Deleting board members

[LSPoorEeyorick]

So, what is LoT's official policy for deleting board members?

NO! No, of course I don't want to be deleted. You guys are like family!

There's been some question at my workplace about the legality of deleting a member from a board. As far as we understand it, when someone puts their words on the internet, even deletion won't make it go away. Board admins need to keep track of IP addresses, and in the off-chance that there would be some need to return, if your membership was deleted you'd officially be a sock puppet-- and that's not kosher, either.

What's the LoT policy? The MousePlanet policy? The Micechat policy? Anybody know anything else about the matter?

[€uroMeinke]

Eh, we're a private entity we do what we want.

I think so far we've only suspended one person for a day, and banned one person and their IP addresses before they even signed on. I've also been deleting some of the Bots that sign up now and then.

I don't get the legal issues. For one, we're not offering a service for cash, whereby someone might sue you for breech of service or something. The usual legal issue are about plagerism and copyright violations, child pornography, or exposing children to naughty pictures and talking dirty.

Our official policy on such things can be found in our FAQ from which I quote:

Who’s In and Who’s Out

We run some smooth digs around here, so please don’t freak out anyone’s groove. Be your own kinda cat and all that, but if you ruffle too many feathers on our beatnik birdies, we may pull you aside to have a word or two. We’ll try to clue you in on how to play nice around here, and we’ll give you every chance to bend on to the mend.

We'll tell you once, we'll tell you twice, but then we must come down a little salty on you. After two warnings, we may ask you to chill and your account can be suspended. Maybe you need a day, maybe a week, maybe even more.

We’d like you all to improve your mojo, but we know there are some cats out there who we may have to show the door. We’ll do our best to be fair and consider your place in our community, but if you’re here to just rankle our swank, perhaps you ought to try one of the other joints in town.

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Thanks, €. Since this person is leaving of his own accord, it's not a matter of banning or suspending. He simply wants us to delete everything he's ever done on the site-- which will, in turn, require us to delete a lot of other people's interaction as well, and we don't want to do that.

[€uroMeinke]

Originally Posted by LSPoorEeyorick

Thanks, €. Since this person is leaving of his own accord, it's not a matter of banning or suspending. He simply wants us to delete everything he's ever done on the site-- which will, in turn, require us to delete a lot of other people's interaction as well, and we don't want to do that.

Ah, naw - we don't do that - if you posted it, you should be willing to live with it (Copyright and criminal activities though are some noteworthy exceptions though)

[Not Afraid]

Sorry, Charlie. When you hit that post button, your words became property of the board you posted it on and no long your property. If the board admins want to delete stuff, then that's their decision. Admins and Mods and board rules dictate what gets deleted and what does no after the editing period is gone.

BTW, I believe copyright issues are already delt with with the VBulletin software. Another reason that "off the shelf" software is such a wonderful thing. Of course neither one of us can find the text that says this.

[wendybeth]

Does that board have edit functions? Tell the person you don't have the time or energy to go through cleaning up all their posts- if it's important enough, they can do it. I've pulled a few posts on OP request here and at Fabs, but I am not about to go and delete everything a person ever posted, especially if they were prolific posters.

[Not Afraid]

No way. When you say something, you can't later go back and have the mind police come and erase your words. You say it, it's gone.

I'm really hard core on this issue. We all say things that need to be moved, deleted, or edited now and then. That's not unusual at all, but to ask a board to remove EVERY post and all record of a person't existance - especially if they are a problem - is not going to happen. Stop posting if you don't want things of yours read.

[€uroMeinke]

How about if you replace his words with a parody of his words? Alls fair in Satire right?

[Alex]

I find that a lot of people make this request because they have stromed off and are trying to force themselves to stay away.

It's a request that is never granted. Your message board should have a disclaimer informing posters that all submissions are property of the message board to avoid later copyright claims, this also gives you freedom to reuse the content should you wish.

[wendybeth]

I like €uro's suggestion- maybe we could help the editing process?