Abuse of position by forum webmaster (NOT Boards.ie)

Pansy Potter

Wasn't really sure where to put this, but I feel that this forum is the most likely to generate suggestions/answers.

A few months ago I joined a sleepy little rural discussion forum. Very quiet, long gaps (weeks or months) between posts, and not much going on.
Having seen the liveliness of Boards, I attempted to inject a bit of life into this forum. I believed that it would become meaningful and beneficial to all members.

Today I logged in to find that my avatar and signature had been changed to something offensive, and that the most recent post was from the webmaster questioning my motives for being in the forum.

I found this quite shocking that the owner/webmaster of the site would actually change member's personal settings for his own amusement. It was quite obvious that it was him that had made the changes. I feel this is an abuse of his position and a breach of the most fundemental rights of a member of a discussion forum.

I don't intend to stay a member of this forum, and I'll miss the "Lost Sheep", and "Smell of slurry in the air" topics, but I would be interested to hear if any boardsie's have come across something like this in their experiences with other forums.

Smellyirishman

It happens here too, but generally only if they know the "victim" and know they will take it as it was intended.

Crumble Froo

im on a band forum run by sony where the mods are just longterm dedicated posters.it's a lovely little community, and several couples and many many friendships have resulted. we're at the point where we all get each other's sense of humour, but our most active mod, when faced with idiot/n00b/repetitive type threads, tends to change the title to something a lil crazy/odd/ridiculous, humour which most of the regular posters find amusing, but which can sometimes lead to the noobs getting really aggressive and going on about censorship, and 'the man' and crap like that.

she's never gone into our profiles though (i doubt she has the power), but i dont think she would, there is certainly a line there that you just dont cross.

Nehpets

It's the internet, people act like dicks.

P.S. Never play a game called CounterStrike :P

AlmightyCushion

And to think people acuse the mods here of being crazed with power.

Spud83

AlmightyCushion wrote:

And to think people acuse the mods here of being crazed with power.

You only just got your mod powers and you have gone mad with power. Come on feel the power, use it, ummm the force is strong with this one.

thefinalstage

Nehpets wrote:

It's the internet, people act like dicks.

P.S. Never play a game called CounterStrike :P

Unless of course he finds the lost CS server where internet abbreviation is non existent and good sportsmanship rains!

AlmightyCushion

alanmurphy83 wrote:

You only just got your mod powers and you have gone mad with power. Come on feel the power, use it, ummm the force is strong with this one.

That's it I've had enough of you. *Bans alanmurphy from every site on the internet for EVER* That'll fúcking learn you.

Fighting Irish

Pansy Potter wrote:

Wasn't really sure where to put this, but I feel that this forum is the most likely to generate suggestions/answers.

A few months ago I joined a sleepy little rural discussion forum. Very quiet, long gaps (weeks or months) between posts, and not much going on.
Having seen the liveliness of Boards, I attempted to inject a bit of life into this forum. I believed that it would become meaningful and beneficial to all members.

Today I logged in to find that my avatar and signature had been changed to something offensive, and that the most recent post was from the webmaster questioning my motives for being in the forum.

I found this quite shocking that the owner/webmaster of the site would actually change member's personal settings for his own amusement. It was quite obvious that it was him that had made the changes. I feel this is an abuse of his position and a breach of the most fundemental rights of a member of a discussion forum.

I don't intend to stay a member of this forum, and I'll miss the "Lost Sheep", and "Smell of slurry in the air" topics, but I would be interested to hear if any boardsie's have come across something like this in their experiences with other forums.

:rolleyes:

Jesus, relax

Terry

I am a member of a small niche forum. less than 150 members. I rarely use it.
One night everyone was granted modship of their version of the thunderdome.
I logged on and deleted every thread.
I thought it was funny. Most of the rest didn't. They were quite upset.

connundrum

One day my brother gave me two quid to buy him a bottle of orange from the shop. I didn't buy him the bottle of orange. I spent the two quid. All of it.

