Code of Conduct

Thank you for being part of the NACS community. The Rules and Etiquette (“Rules”) apply to the social platforms offered by NACS, including the web site located at http://thehub.nacs.org/Home/, and function to provide guidelines that participants in any NACS branded community, including The Hub, must follow. Please review these Rules carefully before proceeding, as they constitute a binding agreement between you and NACS.

The world and our members are becoming more social and connecting online. As such we encourage all to participate in our online community. NACS also maintains a presence on public tools such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube, along with The Hub, our private 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 NACS branded, such as The Hub, you agree that you have read and will follow these Rules.

Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with these important Rules. If you have questions about these Rules or the tools themselves, contact the NACS Education staff by e-mailing education@nacs.org. Questions about NACS programs, services, resources, and membership may be directed to NACS Member Services at (800) 622-7498 or e-mail membership@nacs.org.

In order to preserve a climate that encourages both civil and fruitful dialogue, NACS reserves the right to 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 unless explicitly permitted by a particular community. Please know that NACS has the right to remove any content that it believes creates a false impression of its endorsement (whether implied or specific) of any product or service. Contact people directly with product and service information if you believe it would be helpful to them.

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

• You may not use any services provided by NACS, including The Hub, to post, display, send or otherwise make available or use, any material protected by intellectual property laws unless you own or control all necessary rights to such material or have received approval.

• You may not attempt to harm, disrupt, or otherwise engage in activity that impairs The Hub community, or any other service or web site provided by NACS.

• You may not post any content that is fraudulent, false, misleading, or deceptive.

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

• 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.

• You may not misrepresent your identity or impersonate any person.

• You may not use The Hub community or any platform or communications made available by NACS to send or otherwise make available any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, corrupted files, or any other similar software that may damage the operation of any computer. You also may not take any action or assist in any process that undermines or affects any service offered by NACS.

• You may not use The Hub, or any services offered by NACS, to harvest or otherwise collect information about others, including personal information, data that may be anonymized, and e-mail addresses.

• You may not attempt to gain access to any account, computers or networks related to or used in connection with any services offered by NACS, including The Hub, without authorization, or otherwise tamper with any aspect of NACS’ services or use any robot, spider, data mining tool, web tool, engine, software, device, or mechanism to access data provided by NACS.

• Please note carefully all items listed in the disclaimer and legal terms below, particularly regarding the copyright ownership of information posted to any NACS branded community, including The Hub.

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

• Post your message or documents only to the most appropriate lists or libraries. Do not spam several lists or libraries with the same message. All messages must add to the body of knowledge. We reserve the right to reject any message for any reason.

NACS has the right to make all judgments concerning any of the above prohibitions in its sole, exclusive, and complete discretion. NACS reserves the right, also in its sole discretion, to determine whether and what action to take in response to any violation or potential violation of these Rules, and any action or inaction in a particular instance shall not dictate or limit our response to a future complaint or situation.

Community Etiquette

• Transparency is very important in gaining trust in online relationships, therefore be clear who you are and who you work for when posting on any platform. Include a signature tag on all messages that provides your name, affiliation or location.

• 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.

• Include only the relevant portions of the original message in your reply. Delete any header information, and put your response before the original posting.

• Only send a message to the entire list when it contains information that everyone can benefit from.

• 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 to the left of every message.

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

• Warn other list subscribers of lengthy messages either in the subject line or at the beginning of the message body with a line that says "Long Message."

Right to Monitor and Terminate Access

Although NACS cannot and does not monitor all content and activity on its web sites, it has the right, but not the obligation, to monitor the content and activity on The Hub, and on any other NACS web site, to determine compliance with these Rules and any other operating terms, guidelines, or policies that we may establish from time to time. NACS has the right, but not the obligation, to remove or to require users to remove any content that NACS, in its sole discretion, deems to be (a) inconsistent with its strategic mission, vision, and/or the Rules; and/or (b) possibly in violation of applicable law. NACS also has the right to terminate or block the access of any user who violates these Rules, or any terms, guidelines, or policy posted or explained on any web site owned or operated by NACS.

In addition, NACS has the right, in its sole, exclusive, and complete discretion, to remove any content if it has reason to believe that posting, displaying, or otherwise using such content may infringe the intellectual property rights of a third party, subject us to expense or liability, or injure and/or impair our reputation and/or goodwill. See The Hub's Copyright Policy.

Notwithstanding NACS’ right to monitor, remove, and terminate the access of any user, all users of NACS’ web sites, including The Hub, shall remain at all times solely responsible for any content that they post. You hereby acknowledge and agree that NACS is not liable for any action or inaction with respect to any conduct on any of its web sites or with respect to any communications, or postings, or transactions made on, in connection with any web site or service offered by NACS.

NACS also reserves the right to disclose any information that it believes may be necessary to satisfy any law, regulation or governmental request, or to refuse to post or to remove any information or materials, in whole or in part.

In the event that you become aware of content that you deem to be objectionable or in violation of these Rules, please e-mail us at education@nacs.org.

The Legal Stuff

These social media pages, accounts, and sites are provided as a service of NACS. NACS is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on these sites by others. NACS PROVIDES THE CONTENT AND SERVICES “AS IS,” “WITH ALL FAULTS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” AND THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO SATISFACTORY QUALITY, PERFORMANCE, ACCURACY, AND EFFORT LIES WITH YOU. NACS disclaims all warranties with regard to information posted on any web site offered by it, including The Hub, whether such content was posted by NACS or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall NACS 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 any of its platforms, including The Hub community.

Do not post any defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials. Do not post any information or other material protected by intellectual property laws, including trademark and copyright laws, without the permission of the owner of the material. In addition, by posting material, you grant to NACS and the members of The Hub 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.

You agree to indemnify NACS and its respective officers, directors, employees, agents, licensors, representatives, and third party providers, from and against all losses, expenses, damages and costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, resulting from any violation of these Rules by you, or any use or misuse of the sites for which you may be responsible.

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. NACS does not actively monitor these sites 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 NACS' attention, NACS will take all appropriate action.

Right to Modify and Change

NACS reserves the right, in its sole, exclusive, and complete discretion, to change, modify, or otherwise amend these Rules, or any of their portions or provisions, at any time. You can always find the most recent version of these Rules posted on the applicable web site, with the date of last modification noted at the bottom of the document. Such modifications shall become effective immediately upon the posting thereof. Therefore, we encourage you to check the date of the Rules on a regular basis. If you do not agree to the revised Rules, your sole recourse is to immediately stop all use of The Hub, or the applicable web site or service offered by NACS. Your continued use of The Hub, or the applicable web site or service offered by NACS, following the posting of modifications will constitute your acceptance of such revised Rules.

The global Terms of Use for the NACS web site is located here: http://www.nacs.org/terms.aspx. This Terms of Use document also applies to The Hub and all users should familiarize themselves with this additional document.

The Hub also has a privacy policy.

 

© NACS March 2012