Violating TOS in the CMU forum

[Doc]

This new forum has come to the VMD Admin's attention because of the large amount of violations of the Terms of Service despite this forum only having been around for the past couple of weeks. I'm sure there are many theories on what caused this, but we really don't care who started what. We are all expected to act professionally and follow the TOS, regardless of the circumstances...and this has not been the case in this forum thus far.

This doesn't mean that users can't ask difficult questions or debate about different aspects of the school, whether positive or negative. In fact, these things are encouraged. However, school bashing, personal insults, flaming, multiple accounts, school officials criticizing their "competition", trolling, etc, will not be tolerated.

I've also seen some users criticize the participation of School Officials lately. Don't you realize that the participation of School Officials on these forums is one of the greatest benefits that VMD provides? They are the ones who provide official information about their respective schools. VMD is the only website that has such a large amount of input from both unofficial sources (students) and official sources (School Officials). There are currently over 60 School Officials who participate on the various forums. Showing them anything other than appreciation for their time, regardless of whether you agree with them or not, or whether you like their school or not, simply wouldn't be prudent. And the ironic thing is that most of the ones making those remarks are the same ones demanding official answers to their questions .

So I'll kindly ask everyone to review your recent posts in this forum for TOS violations, and to examine their posts before submitting them. I'll also ask users to extend the courtesy of professionalism to users and School Officials alike, despite your different points of view. Thanks for your cooperation.

[rlewkowski]

Thank you Doc.
I request all our students to follow the advise, to respect all ValueMD users and not to get involved into any type of school bashing or personal insults.

[atlanticvioxx]

What actually is meant by the term flaming?

[Sree Cheruku]

It's posting deliberately hostile/insulting remarks. A flame war is an emotionally heated exchange of these remarks between two or more individuals, which goes on and on till one or both usually get banned.

[atlanticvioxx]

Originally Posted by Sree Cheruku

It's posting deliberately hostile/insulting remarks. A flame war is an emotionally heated exchange of these remarks between two or more individuals, which goes on and on till one or both usually get banned.

OK: Thanks. Maybe they can go here: http://www.flamechampsnetwork.com/forum/index.php

[seev99]

Hey, I am student here at CMU who transferred from SGU. I just got a message from one of the moderators who was upset and has been historically upset about my optimistic and informative postings about SGU and CMU! Please inform the moderators to similarly follow the Terms of Service as well and to respect the opinions of students who can actually provide information. Most of the "irrelevant" and off-topic comments ae coming from the Moderators, Super Moderators, and Gurus of Moderators. Please allow this forum to help those who are interested in CMU get an accurate picture of what the school and facilities are like. Thanks.

[Sree Cheruku]

Please inform the moderators to similarly follow the Terms of Service as well and to respect the opinions of students who can actually provide information.

As moderators, we simply enforce the rules which keep healthy debates from deteriorating into shouting matches and flame wars. But, as physicians/aspiring physicians, we hold ourselves to a higher standard of ethics and demand the same from all others who choose to enter the profession.

Most of the "irrelevant" and off-topic comments ae coming from the Moderators, Super Moderators, and Gurus of Moderators.

The following comments are neither irrelevant nor off-topic:

1. Academic dishonesty has no place in the medical field - and that includes theft of intellectual property on the CMU website. CMU students and members of the faculty should demand that their administration remove copyrighted content.

2. Intentionally misleading information on this forum must be countered by all members of the ValueMD community, and that includes us moderators. I see a lot of "they made their choice, leave them alone," as though anyone is trying to recruit CMU students. And, what about prospective students? They deserve a balanced assessment of the school and a sober understanding of life (or lack thereof) in medical school.

3. A curriculum that is unique is not necessarily one that works, and for a new school to experiment with such curricula is reckless and does a real disservice to the students. I think we should have a real discussion on this forum on the merits of the type of curriculum that CMU is trying to implement. I've suggested that students include a portrait of their academic life in their videos - and maybe that will spark a discussion. At the very least, naysayers like myself will be better educated about this form of teaching.

