Guidelines

Celiac.com Terms of Use

Please also read our Privacy Policy.

The Celiac.com Service ("Service")

We agree to provide you with the Celiac.com Service, which includes articles, posts, comments and other content that are available throughout this site, and to provide you with the opportunity to create and share your articles, posts, comments, images, files, etc., and to otherwise freely interact with other Celiac.com members, as long as you agree to these Terms of Use, spelled out below in this agreement.

Celiac.com is committed to providing the most accurate, reliable information about celiac disease, gluten intolerance, and gluten-free issues. All articles are written and edited by Celiac Disease Experts, and must adhere to our Article Submission Guidelines.

Participation Rules and Guidelines for our Service

All posts in Celiac.com's Forum are fully moderated by our Expert Moderation Team and must adhere to the Rules below.  Generally speaking, users who break these rules will get two warnings, and if there is a third rule violation they will be banned from this board. Serious board violations can result in an immediate ban. 

Our users are free to ask questions, and to share any celiac disease and gluten-free information they find helpful. We recommend that you double-check any medical or scientific information you find here with your own doctor before applying it to your own situation.

We are not responsible for the contents of any message. The messages express the views of the author of the message, not necessarily the views of this bulletin board. Any user who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to contact us immediately and/or use the "Report" feature on the post. We have the ability to remove objectionable messages and we will make every effort to do so, within a reasonable time frame, if we determine that removal is necessary. You agree, through your use of this service, that you will not use this bulletin board to post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise in violation of any law. You agree not to post any copyrighted material unless the copyright is owned by you or by this bulletin board.

Celiac.com Rules for All Forum Posts, Blogs, & Article Comments (User Generated Content)

• 1) Do not be abusive or otherwise out of line towards other board members. Show respect for each board member, no matter what you think of their views. This is not a place to quarrel.
   
• 2) Do not promote your own business or products, Web site, blog, Facebook, Twitter (or other personal sites) in posts or personal messages--even if they offer free services. The proper place to post personal information is in your profile area here, not in your signature block or in posts. This includes using this board to gather information via surveys, marketing-related questions or other means.
   
• 3) Do not spam the boards (i.e., post the same thing in multiple topics or areas of the board to bring more attention to your post), or bump posts up to bring more attention to them (Wikipedia definition of "bumping": Someone wishing to keep a thread on this first page, or bring an old thread back to it will post a reply to it purely to do this).
   
• 4) No Trolling. Wikipedia definition of trolling: "In Internet terminology, a troll is often someone who comes into an established community such as an online discussion forum, and posts inflammatory, rude, repetitive or offensive messages designed intentionally to annoy or antagonize the existing members or disrupt the flow of discussion, including the personal attack of calling others trolls. Often, trolls assume multiple aliases, or sock puppets."
   
• 5) Any claims you make here should be based on legitimate sources, or be expressed as opinion, experience, or inquiry. You should remain on topic and be consistent with the theme of the forum as a whole.

About Our Moderators: All of our Moderators are volunteers who have a wide variety of backgrounds, work experience and skills, and each has become a "lay expert" on celiac disease, gluten sensitivity, the gluten-free diet, and, of course, bulletin board moderation. Our moderators, however, should not be considered trained medical professionals, and you should always consult with your physician regarding any information found here. Our Moderators visit this board on a daily basis, and review all posts made to ensure that they do not violate our Submission Guidelines.

To become a Moderator you must:

1. Be a "Star Contributor" with over 25 posts here, and;
2. Be nominated by at least one existing board Moderator. The Moderators will then review your posts and vote on whether to approve you as a Moderator. The basis for this vote will be the nominee's adherence and understanding of the board's rules (above), an understanding of celiac disease, gluten sensitivity, and the gluten-free diet, and the nominee's ability to interact well with other forum members.

Authority

Internet users posting comments on this board should not be considered as health professionals.

Complementarity

Comments posted on this board should be designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient/site visitor and his/her existing physician.

Confidentiality

We remind you that everyone can read your posts, and you will have a short time modify your posts. We are not required to remove any posts you make, even if you request that we do so.

Posts

Users who post on this board should do so with the aim of providing true and correct information to the best of their knowledge, and when possible reference the sources of any health/medical claims made.

The Moderators reserve the right to erase, without notification, any comment or post that violate these rules and guidelines.

ARBITRATION NOTICE: YOU AGREE THAT ANY AND ALL DISPUTES ARISING BETWEEN YOU AND CELIAC.COM WILL BE RESOLVED BY BINDING, INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION AND YOU WAIVE YOUR RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT OR CLASS-WIDE ARBITRATION. 

Who Can Use Celiac.com. 

• You must be at least 18 years old.
• We must not have had your account previously disabled for violation of law or any of our policies.
• You must not be a convicted sex offender.

Permissions You Give to Us. With this agreement you grant us permissions needed to provide our services.

We do not claim ownership of the content you write, create, post or share on Celiac.com, but you grant us a perpetual, non-expiring license to use it free of any charges or fees.

