ML for MDs Slack Community Guidelines

Welcome to ML for MDs

Thank you for joining our community! We’re happy you’re here.

ML for MDs is a place to talk, learn, discuss, and share. To make our discussion more organized, we need to follow community guidelines.

Please respect that ML for MDs is for physicians and physicians-in-training only. If you do not fit that description, please contact machinelearningformds@gmail.com and we are happy to help you connect with our community of talented physicians.

Code of conduct

Be respectful and remember that there’s a human on the other side of the screen. We do not have our own code of conduct, but we follow the Python Software Foundation one. Please read the “Inappropriate Behavior” section.

Some examples of inappropriate behavior:

  • Judging the question or the person asking the question (“this is a stupid questions and everyone who can read docs knows the answer”)
  • Soliciting any kind of personal information (such as marital status, sexual orientation, phone number, address, etc)
  • Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease

To check the list of all the available channels, use this: https://slack.com/intl/en-de/help/articles/205239967-Join-a-channel

Taking part in discussions

Thread best practices:

  • Don’t break your question into multiple messages. Put everything in one.
  • For long questions, write a few sentences in the first message, and put the rest in a thread.
  • If there’s a code snippet (more than 5 lines of code), put it inside the thread.
  • Avoid using the “also send to channel” feature unless it’s really necessary.
  • If your question contains multiple questions, make sure to break them into multiple messages, so each could be answered in a separate thread.

Some other tips:

  • If you want to start a discussion, don’t just share a link and expect others to jump in. Share your thoughts and have a clear question in your message.
    • “Any thoughts on this?” is not a clear question.
  • Be concise in your questions if possible. Not everyone likes to read a lot of text.
  • Don’t delete your question after you received an answer. It will also help others who might have a similar problem.

Promotion

Promoting your work is welcome — for both companies and individuals. We use the #plugs-and-promos channel for that

Don’t use other channels for promoting your work. They will be removed without a warning and repeated violations will result in a ban.

Surveys, product discovery and feedback on your product

Messages that ask the community for feedback on your product are considered promotional as well and should be posted in #plugs-and-promos

Examples:

  • We’re conducting a survey to better understand how people use ____.
  • We’d like to show you our product and get some feedback from you.
  • We’re working on ____ and would like to talk to X specialty physicians to understand better their problems.
  • We’re working on a tool to do ____ and we’re wondering if it’s useful.

User and product research questions are also considered promotional.

Rules for vendors

If you represent a company, indicate your affiliation if you suggest using your services when answering questions.

Unsolicited promotions

We do not welcome unsolicited promotional messages in DM. Violating it will result in a ban. Instead, use the #plugs-and-promos channel, and if somebody is interested in your product or service, they will reach out to you

Note that promoting yourself and your services is also a promotion. For example, mass-sending your CVs in DMs is also considered unsolicited promotion, and the same rules apply.

Non-relevant promotions

The promotional content must be relevant for the community. It should be related to AI and/or healthcare. If it’s not relevant, don’t post it.

Examples of content not relevant for this community:

  • COVID surveys for $5
  • Coupon codes for lawn mowers or pizzas
  • Photoshop alternatives
  • Databases with contact information
  • Tools for sales
  • Wellness apps

Such messages will be removed without a warning

Confidentiality

The posts in HTN are not considered confidential, and some of the content may be collated and distributed to a wider audience.

Special thanks to DataTalks for their excellent community guidelines template

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