Notes about Ostomyland…

This page contains notes about the Webmaster’s aims and principals for Ostomyland, as well and our services here. This includes our Mission Statement, Disclaimer, Funding and Advertising, Privacy Policies, Editorial Justifiability, Medical Information Accuracy and finally, website dedications.

Mission Statement: (HON Code Required Declaration)

Our mission at Ostomyland is simple – to raise awareness of ostomy issues and news, also to facilitate the offering of peer-to-peer (ostomate/carer to ostomate/carer) non-medical ostomy support from the ostomate/carer’s point of view. The intended audience is all ostomates, their relatives, carers, partners and friends.

Disclaimer: (HON Code Required Declaration)

This website is absolutely not a substitute for medical advice. If you are feeling ill, or worried about your stoma you should be seeking medical advice immediately instead of viewing this website.

If your medical team should disagree with any of the information on this site then you should always take their advice over this website’s as they have your medical records to hand, they know you as a patient and can help you in a much more personal, professional and immediate way than we ever can.

I, as the author of the lifestlye guide pages (and as the webmaster of this site) am just a patient who happens to have a Colostomy in 1996 (since in my early 20′s).  I have no medical qualifications, and have never studied medicine. Therefore anything written on this site is taken from my own personal experience.

Likewise, the members of the messageboard are to be presumed to also be solely patients, with no medical qualifications or medical studies behind them.

Therefore, absolutely everything on this site should first be checked with your own medical team before acting on it.

By using this site and any of its features you are agreeing to the facts above.

At all times, we are acting in good faith, and are doing our best to offer the most accurate, and complete Online Ostomy Community experience on the World Wide Web.

Jason_D June 2010
A.K.A. Trekkie Monster on the Ostomyland message board. And “Jason_D” in the Ostomyland Chat Room.

Funding and Advertising (HON Code Required Declaration)

A) Ostomyland is funded by the webmaster, with the exceptions of any donations made towards the hosting costs made from visitors whom wish to contribute to the site’s costs. The google ads on the site provide a nominal income towards the sites running costs which is immediately ploughed back into the site’s “running costs pot”.
B) Ostomyland is not funded or endorsed or sponsored by any ostomy company so you can rely on us to always be unbias towards our readers requirements.
C) Ostomyland is only resposible for content hosted on it’s own ostomyland.com/org domain names, we are not linked or supported by or connected with any of the companies or services featured within our Google Ads, or within our manufacturers pages.
D) All members of the Ostomyland Team (Senior Admins, Moderators and Chat Room Ops) are volunteers who freely give their time to help out the website, community and her members. None of the team are paid for their time, and none of the team pay Ostomyland to gain their editorial/adminstation/Moderating positions.
E) All advertising on this site is clearly marked with the word “Advertising” either above, below, or next to it’s position on the website. For example, please see the Google adverts on the very top of this page. You will see “Advertisements” just above the banner.

Confidentiality & Privacy Policy (HON Code Required Declaration)

Privacy Policy: Ostomyland promises to never sell or exhange or share your private data, email addresses etc, to any third party. Any newsletters sent out are sent to people who have expressed a preference to receive them, and all contain details of how to be removed from any said newsletter.

Confidentiality: Web 2.0 Aspects: Message Board: Here at Ostomyland we use one of the best message board systems available on the net today – Invision Power Board/Blogs/Gallery software. As you’d expect with such a fully featured product the user is able to edit any of their own message board posts/replies, as well as delete any single post or reply they may have made. If replies have been made to a post they’ve made then the topic thread will remain behind, but the reader can delete his or her own replies within it. The Ostomyland Team will be delighted to help any member edit or delete their posts if they ask us to.

Confidentiality: Web 2.0 Aspects: Blogs: Here at Ostomyland we offer our users the chance to create their own Ostomy Blog to enable them to document their ostomy journey, and to allow others to read that blog for inspiration. All blogs have the option to be publically available or private, and this option is chosen at the point of blog-creation, and can be changed via the UCP (User Control Panel) on the board at any time after creation. All blogs can be deleted by their authors, and authors also have editorial control over any comments left on their own blog. The Ostomyland Team will be delighted to help any member edit or delete their blog if they ask us to.

Confidentiality: Web 2.0 Aspects: Photo Gallery: Here at Ostomyland we offer our readers the chance to create their own member photo album, and the ability to post photos to it. All albums have the option to be publically available or private, and this option is chosen at the point of album-creation, and can be changed via the UCP (User Control Panel) on the board at any time after creation. All albums and their individual pictures can be deleted by their authors, and authors also have editorial control over any comments left on their own album photos. The Ostomyland Team will be delighted to help any member edit or delete their album if they ask us to.

Editorial Justifiability: (HON Code Required Declaration)

Any medical claims made on Ostomyland will be backed up with a full list of External Links leading to source articles to enable the reader to back up the validity of all the medical-claim based news we post.

About Medical Information Accuracy:

All the information provided on this website is from knowledge that has been aquired over years of research and through personal experience.
If any other source is used to create content on this site, all references will be clearly cited as explain in the Editorial Justifiability section above.

Website Dedication:

This website is dedicated with much love and respect to Mich from NL, Hurkaru/Carl and Alva, both from the USA. All three were members of the Ostomyland team (members who help organise and run the community) which meant they all played large roles in the Ostomyland Community, and especially its Chat Room, where all three were regularly attending “@Ops”. They always were prepared to talk to new visitors/ostomists, to offer them support from a personal angle that they could not get from their Doctors, and as a result they changed many peoples lives for the better.

Their loss has left tears in our eyes but smiles in our hearts, and we all miss our dear friends, Mich_NL, Hurkaru/Carl and Alva.

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