Commercial Intrusion

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BWAD Squirrel
joined 24 Jul 2005
360 posts

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Posted by BWAD Squirrel, 18:14 11 October 2006

Hello folks

Some of you know how I don’t like commercial exploitation of people, particularly the mentally ill, which is why it is a criminal offence around the world. Recently the trend in spamming forums with bots has evolved to more interactive advertising - new forum members who interact to some degree, but are primarily just spreading commercial links, either in the body of their posts, in their signature, or in their member links.

I know most of you are not likely to fall foul financially of these tactics, but I hate having all of the commercial stuff around, and there is always the chance that somebody might get caught off guard one day. The problem is only just reaching us here now, and so I thought that we might like to form a policy on what should be acceptable, and what should not.

This is a forum where people who use light therapy, with mainly sleep and mental disorders, come for many reasons including advice, support, or just to vent. If people have a commercial interest to get us clicking on their links, or to try to get us to buy their products, then there are more appropriate forums that they can find to post in. Even Outside In, the forum owners, do not sell there products in here.

If we want house insurance etcetera, then we can go to those appropriate websites and forums (one of which is not here) where we might welcome being bombarded with completely relevant advertising.

I don’t think anyone (as in real human being) has become a member here because they want to be bombarded with advertising. Ironically, most of the members in the member list are just registration bots that would rather be doing the advertising bombardment.

Personally I would be ashamed to carry out commercial activities in a forum with members who predominantly suffer from mental illnesses. In most countries such advertising practices would be questionable under law, if pointed out to the authorities.

After beating around the bush a few times: Should we decide on some minimal forum rules to tackle all forms of commercial intrusion, and then get them enforced by Outside In?

Joel

megj
joined 2 Oct 2006
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Posted by megj, 10:16 12 October 2006

Woth doing. If Outside In don't want to spend the time writing them, then here are some, lovingly copied (and carefully amended!) from other forums:

From a largely unmoderated forum:

xxx forum is an unmoderated adult discussion forum. We believe in free speech except for the following exceptions:

1) No porn
2) No obvious mention of warez/piracy
3) No racism or religious intolerence

From a heavily moderated forum:

The following activities are deemed to be unacceptable on the xxx discussion boards:

Advertising or Soliciting

It is strictly prohibited to advertise on the discussion boards. Any buying or selling of products, offering items for sale, linking to personal items for sale, and requesting swaps on the discussion boards is also prohibited until further notice.

Links to commercial sites are not allowed in signatures. This includes any site that you might be affiliated with in any way and gaining a financial benefit from its display in your user signature. Such links will be removed when seen by xxxx.

Links that are allowed include those to non-commercial sites, such as personal blogs and websites that aren't advert supported.

Any post containing links or URLs may be removed.

Attempts to collect or store personal information about other users of xxx are considered advertising.

Offensive and Abusive posts

Libellous, unlawful, harassing, defamatory, abusive, harmful, sexist, homophobic, threatening, obscene, racially offensive or otherwise objectionable material will not be tolerated on xxx.

Visual sexual references are not allowed.

Posting Private Messages to the public boards without the sender's consent is not allowed.

Please do not post anything relating to any ongoing or pending court case as such a post may be in Contempt of Court.

Please treat others on these message boards as you would expect them to treat you. Contributions should be constructive and polite, not mean-spirited or posted with the intention of causing trouble. Please do not attempt to sidestep the swear filters; they are there for a reason!

Whilst criticism is encouraged on xxx, abuse and defamation directed at xxx staff and volunteers is prohibited and will not be tolerated under any circumstance. Repeated breach of this rule will lead to an immediate account suspension (overriding the standard disciplinary procedure outlined further down this page), and removal of the offending post(s).

Spam

Purposely spamming a message board with senseless, vacuous, or empty messages to bump your post to the top of the active thread list is not allowed. We don't allow the submission of the same or very similar contributions many times. Please don't re-submit your contribution to more than one conversation.

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We recommend not giving out personal details such as your surname, postal address or phone number in the Boards. This is for your own safety and protection as other people browsing the Boards could easily misuse this information. Remember, when you are online, it is very easy for people to pretend to be someone they're not.

All users who register on xxxagree to be bound by the rules and terms and conditions. Any user who breaks the rules or terms and conditions may have their message removed followed by a warning and possible banning from posting on the discussion forums.

siddy
joined 22 Jan 2003
674 posts

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Posted by siddy, 08:35 13 October 2006

OKay what Joel is talking about is that Wilford who is using this site for advertising, the thing is if he contacts outside in we can get his sorry arse thrown off................ as this is for genuine sad sufferers

megj
joined 2 Oct 2006
62 posts

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Posted by megj, 08:51 13 October 2006

I doubt Wilford is the only one, nor likely to be the last. I use a variety of discussion forums and guidelines should be put in place on all of them, IMO.

BWAD Squirrel
joined 24 Jul 2005
360 posts

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Posted by BWAD Squirrel, 19:20 13 October 2006

I agree entirely with Megj.

