Re: List Etiquette_WAS_ List behavior

Michele,

While I don't know you personally, I do know that you are a long time list contributor and I certainly am not jumping on your back. I agree that you can open yourself up to problems in the very ways that you have described and you are absolutely correct on that account. There is legal precedent for the very type of defamation lawsuit related to what a person said or posted on the Internet. I appreciate your sharing your personal experience here with us. Thank you...that's what Flightmed is for and I feel that it helps to make my original point even more clear.

What happened to you is why my original posting on this subject stated the importance of back-channel communications. Occasionally, there are participants on the list that find it hard to restrain themselves and they think that they can write whatever they want about anyone or anything anonymously. I was reminding everyone that Flightmed is hardly a triple-encrypted secret email forum and that anyone can find out who we are and where we are from if they invest a little time. Leaving a person's name or their program affiliation off of their postings are hardly a shelter...everything on the Internet leaves a trail and you can be found! There are a few experts (I'm not one of them!) on this subject that are subscribers to this very list that can back my assertion.

I may have misunderstood what you were saying about wanting to hear it all. By what you say below, that doesn't seem to be the case, at least on the public side and if you notice, I said nothing derogatory about any of the monitors that my program evaluated. It is true that ANY piece of equipment will have its good and bad points and we selected the one that best met our specific needs after an long trial period.

Again, I have no bias towards or financial stake in any company and If someone out there thinks they have a case for slander, defamation, or libel in any of my list contributions, bring it on.... I speak for myself and I am nobody's fool...

What I am saying is that if you can't say anything nice or neutral on a topic and you are without documented facts, you are ill-advised to say it on an open forum like Flightmed....Take it to the private side...

Now I'm gonna see if I can fit that 7200 into the EC135....I have my hammer and a saw. I didn't have a long enough extension cord for the Merlin!

Take care!

Manuel Torres RN, BSN

Site Coordinator

STAT MedEvac 4

Pittsburgh, PA

----- Original Message -----

From: Michele Moore

To: flightmed@flightweb.com

Sent: Tuesday, November 05, 2002 3:06 PM

Subject: Re: List Etiquette_WAS_ List behavior

Manuel

Any negative comment you make on this forum about any product can get you into a legal situation.

I mean professionally stated, Did not work well for me, in sweet language etc.

If you make a very nice statement, and include your program in your e-mail may find your supervisor with a vendor calling and threatening to sue, your program, hospital etc. because you said something negative, and because of that they might not get a sale. The damage would be any sales they lost.

I have been a part of the flightmed discussion for quite a few years...My program is not a secret. Its just that sometimes you should leave off the program name, and clarify any statement as your opinion only. I have nothing but respect for the fine engineers who build our products and the companies that try to sell us our products. But they won't build what we need if we don't dream it or critique what we have.

"My opinion only"

Michele Moore RRT EMT-P

Lead Flight RT

Education Coordinator

Air Life of Oregon