA Listserv). To ensure the best possible experience for all members, we have established guidelines for participation. Please review these carefully.
By joining and using the OPA Communities, you agree that you have read, understood, and will follow these rules and guidelines. You also agree to reserve discussions, shared files, and content to that best suited to the medium. This is a great platform with which to solicit the consultation of your peers, benefit from their experience, and participate in ongoing conversations, and the guidelines outlined below help to ensure ongoing communication remains supportive and collegial.
Please acquaint yourself with these important guidelines. If you have questions, contact membership@psych.on.ca . By engaging in this community, you agree to follow the OPA guidelines as well as act in accordance with the ethical standards of the CPBAO. In participating in the OPA community platform you agree to take full responsibility for your communication and any consequences that arise from it. In order to preserve an environment that encourages both professional and useful discussions, we reserve the right to limit, restrict, suspend or terminate membership in this community for anyone who violates these rules.
OPA Communities Rules
- Respect others. Focus on the content of posts and not on the people making them. Please extend the benefit of the doubt to one another. There is an expectation that exchanges on the Community will be cordial, respectful, helpful, and collegial.
- All defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials are strictly prohibited. This includes any posts implying or signifying racism or negative statements about groups of people (e.g. antisemitism, racism, sexism, anti 2SLGBTQI+ etc.)
- Advice or feedback given on the Community does not constitute legal advice. When seeking advice, it must be recognized that responses are the personal opinion only of our members. Members are responsible for the decisions they make, regardless of any advice that has been received from colleagues. Users of the Community are expected to consider CPBAO ethical guidelines, check with the CPBAO, and/or with a lawyer before using any advice received on the Community.
- Client confidentiality must be maintained and respected at all times. Specifically, identifying information must be sufficiently masked so that any individual who may know the client would be unable to recognize them from the post. It is important to include only minimal information in an OPA Community post. Interested parties should be asked to contact the sender backchannel for more information, if necessary.
- All posts to the OPA Community are considered to be under the copyright of the poster/author and the OPA. Items written for the OPA Community must not be re-posted or shared in any other form, without securing the expressed permission of the author.
- Respect the purpose of the community.
- Use caution when discussing products. Information posted on the discussion groups and in the libraries is available for all to see, and comments are subject to libel, slander, and antitrust laws.
- Discussions that violate either the Federal or Provincial Competition Act will not be permitted.
- As a communication platform of a not-for-profit organization, the OPA Community cannot be used for electioneering for public office, nor for endorsing a specific candidate or political party.
- Post your message or documents only to the most appropriate OPA Communities. This helps ensure all messages receive the best response by eliminating "noise."
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.
For assistance, contact opa@psych.on.ca or membership@psych.on.ca.
OPA Communities Directory
One benefit of the OPA Communities platform is a directory that allows members to search and connect directly with other members. As members join, they are automatically opted-in to the directory. At any point members may opt-out from being shown in this directory. Please see our FAQ document for the process to opt-out.
Disciplinary Process
- To ensure that the OPA Communities platform remains a professionally relevant and satisfying experience for all our members, anyone violating the rules described will be subjected to a process that involves sanctions and will progressively increase in severity should the actions and behaviours of the member continue. The progressive nature of sanctions is outlined below.
- The Board will appoint a minimum of two Board members or their delegates to review any complaints received regarding posts or violations of the rules of the OPA Communities.
- If a posting is viewed as violating any of the OPA Communities rules, an OPA Board member or delegate will contact the member backchannel by email or telephone to discuss the posting and the reasons for concern.
- Should a second violation occur within 6 months, the member’s status on the OPA Communities will be downgraded to moderated access for a period of up to thirty days. This level of access means that the member will be able to receive messages but permission for him/her to post items will be rescinded and/or any post will be reviewed by OPA prior to being released.
- Should the member try to circumvent this sanction by asking another member to post on his/her behalf, the member will have their access to the OPA Communities restricted on an extended basis
- Should a third violation occur within a one-year period, the member’s access to the OPA Communities will be suspended on an extended or permanent basis.
- Should any breach of the rules be particularly egregious, the above steps may be circumvented, and the member will be suspended immediately from having access to the OPA Communities for an indefinite amount of time or permanently.
- A suspended member may appeal to the Board President, or the Chief Executive Officer for reinstatement following the issuing of a suspension of an indefinite or permanent suspension. The Executive Committee of the Board of Directors will review the posting, the reasons for the sanction and the member’s rationale for re-instatement. The decision of the Executive Committee regarding re-instatement will be final.
Legal
This site is provided as a service for the members of Ontario Psychological Association. Ontario Psychological Association is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on this site by others. We disclaim all warranties with regard to information posted on this site, whether posted by the Ontario Psychological Association or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall the Ontario Psychological Association 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. By posting material, the posting party warrants and represents that he or she owns the copyright with respect to such material or has received permission from the copyright owner. In addition, the posting party grants Ontario Psychological Association and users of this site the nonexclusive right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and use such information or other material.
Messages should not be posted if they encourage or facilitate 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.
The Ontario Psychological Association does not actively monitor the site for inappropriate postings and does not on its own undertake editorial control of postings. However, in the event that any inappropriate posting is brought to the attention of Ontario Psychological Association we will take all appropriate action.
The Ontario Psychological Association reserves the right to terminate access to any user who does not abide by these guidelines.
Privacy Policy
Any personal information you provide to us including and similar to your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address will not be released, sold, or rented to any entities or individuals outside of our organization except as noted below.
With Whom Do We Share the Personal Information We Collect Through This Site:
Our Service Providers
We may share your personal information with companies (including our affiliates) that perform services on our behalf, for example, companies that help process credit card payments. Our service providers are required by contract to protect the confidentiality of the personal information we share with them and to use it only to provide specific services on our behalf.
Business Transfers
Your personal information may be transferred to another entity (either an affiliated entity or an unrelated third party) in connection with a merger, reorganization, dissolution or similar corporate event. If such a transfer were ever to occur, the acquiring entity’s use of your personal information will still be subject to this Privacy Policy.
Government and Legal Disclosures
We may disclose the personal information we collect through this Site, when we, in good faith, believe disclosure is appropriate to comply with the law (or a court order or subpoena); to prevent or investigate a possible crime, such as fraud or identity theft; to enforce our Terms and Conditions or other agreements that govern your use of this Site; or to protect the rights, property or safety of our company, our users, or others.
External Sites
We are not responsible for the content of external internet sites. You are advised to read the privacy policy of external sites before disclosing any personal information.
Cookies
A "cookie" is a small data text file that is placed in your browser and allows us to recognize you each time you visit this site (personalization, etc). Cookies themselves do not contain any personal information, and we do not use cookies to collect personal information. Cookies may also be used by 3rd party content providers such as newsfeeds.
Remember The Risks Whenever You Use The Internet
While we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information that you transmit to us and you are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of any passwords or other account information. In addition, other Internet sites or services that may be accessible through our site have separate data and privacy practices independent of us, and therefore we disclaim any responsibility or liability for their policies or actions. Please contact those vendors and others directly if you have any questions about their privacy policies. For any other information please contact us using the Contact Us page.