Information contained in this website is intended by ObesityHelp, Inc. to provide an understanding and knowledge of health care topics. The information should never be used in place of medical advice from your physician or other health care provider.

If you think you may have a medical emergency, call 911 or contact your doctor immediately. You should never disregard medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read here. Suicidal posts will be taken seriously and action may be taken to assist the member.

You agree that you will not use ObesityHelp.com to post any material which is knowingly false or defamatory, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, threatening, libelous, invasive of another member's privacy, or is otherwise in violation of any federal or state laws.

Linking to other sites

Users agree that the use of the message board and chat rooms is a privilege and not a right.  You agree by posting that you will not link to or otherwise engage in any action to entice or pull others from this community.  Links and references to websites that are similar to ObesityHelp are considered violations of our Terms of Service and will be removed.  The repeated use of such links and references by a member will be cause for an account to be placed on moderation.  Use of our PM system to spam or contact members for the purpose of promoting another site may result in a member’s PM access to be deactivated.  Deactivation of a member’s PM access is at the discretion of ObesityHelp.

Examples of acceptable use of personal linking include: links to your personal website, your personal blog, or your personal page that contains educational resource material.  All links must not require the user to ‘join or register’ to access the information being linked to.  Any forum, blog, or other website that requires membership or registration to gain access is expressly forbidden to be linked to/from ObesityHelp message boards and chat rooms.

Linking to educational, news, or published material.

Members may desire to support the community by sharing (linking) to educational, news, or other published content on the internet.  Such link sharing should only occur for the purpose of support.  Any commercial misuse or attempts to repetitively post the URL will be considered a breach of the Terms of Service and the account will be placed on moderation.

Screen Names

Members cannot impersonate another person, including an ObesityHelp staff member.  Use of screen (display) names for the purpose to bash, defame, impersonate, or otherwise cause harm to a person or entity will be deemed cause for immediate moderation of your account.  Member accounts with an avatar or screen (display) names that are in violation of this Terms of Services will be placed on moderation and notified.

Posting or responding to a message in a way clearly intended to incite anger, useless arguments or rants, or for launching personal attacks and insults, being hateful, giving useless criticism, name calling and using profanity is cause for immediate moderation.  ObesityHelp reserves the right to edit posts that may violate the terms of service herein.  Moderation of an account, post removal and thread removal decisions are at the sole discretion of ObesityHelp.

Posts made by a member with a new account are held for staff review due to spamming issues.  New accounts are approved and able to post without the new member holding period 48 hours after creation.  Members placed on moderation are able to post but will experience a time delay (up to 48 hours) to allow for staff to review all posts made.

Use of this free service, which is open to public registration, is done so as a privilege and not as a guaranteed right.  The purpose of our public message boards are for the exchange of support, education and information appropriate for the consumption and use of message boards.  Any posts made that are outside the purpose of ObesityHelp will be deleted and/or moved as deemed by ObesityHelp.  All decisions regarding moderation and removal of posts are at the discretion of ObesityHelp.  The original poster has the right to request the entire thread they started be removed, within a reasonable amount of time.

By posting in our forums, message boards and chat rooms, you understand that information may be used in publications (written or electronic).  If your information is used in print, we will attempt in all ways possible not to disclose any personal information and make edits to not disclose this information.

Posts that you freely publish on the forums of ObesityHelp may remain, even if your profile is removed, and its removal is at the discretion of the management.  If a member elects to delete posts made, complete deletion of the post must be made.

Copyrighted material can be posted only if written permission has been received from the source. Permission must be e-mailed to [email protected] when copyright is an issue. Members are allowed to post direct links to article.

