FrankTalk.org

Gentlemen,
I have had to add this paragraph to the forum guidelines. It may seem trivial, but as a 501c3, we are watched all the time. There is a crackdown on 501c3s right now who are abusing their tax exempt status due to conflict of interests. We need to make sure that we remain true to the mission of educating men about their experiences and their journey - not educating men about their doctors.

Thanks
Paul

"Franktalk.org is part of the Erectile Dysfunction Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit organization. As such we cannot allow any appearance of advertising or promoting of any business, corporation, or medical practice. The IRS does watch us! To avoid any issues in this area, please do not include your surgeon's name in your title. It can appear that doctors are getting free advertising on Franktalk and this will jeopardize our 501c3 status. We know you love your surgeon, but please tell us about your experience - not about your doctor."

Does this mean we can't post or say anything that a particular doctor would find offensive.?

That s utter bullshit and means nothing else than censorship.

I am quite certain that there is no legal ground for avoiding to comment about your surgeon and your experience with him.

That means in the titles of our posts, not our "signatures"?

LMCatman wrote:That means in the titles of our posts, not our "signatures"?

That is how I take it. Honestly I do see the point on a non taxable entity advertising ban. If you advertise then you are a taxable entity. Pretty simple.
After saying that. I've been careful to only mention the doctor that I've chosen only to report on first hand conversations. I have not had surgery yet.
I do have a mildly negative comment that is more staff related than doctor related. A lady in his office is supposed to be working on a prior authorization for me. Looking at over 2 months & no word yet. Not thrilled but family & life issues mean that I wouldn't be ready until next spring anyways.
I don't see problems with most of the posts as long as you have had some kind of contact/experience with that doctor. AND you are telling your experience in a reasonable manner.
The moderator may correct me but for now that is my position.

I'm not trying to beat a dead horse, but I didn't see anything qualifying when not educating men about their doctors can apply.

Frank Talk Admin wrote:Gentlemen,
I have had to add this paragraph to the forum guidelines. It may seem trivial, but as a 501c3, we are watched all the time. There is a crackdown on 501c3s right now who are abusing their tax exempt status due to conflict of interests. We need to make sure that we remain true to the mission of educating men about their experiences and their journey - not educating men about their doctors.

Thanks
Paul

"Franktalk.org is part of the Erectile Dysfunction Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit organization. As such we cannot allow any appearance of advertising or promoting of any business, corporation, or medical practice. The IRS does watch us! To avoid any issues in this area, please do not include your surgeon's name in your title. It can appear that doctors are getting free advertising on Franktalk and this will jeopardize our 501c3 status. We know you love your surgeon, but please tell us about your experience - not about your doctor."

Frank, as I understand it you have a problem with people saying "Dr. X is good" because you are not allowed to advertise on this websiite.
However, the whole webpage is full of proper advertising from Boston Scientific, Coloplast, Rigicon, Uroplogy Healthstore, Penile Implant Institute, Masterpharm, Erecaidpumps...
That's a pretty weird looking definition of advertising.
And if what you say is true, that you are not allowed to run advertising on this site, I find it very hard to believe that the governing body who looks into this would find the biggest problem to be when Mr. X says that he recommends the great Dr. Z - when at the same time your whole site is full of proper commercial advertising. And I guess they don't get that advertising space for free?

Or am I missing something here?

Respectfully - I am very confused by your post Paul ...

if advertising is forbidden, then why is there banner advertising from Coloplast and Boston Scientific running down the entire left side of the page? And wouldn't it only be considered advertising if the site recieved payment from a doctor in exchange for some kind of promotion? Very confused.

Also - some of the most valuable information I have found on the site is the commentary from members on individual doctors ... good and bad. Are we not allowed to exchange information about our experience with doctors on this site? That would diminish its value significantly in my opinion.

Looking forward to your reply ...

Guys, Sorry this is causing confusion, If you read carefully what i wrote, I never said you could not talk about your doctor or your experience with your doctor. Please tell about your experience.

Yes, corporations PAY for advertising on here. As a non-profit, we are allowed to sell advertising space - just as your local symphony can sell ads in its program. But we cannot tell you to buy one product over another (and we wouldn't anyway because that is a doctor's decision). We can eliminate advertising if you like and charge a membership fee. Would you prefer that?

If you can read between the lines, some of you might be able to figure out what is going on. There have been instances of fake accounts which were set up to simply advertise for doctors.

What we want to avoid is "DR SMITH IMPLANTED ME" We would much rather have "I JUST GOT AN IMPLANT" The former focuses on your doctor. The latter is about your experience.

This is not worth getting upset over, honestly, unless you have been paid to make posts by a doctor...lol.
Paul

Frank Talk Admin wrote:Guys, Sorry this is causing confusion, If you read carefully what i wrote, I never said you could not talk about your doctor or your experience with your doctor. Please tell about your experience.

Yes, corporations PAY for advertising on here. As a non-profit, we are allowed to sell advertising space - just as your local symphony can sell ads in its program. But we cannot tell you to buy one product over another (and we wouldn't anyway because that is a doctor's decision). We can eliminate advertising if you like and charge a membership fee. Would you prefer that?

If you can read between the lines, some of you might be able to figure out what is going on. There have been instances of fake accounts which were set up to simply advertise for doctors.

What we want to avoid is "DR SMITH IMPLANTED ME" We would much rather have "I JUST GOT AN IMPLANT" The former focuses on your doctor. The latter is about your experience.

This is not worth getting upset over, honestly, unless you have been paid to make posts by a doctor...lol.
Paul

OK, thanks for the answer. Not really sure I get it though. So you can have paid advertisment on the site, but you will be punished tax wise if your members talk to nicely about their docs? Sounds strange to me, but then I don't know american tax law of course.

What I perfectly well understand is that you don't want fake accounts created just to advertise doctors. I thought it was quite obviously a few years ago that one famous doc on the east coast (and I don't mean the one in the big apple) did exactly this. Once this problem was dealt with, all those accounts just suddenly disappeared. I also heard that one doc in Texas did the same thing, which actually was also quite obvious.

The funny thing is that now all of a sudden when one doc goes private, a lot of posts mentioning his name pops up again...

I appreciate your work on preventing this, as it does nothing good for this site.