Links to outside sites: what is FUD's policy?

Recently I posted a link to the FUD forum on a thread that was on TuDiabetes. My link was appropriate to the conversation and totally relevant. It had a bunch of information on the exact topic that was being discussed.

But because the link was to this site, the admins at TuDiabetes removed it and gave me a stern warning. I guess in their mind, sharing information is not the primary goal. Rather keeping members from going to a “rival” site is the primary goal.

So on TuD, I am not allowed to post a link that goes here!

I know that FUD operates with a different mindset. We are all in this together, and sharing information from any site is useful, as long as the information and site are valid.

I wanted to share this, and ask as a direct question:
What is FUD’s official policy on sharing information and links to other sites?


I am summarizing here the policy discussion we all had on outside links. This is FUD’s official policy:

  • With diabetes, knowledge is power, health and a longer life with better outcomes. We will never do ANYTHING that will reduce our members’ opportunities to learn more about how to improve their treatment and better their outcomes. We fundamentally disagree with any policy that would have that result.

  • When discussing issues or facts, we would always like people to cite their sources: the quality of information is often directly related to the quality of the source. There is no better way to cite your sources than by providing a link to them

  • We do not want anyone on the site violating Intellectual Property Rights. Please do NOT copy other people’s material in full. Instead, do the right thing: quote at most small nuggets, cite the source, and provide a link to it

  • Please follow our community guidelines and terms of service. We will be sole judges of their interpretation.

To respond to the very specific case in the OP’s question:

  • There is plenty of excellent information embodied in many existing threads on tuD, DD, CwD and other diabetes forums. When legal, you may quote from other forums but by all means link to your source thread on other diabetes forums.
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Of course, why on earth would we ever want to deprive our members of access to information that might be helpful to them?

When TuD is a relevant source for good information we encourage links to there to be posted here. When any other forum, blog, or website benefits our members, we encourage linking to those sources here… anything else would be a disservice to our membership and to people with diabetes and the DOC in general.

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Any site blocking any other relevant site is just pettiness and speaks volumes about the MOTIVATIONS of the people in charge of the site. I want EVERYONE to learn everything they can, from ALL sources they want, or need to learn from. To deprive this is depriving life in my opinion. Something someone says here may help save someone’s life. Same with info on any other relevant site for diabetes.

It’s shameful and abhorrent behavior.

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I’m just amazed…everyone, regardless of which site/forum/blog/whatever they’re part of, should be able to share information from any other site/forum/blog/whatever as long as it’s not advertising, spamming and is pointing the users to legitimate information that may help other users in their battle with this disease.

It’s very sad.

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Apparently it’s ok to link to diabetesmine over there…

Somewhere in TUD’s policy I am sure it says the following:

“It is okey dokey to link to outside sites, as long as the site you are linking to isn’t frequented by anyone we have ever banned, or thought about banning” In cases like these, “NO LINKS FOR YOU!!”

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I believe it’s in the TOS

Lol someone should post reply that the supreme courts recent decisions could open the door to international insulin shopping more readily and lower costs etc and link to here… will they expose their hypocrisy by deleting follow up links in a thread that was started entirely by a link to another forum? What a quandary…

It would have to be somebody that either is too big to be banned or too small to care about being banned.

ha ha ha

I know there is resentment about tuD. I understand that, given our history – I would not have been a part of this great adventure if I did not. But I would also like to make the point that tuD has helped many people with diabetes, and has made a very positive difference to the DOC. Looking back at our differences can do no good – let’s look at our commonalities. I think that it would be best for all of us to put this behind us and look ahead.

We can all serve the diabetes community in some different ways. I think that FUD and tuD together provide a great offering to the DOC. tuD is better suited to more conservative PWDs, who feel like they need a closed community and protection from outside internet “dangers.” We are more suited to people who are looking to be UNLIMITED by diabetes, come what may, who want every information they can get about diabetes, and who want to make a difference in their own fight against diabetes and in the diabetes community’s fight.

The right fight is the one against diabetes! So let’s focus on that :slight_smile:

Is this a political statement? No Republicans allowed…is that what you’re saying? Or just not faaaaaaaar right conservatives?

j/k - I get what you mean. :smiley:

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I agree… so I’ll start-- we both allow relevant links to other websites for the benefit of our members.

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

Ha, just kidding!

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I had a brief conversation with someone from the other site who implied that not all links are the same and links to some sites are allowed whereas others are not and it’s not as if admin there is comparing apples to apples… so apparently when comparing this site to other “apples” this site must be a “bad apple” I guess is what the implication was… which is a very unfortunate and childish perspective

Sounds exactly as it appeared to be.