Rhyme

thelastangryman wrote:

Unless of course he finds the lost CS server where internet abbreviation is non existent and good sportsmanship rains!

Wow wow wow... don't say that too loud. the haxors have ears eveywhere.

Binomate

Pansy Potter wrote:

Wasn't really sure where to put this, but I feel that this forum is the most likely to generate suggestions/answers.

A few months ago I joined a sleepy little rural discussion forum. Very quiet, long gaps (weeks or months) between posts, and not much going on.
Having seen the liveliness of Boards, I attempted to inject a bit of life into this forum. I believed that it would become meaningful and beneficial to all members.

Today I logged in to find that my avatar and signature had been changed to something offensive, and that the most recent post was from the webmaster questioning my motives for being in the forum.

I found this quite shocking that the owner/webmaster of the site would actually change member's personal settings for his own amusement. It was quite obvious that it was him that had made the changes. I feel this is an abuse of his position and a breach of the most fundemental rights of a member of a discussion forum.

I don't intend to stay a member of this forum, and I'll miss the "Lost Sheep", and "Smell of slurry in the air" topics, but I would be interested to hear if any boardsie's have come across something like this in their experiences with other forums.

You should probably take that to the Gardaí.

Spyral

yeh it happened me on the website of a warhammer club i used to attend. all of the founding members and even some newer ones except me were moderators.
a rules debate was going on I quoted and linked to the offical manufacturers site and also where the club leader had quoted the same rules before on the forum.

my posts were deleted each time and i got banned... all for proving that i was right.

lesson 1: never argue with @SSh0l3$ when they are also the moderators

lesson 2: dont expect people you annoy online to forget about it in real life. online is 'real' in the sense that things have repricussions

lesson 3: when you do p*$$ me off make sure you have a backup

lesson 4: when your forum DOES crash (unfortunatly through no fault of mine)
make sure you can access them

rolfamo !:D

I love how life is so fair.. sure it has a time delay but is generally fair.. other other bellendus maximi make it unfair.. then their forums crash AHAAAHA!

Sparky

Gordon once edited my sig and avatar for the craic.

We know each other, so it was all fun.

Then I got him back
http://www.htireland.com/ask-gordon/

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055036771

monkey tennis

Pansy Potter wrote:

feel this is an abuse of his position and a breach of the most fundemental rights of a member of a discussion forum.

If it's his site, then you don't have any rights.

Binomate wrote:

You should probably take that to the Gardaí.

Forget the Gardaí, this needs to be brought to the President!!

Crumble Froo

Terry wrote:

I am a member of a small niche forum. less than 150 members. I rarely use it.
One night everyone was granted modship of their version of the thunderdome.
I logged on and deleted every thread.
I thought it was funny. Most of the rest didn't. They were quite upset.

a mod 'cleaned up' our forum once, deleting everything bar the first page. one of my favourite favourite threads that i posted on very regularly was on the 3rd or 4th page, and was lost forever. i honest to god almost cried.

Terry

Note to self: Do not delete this thread later when you are drunk.
It won't be as funny as you think it is.

Anti

Zomg Phone Zee Inte0rnetz Polezie !

Terry

Hey, Anti, Didn't you...

Never mind.

wheres me jumpa

connundrum wrote:

One day my brother gave me two quid to buy him a bottle of orange from the shop. I didn't buy him the bottle of orange. I spent the two quid. All of it.

Shocking!

tbh OP there are different ehtics/cultures in every forum. Some are democratic, others arent. I wouldnt get so worked up by it. If you insist on getting worked up about it, being it to the mod, if he/she doesnt realise they made a mistake, just delete your account and leave.

Pansy Potter

Before I posted here about the abuse of power by the owner of the forum I was talking about, I also put up a post in that forum warning others that the webmaster was prying into and editing personal information.
Last night I noticed that my post had disappeared from the thread and that my avatar and signature were put back to how they should have been. So the webmaster has rewritten history and none of this had ever happened!!!

