Community Rules & Etiquette and Privacy Guidelines

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

By joining and using this community, you agree that you have read and will follow these rules and guidelines. You also agree to reserve discussions and shared files and content to that best suited to the medium. This is a great medium with which to solicit the advice of your peers, benefit from their experience, and participate in an ongoing conversation. Questions should be directed to the community manager via the Contact Us link on this site.

Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with these important guidelines. In order to preserve an environment that encourages both civil and fruitful dialogue, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate membership in this community for anyone who violates these rules.

The Rules

• This community is for the exclusive use of current University of Alberta faculty, staff and student researchers, hosted and managed by IST Research Computing staff.

• Please ensure all topics, discussions, events and resources are community-related (i.e. research computing topics)

• Official support requests or consultations with IST should be submitted through the IST helpdesk

• Respect others. Focus on the content of posts and not on the people making them. Please extend the benefit of the doubt to newer guests and members; there’s no such thing as a stupid question.

• Respect the purpose of the community. Use the community to share successes, challenges, constructive feedback, questions, and goals instead of products or services that you provide. If you’ve found a product or service helpful, please share your experience with the group in a respectful way.

• This is a private portal that may contain research-specific or procedural discussions related to ongoing, unpublished research. Please respect your fellow members' privacy and right to protect their intellectual property.

• Please respect the privacy rights of research participants (volunteers that have participated in a research study). Their identifiable personal information must not be included in communications while participating on this site.

• Peer mentoring on this site is not a replacement or substitute for the supervisory relationship and responsibilities that an academic faculty member has with their graduate students.  Please respect this relationship. Graduate students should keep this in mind when asking for or acting on advice from community members.

• Use caution when discussing products. Posts in the discussion groups and libraries are 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. 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.

• Respect intellectual property. Post content that you have personally created or have permission to use and have properly attributed to the content creator.

• When posting items in our collaborative environment, please indicate if the item is not available for reuse. It’s also advisable to contact the owner of any material if you would like to reuse it.

• Post your message or documents only to the most appropriate 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.

University Policies and Guidelines

• Privacy Policy
• Information Technology Use and Management Policy
• Employee Code of Conduct
• Code of Student Behaviour
• HRHSE Statement of Ethical Conduct
• University of Alberta Copyright Office
• HRHSE Discrimination and Harassment
• Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity

The Legal Stuff

This site is provided as a service for University of Alberta researchers.  The University of Alberta and IST Research Computing are 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 members, IST Research Computing staff or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall the University of Alberta and IST Research Computing 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 IST Research Computing and users of this site the nonexclusive right and license to display, copy, distribute, transmit, and use such information or other material as it pertains to its use on the Research Computing Network site.

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. Messages that encourage or facilitate 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.

IST Research Computing does not on its own undertake editorial control of postings. In the event that any inappropriate posting is brought to our attention, we will take all appropriate action.

IST Research Computing 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 and email 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. 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 news-feeds.

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.