Post a "sticky" on how to contact moderators?

AnnNYC

I'd like to suggest the moderators post and "pin" some prominent instructions about who to contact to seek permission to post invitations to participate in studies and surveys, etc.

Right now, in the "Moderator Message" forum, there is a new request from three occupation therapy (OT) grad students regarding what looks like an important survey they would like to conduct:
http://community.breastcancer.org/forum/90/topic/728975

If a solicitation is clearly spam or unwelcome, it gets deleted by the community.  But for people who come here in good faith, with potentially worthwhile projects, I think it must be very hard to find out how to contact the moderators.  The "Community Rules" say to contact the moderators, but don't provide an address (not that I can see).  To me it seems as if you have to be a long-time poster in order to know something about how to contact the mods.

Maybe the info isn't hard for everyone to find, but I guess I (at least) need the "sticky"!

lvtwoqlt

Ann, I like that idea on directions on how to contact the moderators because some of these requests are done by people who are new on the board and not familiar with all the features of the board on how to send pm's and such.

Sheila

CharlieFoster

Ann, I agree too.  I have been reading the boards for two years now to get information and ideas as my wife and I move through the phases of BC.  When I wanted to post about a study I'm doing for my PhD, I had trouble finding a way to send a PM to a moderator.  One of them has replied and is reviewing my study, so I was able to make it work in the end. Because this is one of the premier BC discussion boards they must get a lot of requests, especially from students like me who don't have easy access to BC women through a treatment center.  Maybe they should consider having a moderator(s) who would only deal with those requests. If I were one of those moderators I would only consider studies that had some participatory element to it (like feedback from participants integrated into the results, or even having input into the design). That way the community members that participate become more than just "subjects", and the community benefits by having their voice reach policy makers and funding sources, who make decisions based on research results.Charlie