When you create, share, post, or upload content that is considered intellectual property (like forum posts and responses, comments, paragraphs, sentences, stories, photos or videos) on or in connection with our Service, you hereby grant to us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of your content (consistent with our privacy policy). Celiac.com will not delete or remove any content that you create, share, post, or upload, except when the content directly identifies you, for example Celiac.com will remove your real name, phone number, email address, street address, photos of you (including your avatar), and change your screen name if you request it. In other words, should you request account or content deletion Celiac.com will anonymize your account and content and remove anything that Celiac.com deems would directly identify you as the content's poster.

Additional Rights Celiac.com Retains

Celiac.com has the right to change your account's username (screen name) if we believe it is appropriate or necessary, for example if it contains vulgarity, includes a company name, infringes on someone's intellectual property rights, or impersonates another user.

We retain all intellectual property rights to all content that we provide and allow you to share on our Service, for example Celiac.com's stock avatars, emoticons, background images, and other images.

You need prior written permission from Celiac.com to use its intellectual property and trademarks or similar marks for any reason.

Rights Under this Agreement.

No rights in this agreement are granted to any third parties. Your rights and obligations under this agreement are not transferable without our written consent.

Celiac.com's rights and obligations under this agreement can be assigned to others, for example if another company should purchase Celiac.com in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, or by law.

Who Is Responsible if Something Happens.

Celiac.com's Service is provided "AS IS" and unpredictable, negative issues may arise with your use of our Service. TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, CELIAC.COM DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

Celiac.com has no control over what you or others who use our Service say or do here, and we cannot be held responsible for anyone's actions or conduct, including your actions or conduct, whether online here or offline, or for any content that might be unlawful or objectionable. We are not responsible for services or products that may be offered by other people or companies, including third party advertisers who support our site, even if you access them through our Service.

Celiac.com's responsibility for anything that arises by your use of our Service ("liability") is limited as much as allowed by law. Celiac.com cannot predict all of the possible negative impacts that could occur by your use of our Service, but you agree that Celiac.com will not be held responsible ("liable") for any lost profits, income, money, revenues, information, or data, or consequential, special, indirect, exemplary, punitive, or incidental damages arising out of or related to this agreement, even if we know such losses are possible. This includes if we should delete your content, information, or account. The aggregate liability arising out of or relating to this agreement will not exceed the greater of $100 or the amount you have paid us in the past twelve months.

Should we request it, you agree to defend, indemnify and hold Celiac.com harmless from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses, including without limitation, reasonable attorney's fees and costs, arising out of or in any way connected with this agreement or your use of our Service. You agree to cooperate with as required by Celiac.com in the defense of any claim. We reserve the right to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter subject to indemnification by you, and you will not in any event settle any claim without our prior written consent.

Dispute Resolution.

With exceptions noted below you agree that any legal action, legal claim, or legal dispute arising between us that is related to this agreement (“claims”) shall be resolved by arbitration on an individual basis, and that class actions or class arbitrations shall not be permitted, and you may only bring a claim on your behalf and you cannot seek a claim involving other Celiac.com users. If a determination is made by a judge or arbitrator that a particular claim or request for particular relief cannot be arbitrated according to this provision's limitations, then only that claim or relief request may be brought in court. All other claims and requests for relief shall remain subject to this agreement.

Either party in this agreement may bring claims in your local “small claims” court, if their rules so allow, but if you do not bring your claims in small claims court, or if you or we appeal a small claims court judgment to a higher court, then the claims must be resolved by binding, individual arbitration which will be administered by the The American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules. You and we expressly waive a trial by jury. Any issues that related to the scope and enforceability of this arbitration provision, which is governed by the Federal Arbitration Act, are for a court to decide.

You may opt out of this arbitration provision within 30 days of the date that you agreed to these terms by sending your name, residence address, username, email address or phone number you use for your Celiac.com account, and a clear statement that you want to opt out of this arbitration agreement, to: Celiac.com ATTN: Celiac.com Arbitration Opt-out, 122 Calistoga Road, #222, Santa Rosa, CA 95409.

You agree to notify us in writing before you commence any arbitration of a claim by providing us with a written Notice of Dispute that includes your name, residence address, username, email address or phone number you use for your Celiac.com account, a detailed description of the dispute, and the relief you seek. Any Notice of Dispute you send to us should be mailed to Celiac.com, ATTN: Celiac.com Arbitration Filing, 122 Calistoga Road, #222, Santa Rosa, CA 95409.

Before we commence arbitration, we will send you a Notice of Dispute to the email address you use with your Celiac.com account, or other appropriate means. If we are unable to resolve a dispute within thirty (30) days after the Notice of Dispute is received, you or we may commence arbitration.

All costs and fees associated with arbitration shall be determined in accordance with the arbitration provider's rules, including rules regarding frivolous or improper claims.

For any claim that is not resolved in small claims court or arbitrated you agree that the venue for resolution will be exclusively in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California or a state court located in Sonoma County.  You also agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of either of these courts for the purpose of litigating any such claim.

The laws of the State of California, to the extent they are not preempted by or are inconsistent with federal law, will govern this agreement and any claim related to them, without regard to conflict of law provisions.