PACEMAKER CLUB COMMUNITY GUIDELINES

Last Updated July 6 2025

Introduction

Welcome to the Pacemaker Club (the "Platform")! We are thrilled to have you join our supportive community of cardiac pacemaker, implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), and cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) recipients and their supporters (the "Community"). 

Our goal is to make the Platform a safe, welcoming space where members can share their experiences in the Community, seek advice, and offer support. We want members to be able to communicate openly and honestly about their experiences within the Community using whatever medium is best for them (be it written or through photos, videos, music, or otherwise), whether those experiences have been positive or negative and regardless of whether others may agree or disagree. We also recognize, however, that an online platform such as this can create new and additional opportunities for misbehavior and abuse. As such, when we do choose to limit expression on the Platform, we do so with the sole intent of safeguarding the Platform as a safe space for members of the Community to gather and share their experiences in the Community openly and honestly. 

We take our role seriously in making sure that the Platform is free from abuse and remains focused on the experiences and needs of the Community. That is why we developed these Community Guidelines (the "Guidelines") for what is and is not allowed on the Platform. Anything that we, in our sole discretion, believe is in violation of these Guidelines will be dealt with in accordance with the "Responding to Violations" section of these Guidelines.

Our Guidelines can broadly be broken down into three main categories:

- Respect for fellow members;

- Respect for Pacemaker Club; and

- Respect for the Law.

Respect for Fellow Members

As the Platform is meant to be a place for members of the Community to gather and discuss, the most important thing is to remain respectful in all your interactions on the Platform. This does not mean you cannot discuss or disagree with one another, but it does mean you need to do so respectfully while recognizing that everyone's experiences will be different.

When interacting with each other on the Platform, you must ensure that your communications are aligned with the following:

- Respect and Kindness – Treat all members of the Community with respect, kindness, and dignity. Personal attacks, harassment, discriminatory comments, and abusive or offensive comments, whether directed at a specific member of the Community, someone outside the Community, or groups of people, whether Community members or not, will not be tolerated. Remember that everyone using the Platform is navigating their journey with cardiac devices, and empathy and understanding go a long way.

- Privacy and Confidentiality – Respect the personal privacy of other members. Do not share personal information, medical details, or any content that could identify another member without their explicit permission, including doxing or helping others to facilitate doxing (including buying, selling, or compiling doxxes). Keep in mind that while this is a closed Community. Anything you post is visible to all members.

- Accurate Information – When sharing your experiences and advice, ensure that the information you provide is accurate and based on your personal knowledge. Content that is intentionally false or misleading to members of the Community is not permitted on the Platform. Also remember that the Platform is not a substitute for professional medical advice and you should not pretend to be or otherwise give any medical advice to others on the Platform. If someone does give you a medical recommendation, or you are interested in learning more about the medical implications of certain treatments or procedures, contact your healthcare provider. Never make any changes to your treatment plan or act on any medical concerns without first consulting with a healthcare provider.

- Constructive Discussions – Engage in constructive and positive discussions. Disagreements are natural, and allowed, but they should be handled respectfully and with the experiences of others in mind. Avoid inflammatory language and strive to contribute to a supportive atmosphere.

- No Spam or Self-Promotion – The Platform is a place for genuine interaction and support, not for spam or self-promotion. Refrain from posting unsolicited advertisements, links to personal blogs, promotional content, or any similar content that may detract from the open and honest discussions being had. If you have valuable resources or information to share, you may do so, but only in a way that benefits the Community and follows these Guidelines.

- Societal Damage – Do not share, promote, distribute, or otherwise encourage anything that could reasonably cause, whether intentionally or not, any damage to physical infrastructure, injury to others, the obstruction of any one's participation in civic processes, or the endangerment of public health.

- Financial Harms – You are not permitted to use or attempt to use the Platform to promote, coordinate, or execute financial scams of any kind. This includes but is not limited to any intentionally deceptive act taken with the intent to receive an illegal, unethical, or otherwise dishonest financial gain, such as fraudulently generating a profit at the expense of others, facilitating, providing instructions for, and participating in fraud, and any other coordinated effort to defraud businesses, price gouge, forge, money launder, counterfeit, or otherwise.

- Harassment – The promotion, coordination, support of, or engagement in any harassing behaviors is strictly prohibited. This includes anything that may be interpreted to be bullying, sexual harassment, ban or block evasion, and anything else that we may deem harassing in our sole and exclusive discretion.

- Harm and Hate – You must not threaten to harm anyone, use hate speech, or otherwise engage in any conduct that we may deem hateful toward other people or groups of people. This includes direct, indirect, and suggestions of harm or hatred, as well as the use of hate symbols and imagery anywhere on the Platform (including within your profile) and the denial of historical wrongs.

- Safety and Violence – Any conduct that does or attempts to share, distribute, encourage, depict, promote, or normalize any form of violent act, including self-harm, harm to others, vigilantism, and anything else that may or could put the online or physical safety of yourself or others at risk is strictly prohibited. We also prohibit the sharing of anything that depicts gore, excessive violence, and animal harm.

- Extremism – We do not permit or otherwise condone the use of the Platform for the organization, coordination, promotion, or support of any form of extremism, violent or otherwise. This includes anything that may be perceived to be glorifying or promoting violence or the perpetrators of violent acts, promoting conspiracy theories that could encourage or incite violence against others, or encouraging others to participate in any acts of extremism or violence.

- Sexual Conduct, Assault, and Abuse – We will not tolerate any activity on the Platform that does or attempts to solicit, share, distribute, encourage, depict, promote, or normalize any form of sexual conduct, harassment, assault, or abuse, including toward children. This includes content and conduct that sexualizes children and the use of any media to do any of the foregoing, whether real or manipulated.

