@jespah,
Ahhhhhhh... that'd explain it
@dyslexia,
dyslexia wrote:
In america we like to keep our fools isolated to the House and the Senate. their comedic value being limited to interviews/performances on cable t.v.
Hahaha. Imagine how much more funny this would be if they hadn't have been voted in by the people...
So once again this irregular PF and now irregular A2K poster finds herself puzzling, "Whoa! What happened here?"
It's like when you go to a Youtube video that's all pretty little flowers and flying ponies and happy-chirpy music, then you begin reading the comments under the video (which always start with the latest page, so you sometimes begin reading in the middle of an ongoing discussion), and the first comment you read is something like, "Die, you ***ing Nazi scum!"
From what I've been reading here, I think...
(1) If you've ever had your computer hacked by malevolent forces, as I have, you do appreciate a responsible moderator taking swift action for the protection of forum members. Recently even my cell phone (at&t) got hacked by an "advertiser" of sorts -- I have no idea how long it had been going on when one of my grown daughters called me, laughing, informing me that when she'd called earlier (and I missed the call), she was forwarded NOT to my voice mail, but to a sex-hotline advertisement and 900-number. Something like (throaty sexy voice), "Hi, my name is ***** and I really loooovvvee to *****...." Arrrgggghhh!
I have no problem with any moderator taking necessary steps to protect my privacy, security and hard drive against possible malicious or nuisance attacks. Even if this instance was only a Viagra ad, the breach was there and open to some ugly possibilities.
(2) On the other hand, did I miss something between Point A and Point Z, when some very nice and interesting PFer's suddenly got banned until 2020? I do NOT want to know the particulars, but is it at least correct to assume there was a reasonable private interchange between involved parties before such a drastic action was taken -- can we assume our friends were treated fairly? Also (unless this is an inappropriate question that requires delving into private matters), my curiosity demands that I at least ask: what was the reasoning or symbolism for choosing "2020"?
(3) Overall, I do like A2K. It's got some interesting forums unrelated to philosophy which I've occasionally enjoyed as well. I've read fresh, interesting posts from new people, and although time allows me to post only irregularly, I certainly haven't run into a "horrible human being" at A2K, quite the contrary.
BTW: if I ever should encounter a "horrible human being" at A2K, is there a "take it outside" sub-forum or procedure for such occasions? I don't "rat" on other members, I don't use the "ignore" feature, and win or lose, I like to handle disagreements myself -- but I realize it's discourteous to distract innocent bystanders in a thread with a "gloves off" private battle royale.
4) Will it be acceptable to belong to both A2K and the "other" forum where some of our old friends will be found? Will the A2K team be willing to assume that most folks in these forums are honorable people who would not be involved in gossip or other inappropriate activities between the two forums?
Sorry if I've asked questions which have already been asked and answered -- I did scan through the previous posts first, but may have missed something.
rebecca
@sarek,
sarek wrote:
Robert Gentel wrote:
To expound, I received a templated PM spam forwarded, I searched the database for that exact message (the whole message had to match exactly for the query) and it was sent to over 500 different people, philforum or not. I also checked my accounts from philforum and found Salima's spam there too.
After asking here on this thread for others to forward them to me I received the rest of the bigger picture and each time I got a spam PM forwarded to me I was able to query and delete them all en masse (which reports counts of affected rows, which is how I found out about the scale).
...
No, I do not read your private messages (I don't even read all mine).
Actually by comparing the messages in the database against messages you had received you did in effect read people's private messages. You did in fact read the private pm's of 500 different users.
My background is in law and I am pretty sure that what you did does constitute a breach of privacy regulations as they are commonly understood.
Not only that but you also performed a mass delete on PM's.
I can not retrieve a single one of my private messages now. I am assuming you will real soon give me back the messages that have been sent to me by other members in good confidence?
I know a little bit about proper forum modding. A mod worth his own salt will not let his personal interests or feelings prevail over the standards and guidelines set for the forum as a whole. A mod is required to maintain the proper personal and emotional distance to the subject.
Perhaps you were justified in banning aforementioned members, perhaps not.
Only correct interpretation of the forum guidelines will tell us that.
But whatever has transpired your actions should have been exclusively limited to such taken on the basis of knowledge that was obtained by legally sanctioned methods.
In my view the procedure mentioned above does not qualify as such. Hence, evidence obtained by this method does not count as evidence legally obtained.
Oh, Jesus Herbert-Effing Christ! Really?
REALLY?
There are some of the rules we all agree to when using the A2K website.
These two excerpts from the A2K
Terms of Service pretty much say it all. You'll find very few forum websites that do not also have similar language in their terms of service:
Quote:D. able2know may change, suspend, or discontinue any aspect of the service at any time, including the availability of any site feature, page, or content. able2know may also impose limits on certain features and services or restrict your access to parts or all of the service without notice or liability.
Quote:B. able2know may, in its sole discretion, terminate or suspend your access to all or part of the service for any reason, including, without limitation, breach or assignment of this Agreement.
@Butrflynet,
Butrflynet wrote:
There are some of the rules we all agree to when using the A2K website.
