Vertical Sleeve Talk was created as a place for people with a common goal to come together, seek advice and offer support to one another. It is a place where we want everyone to feel safe to ask questions, seek advice and gain support without the fear of being judged or ridiculed. In keeping that in mind, I would like to remind everyone of a few of our key rules:

• We take the "Be Polite" rule very seriously. We do not tolerate any rudeness. Any member who is intentionally unpleasant or disruptive may be banned without warning.
  
• Members will treat each other with courtesy and respect, especially when they disagree. We understand that bright, intelligent and educated people may not always agree, but personal attacks in the form of insults, abusive language or other means of obvious harassment will not be tolerated.
  
• Do not attack, mock or otherwise insult others. You can respectfully disagree with the message or topic, but you cannot attack the messenger. This includes attacks against the user's spelling or command of written English, or belittling a user for posting a duplicate topic.
  
• No hi-jacking topics. Please stay on-topic with a forum topic. Off-topic or derogatory remarks are disrespectful. Please either contribute politely and constructively to a topic, or move on without posting.
  
• We reserve the right to respond to violations of these guidelines by blocking and/or banning members from this forum.
  
• Violation of these guidelines may lead to disciplinary action. We reserve the right to delete or lock topics, to disable the posting privileges of any member, or to deny anyone use of our site at anytime, for any reason, at our discretion without warning or notice.
  

Recently, there have been numerous topics created for the sole purpose of insulting, ridiculing and/or criticizing other members. Placing these topics in the Rants and Raves forum does not justify their creation. As stated above, the VST team members goals are to create a safe place for everyone to post. Many members have contacted us regarding their fear of asking questions, stating their concerns publicly, etc. because they are afraid they will see themselves later being mocked in another topic. That is not the environment we wish to create here. It is a violation of the above stated rules. And, in accordance with those rules, the moderators and administrators have agreed that any such threads will immediately be locked and removed. If any member continues to create such threads, they do so at the risk of their continued membership here on our forums.

If you have any concern about a topic that has been locked and/or removed, you are welcome to contact a member of the VST team via private message to discuss those concerns. It is not appropriate to start a topic solely for the purpose of questioning topic closures, disciplinary actions and/or banning of members by the moderators and administrators of this forum. Threads such as those will also be locked and removed. The VST staff work very hard at keeping the forums a happy, safe and productive place for all, and we ask that in turn, you respect them and their decisions.

Thank you.

I'd like to reiterate what Susan just posted. This isn't her personal position. It's one that all the admins/mods and I have agreed on. I hope we can all get along and play nicely together. VST is a source of support and I'll never allow a few to ruin it for many.

I love this website! I have received so much encouragement, support and hope form others. I can sincerely say most of my success so far, has to do with the people on this site. I learned so much from their mistakes, success stories and knowledge. When I am down, they offer me love and the kick in the touche that is needed.

But I also see the ones that will belittle you for asking a question that they deemed you should've have the answer to. Gratefully they are only a few of them! I usually stay away from them.

To all the "senior" sleevers that always take the time to answer every silly, misspelled, stupid question, thank you:)

THANK YOU SUSAN

Ah - thank you Susan (glad to have you back) and Alex for all you do. Admit I might be brisk at times although I am not outright rude, but neither will I back down. Wrong is wrong. Sorry, I see things as black and white. 1+1=2 no matter how you argue.

Wish we could remove those posts that present misleading information or false statements meant to promote a particular surgeon or surgery center. Sad to me that sometime posts are turned into advertising. Yes, I have seen Alex post where he has gently repremanded someone for breaking the rules. Nice to know this site is not a free for all outrageous posts.

On the whole, each VST member does have great experience on VST. The support we provide each other is 99.9% positive. Thank you for this forum