Abuse Policy

Background
Army Wounded Warrior (AW2) Portal is the US Army's single enterprise portal for providing information to wounded warriors, their families, care givers and those dedicated to providing them support. AW2 services include forums, BLOGs, employment information and file storage. AW2 usage is critical in the conduct of the Army Wounded Warrior Program, but access to AW2 is not an entitlement or a right. Abuse of AW2’s web portal is a concern. Abuse occurs when an AW2 user employs language that is offensive or behaves in an offensive or inappropriate manner when he or she is in any way connected to the AW2 portal. Abuse can occur at any place within the portal, but is typically found in chat rooms and forums. AW2 considers the presence of abuse to be a critical operational issue.
Policy
AW2's policy on online abuse will support and enhance HRC, Army and DoD policies. Specifically, AW2 will not tolerate online abuse between its members regardless of the nature of the abuse. AW2 members are expected to behave in a courteous and professional manner at all times while using the AW2 website. AW2 staff will actively search for instances of abuse and will respond when abuse is identified. Further, AW2 staff will not attempt to referee between members, and will respond identically to all instances of abuse.
Enforcements
AW2 shall monitor chat and forums abuse activity, and receive complaints of abuse by users. AW2 will investigate complaints as necessary and determine if abuse has occurred. If abuse occurs, AW2 shall increase the warning level of the offending user as appropriate. Warning levels will reflect the number of times that a user has been determined to be involved in abuse and warned not to conduct such activity. There are 4 warning levels, with no abuse being at level 0. Users found to be involved in abuse will be advanced in warning level by AW2 one level for each occurrence. At warning level 3, a user will lose his / her ability to use chat or forums in AW2. Warning levels shall be reduced by 1 for every 30 day period in which there is no further abuse.
Standards
AW2 shall have the sole authority to determine if abuse occurred on AW2 chat, and there is no appeal process. As a general rule, abuse is defined as behavior that is demeaning, overtly sexual, insulting, threatening, or discriminatory. A determination of abuse is made based on the totality of the circumstances, and will not depend exclusively on the use of certain words or actions. A large part of the decision process will depend on whether the reported behavior is offensive to other AW2 users, is unwelcome in the forum in which it is found, or is not reflective of the professionalism of the US Army.
Return to AW2 Community