These two excerpts from the A2K
Terms of Service pretty much say it all. You'll find very few forum websites that do not also have similar language in their terms of service:
Quote:D. able2know may change, suspend, or discontinue any aspect of the service at any time, including the availability of any site feature, page, or content. able2know may also impose limits on certain features and services or restrict your access to parts or all of the service without notice or liability.
Quote:B. able2know may, in its sole discretion, terminate or suspend your access to all or part of the service for any reason, including, without limitation, breach or assignment of this Agreement.
It all seems very like, "Kills up to 99% of germs."
It's a shameless ploy to get the administrators out of trouble if something doesn't work.
@melonkali,
Nice post!
Re: #4, I don't speak with any particular authority here so this may or may not be borne out, but I really don't see why A2K would care what other forums you're a member of. I've been a member of several forums at once, with A2K being one of them (though now I'm pretty much down to A2K and Facebook). There was overlap in membership between a few of those forums. No biggie.
I think the whole
using A2K to recruit people to another forum thing (especially via mass PM) is what is frowned upon. (Unsurprisingly.) But that's different from merely being a member of more than one forum.
@G-Thomson,
G-Thomson wrote:
Butrflynet wrote:
There are some of the rules we all agree to when using the A2K website.
These two excerpts from the A2K
Terms of Service pretty much say it all. You'll find very few forum websites that do not also have similar language in their terms of service:
Quote:D. able2know may change, suspend, or discontinue any aspect of the service at any time, including the availability of any site feature, page, or content. able2know may also impose limits on certain features and services or restrict your access to parts or all of the service without notice or liability.
Quote:B. able2know may, in its sole discretion, terminate or suspend your access to all or part of the service for any reason, including, without limitation, breach or assignment of this Agreement.
It all seems very like, "Kills up to 99% of germs."
It's a shameless ploy to get the administrators out of trouble if something doesn't work.
I think you'll find them pretty standard rules all over the net.
@msolga,
msolga wrote:
Quote:
<feeling soooooooo rejected>
I wasn't head-hunted, either.
I am surprised.
You are not only very active, you were unfailingly polite to and supportive of the PF people.
i prefer
to
no invite, so i'm off to start my own philosophy forum
@djjd62,
I decided to join any platform opening so keep me posted
@sarek,
sarek wrote:My background is in law and I am pretty sure that what you did does constitute a breach of privacy regulations as they are commonly understood.
Quote:In my view the procedure mentioned above does not qualify as such. Hence, evidence obtained by this method does not count as evidence legally obtained.
Unless you mean something like being on COPS once or twice as your legal "background" I would recommend trying to get your money back. Your post doesn't show even a layman's understanding of law.
We are perfectly within our legal rights to delete PM spam, this is just more of the usual feckless legal claims we see from vaguely-credentialed law-backgroundists.
My background is in "bullshit-detection" and believe me pal, the sirens are going off.
@panzade,
panzade wrote:
My background is in "bullshit-detection" and believe me pal, the sirens are going off.
You speak wisely, Cricket.
@dlowan,
dlowan wrote:
I think you'll find them pretty standard rules all over the net.
Indeed. It's just a rule to cover the backs of the ones in charge.
@Pepijn Sweep,
i was, as the brits say, taking the piss, when declaring my philosophical intentions
@G-Thomson,
G-Thomson wrote:
dlowan wrote:
I think you'll find them pretty standard rules all over the net.
Indeed. It's just a rule to cover the backs of the ones in charge.
Ok....go build a web-site....preferably a REALLY Big One.
Work really hard to make it good.
What will you find?
Amongst all the Beautiful People who join will be a number of utter loonies and seriously nasty individuals.
Remember, this isn't something you make money from, you do it because you love it.
Don't add any of the normal forum rules and conditions.
Added to the usual torrent of vituperation and abuse and occasional personal threats over every tiny little thing that some people delight to throw at anybody who runs anything, you will begin to receive threats of litigation.
I assume that, with no protection from conditions agreed to when you join, some of these (especially from litigation hell, the USA) will actually occur...and might go against you.
Lose everything you have.
It'll be fun, I assure you.
@G-Thomson,
G-Thomson wrote:Indeed. It's just a rule to cover the backs of the ones in charge.
It's not a "rule" per se, but yes it is a legal instrument intended to give us legal cover to do common forum things like remove posts etc. You prefer that we do those things without it? Why?
And what is your fundamental objection? These folk sent hundreds and hundreds of these spam PMs, they can't don the mantle of satisfying philforum users because they had a stated intent to go after a2k members to build scale too.
Just one of the members sent over 600 such messages, do you think we are supposed to allow that kind of scale of PM spam? What exactly is your qualm with what we did in practice? We were letting all the forum links be posted above board. I even offered to post the link myself and VCS decides to rub his subversion in my face instead and be smug about it. There was no need to pull this "brain drain" campaign, this was underhanded and duplicitous.
Do you think VCS will let people pull that kind of **** on his forum? I hope he doesn't (wouldn't make for a nice place to stay) and I hope he eventually realized that this kind of thing isn't good internet citizenry.
