What should we do?

[Anne Klepacz]

Fordy
Yes, of course this forum is about sharing good and bad experiences. Though I do worry sometimes that most people post when they are having problems, so that anyone newly diagnosed coming to this forum might get the idea that KC is always a pain and hard to deal with which isn't true for many who have mild KC!
Until a few years ago, this forum was hardly moderated at all. This changed when there were some posts with personal attacks on other members which we felt we had to remove. And it changed when a post criticising a named health professional resulted in the KC Group facing possible legal action against the charity. At that point, we obviously talked to a lot of people for advice - informal legal advice, talking to a number of other health related charities which run similar forums, talking to some of the health professionals who have supported us over the years. The advice was that we were vulnerable not only if individual practitioners were criticised on the forum, but also specific clinics or hospitals. We were also told that it was a very grey area. Perhaps that experience has made us over cautious in editing posts. All I can say is that I'm not keen on this charity becoming a legal 'test case' if anyone did choose to sue us for libel or slander. We have very limited resources, and such an action would bankrupt us.
We don't want to stop anyone having a moan, and hopefully getting support from other members - we just need to do it in a way that doesn't point a finger at specific individuals or clinics. I hope this helps to explain why the moderators sometimes take action. With everybody's help, I hope we can keep that to a minimum.
Anne