Infraction

Rascasse

I have been infracted by Buffybot for breaching this part of the terms of service; “[do not] identify or speculate as to the identity of any anonymous or pseudonymous user".

The crux of the issue is "if someone identifies themselves in their boards.ie profile, are they still "anonymous or pseudonymous".

In essence, a moderator posts a link to a story on a website, several users notice that something is amiss in the tone and moderation of the thread. By chance (accidentally click on moderators name) turns out the moderator advertises their personal website on their profile (e.g. “johnsmith.com”), the same name of the author of the article (also the proprietor of the website it was posted on) and the penny drops. So I post asking some questions about the article and basically asking why the need to be disingenuous. Shortly after I get an infraction and the post deleted.

I spoke with Buffybot and they say that the fact they identified themselves in their profile isn’t relevant as the majority of people wouldn’t notice it and "just because you can it doesn't mean that you should. Especially when it's explicitly forbidden.”. To me, your boards.ie profile is precisely that - information about you that you wish to share with the community. If you choose to identify yourself you are no longer anonymous. Or are we to pretend users that have identified themselves haven’t?

I absolutely appreciate the need to protect people from cyber-bullying, stalking etc and the “[do not] identify or speculate as to the identity of any anonymous or pseudonymous user” rule entirely correct in that context, but this is about a self identified user/moderator using his position to promote his articles/website. The fact that the OP, forum moderator and article author are one and the same is entirely pertinent to the thread.

I won’t link to the thread as I’m sure those that need to see it can.

Rascasse

Further to the above, I just did a little digging and the moderators website has, it appears, changed names recently from ***indublin.com to irish***.com. At least once on the forum in question he has identified himself as the author of an article under the websites previous guise. I also see a few other posts in another (related) forum where he has posted links to the previous website prefaced by a ‘I wrote this’ statement.

So, the moderator in question has identified himself in his profile and (far too infrequently) identified himself as the author when posting links to his website (or crowdfunding sites for his website/paper).

In no way have I breached the “[do not] identify or speculate as to the identity of any anonymous or pseudonymous user” rule so would appreciate the infraction to be rescinded and post reinstated.

Thanks.

(I have the links if an admin wishes to see them)

Ickle Magoo

Hey there Rascasse,

I'm afraid I have to agree with Buffybot here.

While linking to a blog, site or otherwise identifying medium in a profile may be a voluntary lessening of the general anonymity of that poster to anyone specifically reading their profile - it still doesn't negate the site rule that speculation regarding the real life identity of posters is not permitted.

Your deleted post stated that a poster "appears to be the author of..."

That is clear speculation. You then own to doing "a little digging".

All posters - including moderators - are entitled to post using only their Boards handle to identify them in-thread and the site takes a dim view of posters playing detective for the purposes of outing real-life identities on-thread, regardless of how easy or difficult that detective work has been made.

If you have an issue with a post then follow site protocol and report it. If you have any issue with how a poster is using the site in relation to any other off-site activity, follow protocol and contact the relevant category moderators/admin. If you have any concerns specific to forum moderation you can contact the forum moderators, relevant c-mods, admin or use the feedback forum. That way you avoid leaving yourself open to action in breaching a basic tenet of the site.

Infraction upheld. You may ask an admin to review.

Rascasse

Regarding your points;

While linking to a blog, site or otherwise identifying medium in a profile may be a voluntary lessening of the general anonymity of that poster to anyone specifically reading their profile - it still doesn't negate the site rule that speculation regarding the real life identity of posters is not permitted.

Your deleted post stated that a poster "appears to be the author of…”

That is clear speculation.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have used that phrase, and used simply "*** is the author of the article” instead as he has, in addition to the information he has shared in his profile, identified himself as the journalist behind posts on that website several times in the recent past (examples below). In no way is this me speculating about the identity of an anonymous user. It is me realising, as others did, that the article was posted for discussion by its self-identified author, and using that as an introduction to ask some questions about his (somewhat contentious) article.

You then own to doing "a little digging".

If it wasn’t clear, the “little digging” was in support of this DRP thread, as his identity wasn’t in doubt from the second I recognised his name from his profile. The “little digging” involved me typing ***indublin.com and irish***.com into the Boards search as I was sure I’d find other examples of him posting links to his articles. I did, and as you can he has frequently identified himself as the author of the articles on the same site. Some recent examples, there are probably many more:



And from October (post a bit too long to screenshot)

Also identifying himself while asking Boards users to help fund his websites newsletter:
Surely it is not boards policy that if in one thread a user identifies themselves and their interest in a website, even asking boards users to contribute financially to it, then in another thread where they post a link to the very same website it is verboten to mention their interest where it is relevant?

While it may say in the terms of service “[do not] identify or speculate as to the identity of any anonymous or pseudonymous user”
it also states;

We recommend you never post your name, address, telephone number email address or anything else that may lead someone to identify you if this is something you are uncomfortable with.
…
boards.ie does not delete all posts from any member on request, so if you have publically posted identifying information about yourself, then it will remain on the site.

Clearly he wishes to promote his site, newsletter and journalism. As such he has chosen to not be anonymous with respect to his websites and articles.

All posters - including moderators - are entitled to post using only their Boards handle to identify them in-thread and the site takes a dim view of posters playing detective for the purposes of outing real-life identities on-thread, regardless of how easy or difficult that detective work has been made.

Again, was no playing detective or outing identities at all. He volunteers his identity via a link to both his ‘portfolio' website and his professional irish***.com site in his profile and further self identifies (as above) in several threads in the same forum that I posted in.

Frankly, as a published professional journalist, posting his work as the basis for a discussion, where he is also moderating that discussion, it should be for him to identify himself via a simple “I wrote this” or “my thoughts”. Not for other users to have to make the connection themselves and then get in trouble for it when they do. He does it sometimes, he should do it always (or not post his own articles at all).

He even told me via PM that he doesn’t hide who he is*, to which I replied that if his interest in the article was made clear in the OP there very likely wouldn’t have been the multiple mod warnings, deleted posts, two thread lockings and four DRP threads.

If you have an issue with a post then follow site protocol and report it. If you have any issue with how a poster is using the site in relation to any other off-site activity, follow protocol and contact the relevant category moderators/admin. If you have any concerns specific to forum moderation you can contact the forum moderators, relevant c-mods, admin or use the feedback forum. That way you avoid leaving yourself open to action in breaching a basic tenet of the site.

Infraction upheld. You may ask an admin to review.

I would like to have an admin review this as I can’t see how this makes any sense. I agree 100% to protecting the anonymity of those that wish to remain anonymous (and I’d expect a far more serious consequence than an infraction for those that do ‘out’ someone). But in this case it was relevant to the thread that the mod, by his own numerous pronouncements and profile information shared with the community, is the author of the article and owner of the site in question.

*I asked to quote a paragraph of that PM, but he hasn’t replied even though he has posted since I PM’d that request. I’m sure, however, that he won’t want to hide the fact that he doesn’t hide who he is.