Respect for Pacemaker Club

In using and accessing the Platform, we also ask that you are respectful of Pacemaker Club and the intent of the Platform. While constructive criticism is allowed, we will not accept direct or repeated attacks that, in our sole discretion, have the potential to negatively impact or otherwise distract or detract from the experiences of others. This also means that you need to keep your communications relevant to the Community.

With that in mind, we expect members to adhere to the following:

- Respect and Kindness – Treat Pacemaker Club and the Platform with respect, kindness, and dignity. Unfounded attacks, harassment of our moderators, and comments that may otherwise be deemed offensive or demeaning to Pacemaker Club will not be tolerated. Remember that this Platform is meant to provide a place for members of the Community to interact freely and unduly attacking the nature and integrity of the Platform will make members of the Community feel uncomfortable, unwilling, and unable to use the Platform to its fullest extent.

- Appropriate Content – Keep your posts relevant to the Community's purpose. Share information, experiences, and questions related to pacemakers, ICDs, and CRTs. Off-topic posts or content that could be considered inappropriate, offensive, or otherwise distracting from the Community will be removed.

- Platform Manipulation – You are not permitted to send unsolicited bulk messages or spam to others. You are also not permitted to facilitate any of the above, including by selling spambots, server “raid” tools, account-creation tools, token generators, CAPTCHA-solving services, or any other tools that could result in unsolicited bulk messages or spam being distributed to others.

- Bots and Inauthentic Interactions – You must not use any self-bots or user-bots, or otherwise engage with the Platform in any inauthentic way. Every account must be associated with a human, not a bot, and you are not permitted to artificially inflate server membership, manipulate engagement metrics, sell artificial engagement services to any other Community members, or otherwise attempt to falsify accounts and interactions on the Platform.

- Enforcement Actions – We will not tolerate any attempt to evade any Platform-level enforcement actions, whether temporary or permanent. This means that if we delete or suspend your account for any reason, you must not create new accounts or use existing accounts or communities after being removed from the Platform for any reason. This also includes recreating any posts that we have deleted or otherwise removed from the Platform, whether you were the original poster or not.

- Security – Any conduct or activity that could damage or compromise the security of an account, network, or system is strictly prohibited. This means that you are not permitted to use any deceptive techniques, including but not limited to phishing, malware, and denial-of-service attacks, that could result in a security compromise.

- Falsified Reporting – You must not submit any false, misleading, or abusive reports or requests to Pacemaker Club or our moderators. We take reports seriously and any account that submits a report that contains untrue information that we reasonably believe is intended to manipulate, humiliate, or distract Pacemaker Club or our moderators will be subject to consequences.

- Your Account – Never sell or purchase any Community member accounts, usernames, or any similar asset on / for the Platform. You are also prohibited from misrepresenting your identity on the Platform in a deceptive or harmful way, such as through creating fake profiles or impersonating or attempting to impersonate any other individual, group, or organization.

- Our Policies – Always make sure you are following these Guidelines, our Terms and Conditions, and any other policies or agreements you enter into with us in respect of your use of the Platform. If you ever have any questions or concerns about these policies and agreements, please contact us at [email protected]. 

Respect for the Law

In addition to respect for each other and Pacemaker Club, both of which do have some legal considerations and ramifications, it is also important that you make sure your communications abide by and do not violate any applicable laws. Although the Platform is accessible in many different countries with different laws and legal systems, we expect all members to acknowledge and agree that the laws governing the Platform and Pacemaker Club, and therefore the interactions of members therewith, are the laws of the State of Florida and the Federal laws of the United States.

Notwithstanding the above, we also require the following:

- Intellectual Property – You must not share or distribute any content that violates anyone's intellectual property or other rights. This includes but is not limited to any images, videos, or other media for which you do not own the copyright.

- Dangerous Goods – Any activity intended to organize, promote, or engage in the selling or facilitation of sales of regulated or potentially dangerous goods, including any medical devices, is strictly prohibited. Please remember that the Platform is for information only and any medical or health advice, including medical devices, should only be acquired from a certified healthcare provider.

- Illegal Activity – No organization, promotion, or engagement in any other illegal activity, including but not limited to human trafficking, sexual solicitation, illegal gambling, and the sale or distribution of controlled substances or other dangerous goods is not permitted. We shall report any activity that we reasonably believe is or could be illegal to the appropriate law enforcement agency.

Responding to Violations

To administer these Guidelines, our team makes best efforts to review the content posted on the Platform and to proactively remove content that does not comply with these Guidelines. We also regularly review and address reports by users, moderators, trusted third-party partners, or where otherwise required by law. In assessing whether there is a violation of the Guidelines, Pacemaker Club will consider several factors that we, in our sole discretion, see fit. 

When we discover or otherwise determine that a violation of these Guidelines has occurred, whether through our own review or a complaint having been submitted to us, we may, in our sole discretion, take any number of different enforcement steps depending on the nature of the violation, or not steps at all. These steps include issuing warnings to the member who posted the content, removing the content, suspending or removing the account which posted the content, and potentially reporting them to law enforcement if and as we deem necessary, and each in our sole and exclusive discretion. We may, in our sole discretion, also consider relevant off-Platform behavior when making assessments for violations of specific Guidelines.

If you encounter any behavior that violates these Guidelines, please report it to [email protected]. We are committed to maintaining a safe and supportive environment and will address issues promptly, however we also reserve the right to determine that there was no violation.

By following these, you help ensure that the Pacemaker Club remains a welcoming and supportive community for all members. Thank you for being a part of our Community, and we look forward to sharing this journey with you!