Later last night another poster remarked that they had seen my post earlier and that now it was gone. They were wondering how it had disappeared, and raised the "horrifying spectre" that the webmaster might in fact be dodgy. Good.

tbh

I was with you until you called what happened "history".

_blank_

Why don't you post the name of the forum you are going to leave, we all sign up and start spamming it.

Fight teh powah ftw.

Dub13

Yes name and shame.

Mena

I suggest a game of "Forum Vacation" *

*Shamelessly stolen from someone else

Stage 1
To play this game, we need to find out the name of this forum.

Stage 2
Players will declare themselves 'playing' here, in this topic, but cannot reveal the name they will register/post as on the host forum.

Stage 3 - Playtime
We go and wreak havoc on the host forum. Noob questions, dumb questions, intelligent questions (boring ), trolling for the sake of it, downright rude retorts to others, play the game how you like, but...

.. if you get banned from the host forum, you are out.
.. if you are recognised here by a fellow player, you own up here and are out.
.. the winner is the last one standing (not-outed) in the host forum, or the title is shared on the day the host forum gets wise and bans everyones account.

Rules:

.. you cannot make multiple identities. One registered name on the host forum only, and everyone joins on the same day.
.. each player must make at least one post each day on the host forum.
.. if you are out for any reason, you cannot rejoin.
.. you cant make multiple guesses, so if a player decides that 'MyLittlePony' on the host forum is 'Terry' here and is wrong, then that player cant take another guess at the identity of MyLittlePony or Terry for another week.


It's a game of oneupmanship, who can outdo each other (most outrageous question while remaining believable/without being banned, etc) The reactions on the host forums when they figure they've been invaded can make some real rofpmslirl moments. Would anyone fancy a game?

Terry

Boards.ie does not support this type of thing.
I seem to remember a post by DeVore which basically said something like 'we wouldn't like it happening to us.'
It actually is happening to us at the moment, but the site involved doesn't accept new members.

Long story short, don't do it. Well, not here anyway. I'll look around for a loophole as I'd like to get involved myself.

For the time being, do not link directly to any other forums.

_blank_

Yes.

_blank_

Terry wrote:

For the time being, do not link directly to any other forums.

double you double you double you dot forum-we-are-invading dot com

They won't be able to link back to here if we did that.

Karoma

Terry wrote:

Note to self: Do not delete this thread later when you are drunk.
It won't be as funny as you think it is.

Note to drunken Terry: Delete every thread in AH.


@Terry again: DeV was OK with an /i/ - the other grown-ups were not so happy, as I remember it (I am not known for my great memory.) ... I think htireland.com is fair game though

Terry

Karoma wrote:

Note to drunken Terry: Delete every thread in AH.

Note to self: Put Karoma on ignore before getting drunk tonight.

@Terry again: DeV was OK with an /i/ - the other grown-ups were not so happy, as I remember it (I am not known for my great memory.) ... I think htireland.com is fair game though

I'm not great with my memory either. It was discussed in the past year though. Feedback I think.

DesF wrote:

double you double you double you dot forum-we-are-invading dot com

They won't be able to link back to here if we did that.

True. But I think it's best left alone for the moment. Except for htireland.

the_syco

Terry wrote:

'we wouldn't like it happening to us.'

Unless boards.ie goes down for a spell, and we all f**k off over to boards.us and take the piss over there...

Bilko1111

It actually is happening to us at the moment, but the site involved doesn't accept new members.

I wouldn't worry about it, it was a laugh for a few weeks, the PI forum is so full of hopeless losers, it's hard to ignore. it's finished now, and won't start again.

If Pighead is reading this, knock over and sign up, you have the type of personality that would fit right in.

Terry

Ahh. Which one are you?

Bilko1111

The clue is in my username, I'm a mod over there. It was a bit of fun, no harm was done.