Community Guidelines

Community Guidelines & Etiquette

ASN NutriLink is an inclusive online community. The following guidelines have been established in order to preserve a professional and respectful environment. In summary, we ask that you avoid initiating discussions and interactions that degenerate into needless insults, personal attacks, or attempts to stifle the discussion of others. Not adhering to the following guidelines may result in removal of the offending message(s), moderation of your account, revoking your privileges to use ASN NutriLink or a revocation of your ASN membership.

All comments and opinions expressed on ASN NutriLink are considered to represent the individual and not their affiliated organizations (e.g. their university, place of employment) or the position of ASN.

Security and Professionalism

  1. All participants must behave in a manner that is courteous, professional and respectful. It is encouraged to share differences of opinion; however, it is prohibited to insult, belittle, taunt or otherwise attack another individual.
  2. The following topics are unacceptable to appear in community discussions:
    • Endorsements, promotion or advertising of commercial products (e.g. supplements, meal replacement products, books, educational materials);
    • Inappropriate comments or references with regard to race, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, disability, political ideology or ethnic background;
    • Threatening, abusive, profane or defamatory comments towards individuals or organizations;
    • Denigrating discussions of other professional organizations/gossip;
    • Pornographic or obscene materials.
  3. Recruitment for jobs, internships and other positions of employment without a prior posting on the ASN job board, or ASN approval, is prohibited. The ASN jobs board is located at
  4. Please refrain from posts that are likely to generate heated political disagreements. Policy-related discussions should be based upon research and not refer to underlying political opinion. Politically minded topics need not be avoided altogether; however, the question should be framed in a specific way that provokes critical thought without placing blame.

Good question: “How will a reduced budget for [Organization A] affect the quality and quantity of research they produce in the upcoming year?”

Poor question: “[Organization A] was in the middle of producing groundbreaking research, so why did the government cut its funding?”

  1. Ensure that you own or have permission to disseminate the resources or information that you intend to share with the community.
  2. Every discussion post is equipped with a “Mark as Inappropriate” button. If a certain post appears that you believe does not adhere to these rules, please use this button and it will be placed into the moderation queue.
  3. Uploading unauthorized files (e.g. copyrighted journal articles) or asking for copyrighted journal articles is prohibited.
  4. Screenshotting and reposting ASN NutriLink discussions or resources on other sites is prohibited. ASN NutriLink is a safe space – let’s keep it that way.
  5. Participants must not post spam messages or include any attachments that may contain viruses or virus warnings.
  6. Contact for specific complaint:

Community Etiquette

  1. Please use the “Reply to Discussion” button when responding to a post so that your message is shared with the rest of the community. If your intended comment would only have value to the sender (eg. “Me too,” “I agree,” or a message of a personal nature) you may hit the “Reply to Sender” button.
  2. While lighthearted posts are encouraged, the tone of written messages can often be ambiguous and subject to misinterpretation. Users should carefully consider the language they use in posts in order to ensure the intended message is conveyed. Should you choose to use sarcasm, satire and/or irony, it should be clear and in no way mock the views of any individuals or organizations.
  3. Before you create an original post, make sure that your topic has not already been addressed in a previous discussion. Use the search bar on the homepage to find previous posts containing key words.