4. Having attended a 4-month-old school myself, I know how it feels to have your future intimately linked to that of your school. So, I have more sympathy for seev99's comparisons of CMU to far better places. In fact, if you look through the first 50 threads in the AUA forum, my posts are probably similar to his. (And, I'm going to destroy all evidence of them someday.) My AUA consisted of a refurbished warehouse with a handful of teachers and a library the size of my living room. It wasn't Cornell or SGU, but myself and many of my friends made the most of the situation, studied, passed our classes - and all of us ended up with 90+ on Step 1. In the end, that's all that matters - not folded laundry, Indian food, basketballs, or hot Venezuelan girls.

[stephew]

Originally Posted by seev99

Hey, I am student here at CMU who transferred from SGU. I just got a message from one of the moderators who was upset and has been historically upset about my optimistic and informative postings about SGU and CMU! Please inform the moderators to similarly follow the <a href=http://www.valuemd.com/disclaimer.php><a href=http://www.valuemd.com/disclaimer.php>Terms of Service</a></a> as well and to respect the opinions of students who can actually provide information. Most of the "irrelevant" and off-topic comments ae coming from the Moderators, Super Moderators, and Gurus of Moderators. Please allow this forum to help those who are interested in CMU get an accurate picture of what the school and facilities are like. Thanks.

if you see a post that is in violation of tos, including that of a moderator, feel free to report it. However the arguement that "others do it too" is not a defense for anyone who violates tos. you may "allow this forum to help those interested in cmu..." within the Terms of Service.

[teratos]

Originally Posted by seev99

Hey, I am student here at CMU who transferred from SGU. I just got a message from one of the moderators who was upset and has been historically upset about my optimistic and informative postings about SGU and CMU! Please inform the moderators to similarly follow the Terms of Service as well and to respect the opinions of students who can actually provide information. Most of the "irrelevant" and off-topic comments ae coming from the Moderators, Super Moderators, and Gurus of Moderators. Please allow this forum to help those who are interested in CMU get an accurate picture of what the school and facilities are like. Thanks.

You guys can't truly expect that the cheerleading will go unopposed, can you?? You come out with a very aggressive marketing campaign, multiple posts (rah rah rah) and videos (which really are kinda entertaining), and you are going to get opposition. I, for one, have seen too many schools go under, and too many good people get burned. I am always extremely skeptical of new schools, and you will always find me posting caveats in the fora of new schools. Nothing against you, personally. I firmly believe that students should be steered away from new schools until they have proven themselves. A few years down the road, I will reassess things. You can find my "negative" posts in the fora of St. Christopher's (I was right, there), and AUA ( which is doing pretty well, as far as I can tell). Please don't take offense if I counter what you say with questions, or an opposing view point. I am here to help people make the best decision they possibly can, and at this point in time, I don't see CMU as a good choice. G

[DocRon]

Teratos,

I agree with the majority of everything you say as you are one of the more experienced VMD members. My quick question is, you say that you generally tell students to stay away from new schools until they have a proven themselves, however, how does a school prove themselves without new students? At the start of SGU and Ross, to the start of SJSM and AUA, students were discouraged from attending them because yes, they are riskier than attending US school. When I first started at SJSM I was told by many not to go there because it is a new school, unproven, doesnt have many student, no graduates, and no licensed Physicians. 3.5 years later it has more students, more graduates in residency and licensed Physicians.
Basically, Grace and St. Chris are examples of when Carib schools go wrong. However there are quite a few schools within the last 8 years that show when Carib schools go right. In either case there had to be students who took that chance and felt that their needs could/ would be met at the school they chose. So although CMU is new (with many kinks to straighten out, esp. ECFMG/IMED/WHO etc.), the trailblazers may set the pace for how well this school does in the future. Can't really encourage or discourage prospective students at this point because it is just too early to say much of anything right now... Only time will tell... Do you agree with me?

Sorry for intruding... this forum has gotten a lot of attention and caught mine as well. I also needed to build up my posts (at this rate i will never reach my ultimate goal....to surpass Teratos's post count)...I am gone again... Bye

Ron

P.S. Good Luck to everyone in the Caribbean School System...