Please take a moment to review these important rules. Huddle is a great resource through which to solicit the advice of your peers, benefit from their experience, and participate in an ongoing conversation. In order to maintain an environment that encourages both civil and fruitful dialogue, we reserve the right to remove content that violates the following guidelines.
Have questions for AAPA about this site? Please contact us at huddle@aapa.org.
Community rules apply to all facets of the Huddle community, including both public and private posting, profile content, directory usage, etc.
Community Participation Rules
- Use of the self-moderation (“Mark As Inappropriate”) feature on Huddle, when a post was not in violation of community rules, is prohibited.
- Anonymous posts are prohibited. Post content with full transparency using accurate personal information. You may not attempt to impersonate any other party or disguise the source of any information you post.
- All content should be focused on issues of importance to PAs. Many alternative venues exist for other content. Only post content suited to the medium and that add to the body of knowledge.
- Let others have their say. Allow others to have different points of view.
- Repeat posts containing the same or similar information – either within the same thread or across different threads – are not permitted. Please make your points efficiently and consider that repeat posts will appear multiple times in your peers’ inboxes. Posts that do not advance the conversation, are redundant, or that discourage others from sharing differing points of view will be removed.
- Don’t attack or mock others. If you disagree with a point of view, do so respectfully and in a professional way. While heated discussions may ensue, focus on the content of posts and not on the people making them. Continual targeting of a peer with differing views is not permitted. Members may be asked to take a disagreement offline.
- Insensitive Content. AAPA does not allow bigoted, hateful, or offensive content or anything that is vulgar, obscene, profane, libelous, defamatory, in poor taste, or otherwise objectionable. AAPA prohibits content that encourage violence or bullying. Please remember to respect others and their opinions. AAPA encourages open and sincere communication but urges all users to understand that the Site is intended to be a resource for all.
- You must treat others with respect and not make any offensive comments that are connected to race, religion, social class, ethnicity, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation or disability, or use profanity (including implied profanity) or any obscene, indecent, pornographic, sexual or otherwise objectionable language.
- Maintain a professional tone and choose your words carefully. Any language or word choice that would be inappropriate in a professional setting is not permitted.
- Huddle is not intended as a platform for marketing promotion. Avoid posting any promotional or commercial messages on Huddle, including but not limited to websites, articles, channels, publications, and soliciting donations for personal, professional, or political causes. The focus of our community is on discussion, not marketing promotion. Huddle moderators may remove posts for this reason. The posting of job openings is also prohibited.
- Anticompetitive Conduct. Do not engage in conduct or discuss topics that violate or which may be construed as a violation of any applicable antitrust or competition law in any jurisdiction. By using Huddle, you agree not to post messages, blogs, documents, or any information that encourages or facilities, or which may be construed as encouraging or facilitating, an agreement or understanding regarding prices, production, allocation of markets, or any other matter that is competitively sensitive. Such prohibited messages include, but are not limited to:
- Discussions about current or future billing rates, fees, wages or wage level, salaries, bonuses, compensation, or other items related to these topics;
- Discussions about current billing or fee procedures;
- Discussions about standardizing or stabilizing rates, fees, wages, salaries, or compensation;
- Discussions about the billing rates, fees, or wages of a competitor;
- Discussions refusing to deal with anyone because of their prices or fees or because he or she is a non-member;
- Surveys, or postings about conducting surveys, relating to current or future billing rates, fees, wages, compensation, or other economic matters;
- Any other material nonpublic information or confidential information from your employer.
- Learn more.
- Illegal Activities. You may not engage in, promote, condone, or depict activities that violate applicable law in any jurisdiction.
- Respecting Confidential Information and Intellectual Property. Before sharing content on the Site, please be sure you have the right to do so. AAPA does not allow users to post content that violates someone else’s intellectual property or proprietary rights, including copyrights, trademarks, patents, and trade secrets. AAPA also does not allow users to post anything that violates any confidentiality obligation or the privacy or publicity rights of any other person.
- Respect patient privacy. Don’t post any patient personal health information or images without appropriate permissions and ensuring that you are in compliance with HIPAA regulations.
- All surveys must be preapproved by the Huddle moderation team before posting to the Community. Please allow for 2 business days for review. We do not permit surveys that require personally identifiable information (i.e. NPI, NCCPA, SSN…etc.) unless it is IRB approved and you can provide proof of approval. Any surveys requiring this information otherwise will not be posted and asked to remove the identifier before being considered.
- Collegial discussion on legislative and other political actions affecting PA practice are welcome on Huddle. However, moderators will remove posts about politics that have little or no relation to PA practice; please utilize other platforms to discuss these issues.
- Please note carefully all items listed in the Terms of Use, Disclaimers, Copyright Notice and Privacy Policy sections below, particularly regarding the copyright ownership of information posted. Do not post copyrighted information without express permission.
- Remember that AAPA and other participants have the right to reproduce postings made to this site.
- Post your message or documents only to the most appropriate discussion threads, communities or libraries. Do not cross-post or spam several discussion threads, communities or libraries with the same message.
- AAPA is committed to equal employment opportunity and a diverse, inclusive work environment, and respects workers’ rights to discuss working conditions, wages, union-related topics or all activities protected by the National Labor Relations Act.
- Don’t use any area in the community, including individual member profiles in the Member Directory, for mass communications. Use of Huddle for marketing purposes is strictly prohibited.
- AAPA reserves the right to reject any message for any reason.
- AAPA reserves the right to determine other topical areas not identified above as prohibited content.
View the full Code of Conduct.