Unsolicited advertising or other forms of solicitation, including but not limited to monetary donations for personal profit, are not allowed. Advertising and solicitation using any and all of ObesityHelp's systems (message boards, blogs, PM system, comments and replies to any type of post or PM) are not allowed and will be considered violations of our Terms of Service.  Members who are affiliates/referrers for a company may not advertise or push a product or company on the message boards or in their signature lines. Members found to be receiving financial gain or kickbacks for this type of advertising may be removed for abuse of the system. Paid Advertisers and ObesityHelp Advisory Board members are allowed to post a simple link to their advertised website. For details on how to become an advertiser with ObesityHelp, e-mail [email protected].

Any use by you of any other subscriber's information, personal or otherwise, for any commercial or non-commercial purpose or to obtain direct financial gain (e.g. mass marketing) is prohibited. Any such use shall be deemed to be a violation of these Terms of Service

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Obesityhelp, Inc., directors, employees, and vendors from and against all losses, expenses, damages and cost, including reasonable attorneys' fees, resulting from any violation of this agreement or any activity related to your account or any other person accessing the website using your account.

All research papers, articles, media, contests and surveys must be pre-approved by our PR department. To get approval email to [email protected] or call 866-957-4636 ext 353.  When contacting via e-mail, include in detail what you are doing with materials.  All material must be reviewed and approved first.  Any of the above not pre-approved will be removed from the message boards.

ObesityHelp recognizes that there are cases where sponsored events deserve and require our support. Members are allowed to post about a local event or support group.  The message can be re-posted, we ask that messages are not posted several times a day.  In posting the information on the message board, it must direct members to an OH Group for further information or contact them through the private messaging system.  A link for more information can be placed in the member's signature line.

Due to the increase in requests for sticky posts about local events and support groups we are unable to sticky post these requests in our forums but this can be done in individually owned OH Groups .

Recognizing that adults may wish to discuss matters that are sexually explicit, we have created adult-only forums/chat rooms. Adults who wish to engage in these discussions may go to the following forums: Sex Before & After WLS Forum and/or the WLS Singles Forum.

ObesityHelp is not responsible for the information that is provided by our members within their profiles or on the site message boards. Please realize that ObesityHelp is an open forum that is searchable. If a profile is removed or edited per a staff member's request, search engines such as Google and Yahoo keep archived (i.e. "Cached") files which may still display the removed or edited content. ObesityHelp has no control over these archived documents, and they must be removed by the search engine provider. ObesityHelp will not be responsible for any member information contained on any third party websites or search engines. Members must contact those companies directly if they want the material to be removed.

The Terms of Service apply to member profiles, personal blogs and any other member-submitted content on the Web site. Any inappropriate links or content, per the Terms of Service, can be removed with or without warning from ObesityHelp staff. Members who violate the Terms of Service by posting inappropriate content are eligible for termination of their account. Members are free to post photos within their profiles, but photos must be with clothing. Additionally, it is suggested you request permission of any other person in the photo posted. If we are notified that a photo has been posted without the consent of all individuals pictured, the photo will be removed. Photos posted on ObesityHelp cannot be copied, duplicated or used by anyone other than the person who posted the photograph. Any photos containing nudity (i.e. plastic surgery photos) must be within a password protected area on another site, or private areas must be properly blurred or covered. Any sexually explicit photos will not be allowed.

Please note that when you post in public forums, on message boards and in chat rooms, all or parts of your posts are subject to being copied or reprinted by other community members. ObesityHelp reserves the right to use online posts or chats or parts thereof for use in online or printed material. ObesityHelp will not use the posters full name or online identity without prior written permission.

You agree, through your use of this service, not to impersonate any other person or entity, whether actual or fictitious. However if an account is made for the purpose to harass another member, get around moderation or cause problems on the message boards, the account will be removed immediately without warning. Banned members found creating additional accounts will be banned. If caught in conjunction with your main account, your main account will be put in jeopardy. Members will be warned and any continuation their main account will be removed.

ObesityHelp provides a private messaging system for the member's convenience. Members are encouraged to communicate with each other through our private messaging system. If you are harassed or receive an unsolicited advertisement through the ObesityHelp private messaging system, please forward the complete message to [email protected].