Fortunately the advertisers here are still very few in number, and fairly obvious. Some that I have encountered in other forums can be more subtle, work in numbers, and operate behind the scenes using the private messaging function.

This forum is probably not a prime target, but where there’s the slightest whiff of money, parasites come sniffing for it – especially when their search engines find keywords like ‘money’, ‘rich’, ‘poor’ and ‘work’ liberally scattered throughout our discussions. Remember that many parasites without morals prey on the old, the poor, and the mentally ill specifically for the easier pickings.

How can Wilford be kicked off, when it is currently not breaking any rules? At least two of its mates have been operating recently too. I am a great believer in redemption, so I am giving them one last chance before complaining to Outside In. Additionally, I thought it prudent to formulate a permanent solution, rather than opt for the temporary quick fix.

A huge response to this thread was not expected, however, due to the 100% yes vote (I love statistics), I will contact Outside In. I’ll see if we can get some draft rules agreed and put on the board, using a similar template to those that Megj posted. We can then amend them if necessary, seek final Outside In approval, get them pinned, and get them enforced.

Maybe, Outside In permitting, someone should also volunteer to take up admin or moderator rights for this forum, and help enforce any rules that are eventually agreed upon? At least then you could kick me out as well.

Thanks for the help, and participating in the poll.

Joel x

siddy
joined 22 Jan 2003
674 posts

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Posted by siddy, 19:23 13 October 2006

Just call me the enforcer :evil: 8)

megj
joined 2 Oct 2006
62 posts

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Posted by megj, 09:20 16 October 2006

Happy to moderate if needs be - have done it before as paid and voluntary work.

BWAD Squirrel
joined 24 Jul 2005
360 posts

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Posted by BWAD Squirrel, 12:48 16 October 2006

I’ve emailed Outside In a full on set of ‘cover all bases’ guidelines and rules that they may want to consider in addition to the registration terms agreement.

Unfortunately, I had to mention Wilford, because it is obviously beyond redemption.

Also, I did make the suggestion that maybe trustworthy forum member volunteers, like ‘The Enforcer’ and Megj, should be let loose to uphold the law.

siddy
joined 22 Jan 2003
674 posts

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Posted by siddy, 19:49 16 October 2006

mine was a joke I don't believe in moderators on this forum

BWAD Squirrel
joined 24 Jul 2005
360 posts

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Posted by BWAD Squirrel, 21:56 16 October 2006

Don't worry Siddy, I assumed that you were joking, and I didn't actually volunteer anyone.

I don’t want the level of moderation of some other forums either; I just want a few people, who you don't have to keep emailing, and who will be more regularly checking the forum, to be given the power to remove all questionable material (links to financial products, gambling, porn, date rape drugs, cons etcetera) from the forum.

As you probably know, in forum talk you need 'moderator' or 'administrator' rights simply to be able to edit/delete other peoples' posts/accounts.

Any rules and guidelines, although it might be a long list, would essentially just be a reminder of the registration agreement terms accessible from the forum index page. They would also highlight that Outside In, and any appointed 3rd party moderators/administrators, reserve the right to edit/delete your posts/account if you are scum.

EDIT: For a minute I thought that I had fallen foul of my own suggested rules that I had emailed to Outside In, and that they had censored some of my posts. However, I just got caught in the collateral damage from Wilford being erased, as too did some of you – a small price to pay for the greater good.

Thanks Eryl, or other mighty deleter.

admin
joined 17 Oct 2002
232 posts

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Posted by admin, 12:32 17 October 2006

Hi folks,

A couple of you sent emails alerting me to spam posts so thanks for letting me know. I think I have cleaned up the worst of it but a few messages seem to have fallen by the wayside so apologies if yours was one of them.

I appreciate that robot postings can be irritating but unless they promise topless gambling in Lithuania or the forum is awash with them they are relatively harmless. Like spam emails. Maybe that's just me.

Evangelical types who appear from nowhere raving about something and including a handy link are trickier. It can sometimes be quite hard to tell if someone is real until they've posted a few times - there are currently a couple of dodgy-looking characters on board that we are keeping an eye on.

I don't want to delete posts or ban members on the basis of what I, or someone else, considers a 'slightly iffy' message, only to discover they're real. This might mean putting up with a few repetitive/annoying comments until they have proved themselves one way or the other but at least we avoid upsetting genuine posters. I hope this sounds reasonable.

Fortunately, it's very rare that there's anything truly offensive (porn etc. ) on here and if a real poster is expressing opinions that offend, they are also usually effectively moderated by the rest of the forum! Now the SAD season is picking up, we will start to monitor more frequently - it has only been about once a week for the past few weeks. I have also just upgraded the forum software.

With these measures and your ongoing vigilance mean that we can continue to keep the forum bound by as little red tape as possible.

Eryl
(webmaster, admin, whatever…)

FWIW, I feel a list of rules will actually achieve very little. Robots don't listen to rules and I doubt the salesmen/women out there will either...??

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