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Admin
ForumCo Administrator
Éire
4092 Posts |
 Posted - 04/25/2006 : 11:48:09
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The purpose of this post is to protect both ForumCo and its users from
people with or without malicious intent. It will hopefully raise
awareness among forum administrators, moderators and normal users as to what
is and isn't acceptable content to ForumCo.
ForumCo (or staff acting on ForumCo's behalf) reserves the right to be the
sole arbiter as to what is and is not acceptable content to be hosted, linked
to or referenced to on discussion forums, webpages or servers hosted by ForumCo.
This post might seem a little out of character and the language may seem a little
stronger than I normally use. That is not the intention, I'm just trying to
be clear and you should not be offended by it. Please feel free to let me know
if you have any concerns or opinions. If a request is reasonable or you feel that
these policies are unfair for whatever reason, please reply here and let me know
about it.
There has been a marked increase in the number of forums violating our
Terms of Service, Acceptable Usage Policy and User Registration Agreement.
For reference they may be found here
You must be logged in to see this link.
You must be logged in to see this link.
You must be logged in to see this link.
Every forum community (including administrators, moderators and normal
members) whether free or paid must abide by these You must be logged in to see this link. with no
exceptions. Our upstream provider also has a Terms of Service and an Acceptable
Usage Policy which we must comply with. We must also comply with relevant Irish
and International laws. By violating these You must be logged in to see this link. all forums at
ForumCo are put at risk.
This means that if we find content which is not acceptable under the
You must be logged in to see this link., You must be logged in to see this link. or the You must be logged in to see this link.
(when a user signs up on a forum), one of two things will happen.
1. Your forum will be suspended without advance warning (you may be notified later at our discression)
2. Your forum will be deleted entirely without notice
Depending on the severity of the violation and whether the forum
administrator or moderators or both were complicit will usually determine whether the forum will be
deleted completely or suspended. It is worth noting that the list in
the You must be logged in to see this link. or the You must be logged in to see this link. is not
exhaustive. One general rule of thumb is that all content should be
suitable for people of all ages (including minors). If you are unsure
whether content is acceptable or not you should seek clarification from us
before] it is privately or publicly posted on your forum.
When "content" is referred to this means any and all material
either posted, linked to or referenced on a discussion forum, including
(but not limited to) threads, replies, posts, email private messages,
email messages, forum descriptions, topic subjects, usernames, flash,
video and audio etc. and in any format including text, images, audio,
video, flash, etc.
Backups
We keep daily backups of all forums for our own use in the event of a
catastrophic failure. Forum owners or administrators have no legal right
to this database or its content and it remains the property of ForumCo.
We have a policy of only releasing a forum database, either partially
or in its entirity to members of law enforcement in order to aid in the
prosecution of criminal cases (as we have done in the past) or when
ordered to by a court of law in the Republic of Ireland. Backups are
deleted regularly for a number of reasons including (but not limited to)
unlawful content, material which constitutes a violation of our Terms of
Service, Acceptable Usage Policy or Registration Agreement, hateful or racist
comments, illegal file sharing, warez distribution, copyright violations, space
restrictions, etc. ForumCo shall not be held liable for loss of data or earnings,
business, etc. whether it be the fault of the forum admistrators,
moderators, normal users, hackers, ForumCo staff, force majure or an act of God.
Although we keep regular backups for our own purposes we are not obliged
to do so.
In light of the recent abuses which have been taking up all of my time
which could be better devoted to other things I will be introducing software
in the next few days which will pinpoint those forums which are not in
accordance with our Terms of Service, Acceptable Usage Policy or User
Registration Agreement.
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nickwit
Starting Member
USA
7 Posts |
Posted - 04/25/2006 : 14:28:38
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Couple things about the profanity rule in the "Terms of Service"
-Is it excessive swearing? I mean, I would find it alright if every once and awhile someone drops an s-bomb or something. And if it is excessive only, I as the admin (or my mods) would take care of that.
-Can a forum be shut down because of that? What if I don't get to the computer in time to see that someone is breaking the rule?
-What if someone is quoting something?
Thanks,
Nick
Oh and I suggest if something minor as excessive swearing is, you should lock/suspend the forum, contact the administrator/owner, state why you locked it and ask them to remove/edit whatever (this would have to be done in whatever amount of time before deletion; this ensures that the admin is active). If it was like something sexually explicit then the topic deleted if it was a regular etc. If it was an admin/owner then the forum deleted. |
NickWit.com Forum - Lookin for another moderator, join and PM me if you're interested. |
Edited by - nickwit on 04/25/2006 14:29:44 |
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Admin
ForumCo Administrator
Éire
4092 Posts |
Posted - 04/25/2006 : 14:53:43
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Good question Nick.
A few years ago we allowed forum admins to either block or allow profanity instead of blocking certain words altogether whether the admin wanted to allow it or not. There are times when it is appropriate to use profanity e.g. creatively on hip hop boards (where profanity is almost a requirement for lyrics) but this is not always the case. If for example a new user joined and posted offensive profanity all over your board, we may have to suspend it but would be fair and allow you the chance to delete it. There are some words which incite hatred, racism, etc. and are "worse" than others, if these were used regularly on a board we would have to make a judgement call. If its an advertising supported forum we would have to consult our advertisers terms of service, acceptable usage policies, guidelines, etc. If profanity is used rarely, once off or was warranted (our call on that one) doesn't breach any other terms (including those of an advertiser) then you may be just asked to remove it.
quote:
If it was like something sexually explicit then the topic deleted if it was a regular etc. If it was an admin/owner then the forum deleted.
If a user posts something sexually explicit or for that matter any sexual material at all and we find it before the forum admin then we have no choice but to delete the board. No exceptions. It is a good idea to assign moderators and advise them to delete offending posts immediately.
Obviously if a person is known on these Support Forums as being an upstanding member of the ForumCo community and something happened which was out of character we would take that into consideration.
In short;
Profanity = Some leeway (depends on how bad)
Sexual Content = No leeway whatsoever |
Padraic,
ForumCo Support
www.forumco.com
Helpdesk Knowledgebase Rate ForumCo @ Hotscripts Rate ForumCo @ Cgi-Resources
Please provide:
* error messages * direct link to your forum * any possibly helpful information. |
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nickwit
Starting Member
USA
7 Posts |
Posted - 04/25/2006 : 15:13:29
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thanks Padric, I do have some mods on the scene helping me - hopfully this will never be a problem for my forum!  |
NickWit.com Forum - Lookin for another moderator, join and PM me if you're interested. |
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Important: Terms of Service & Acceptable Usage
