Just have to say my two cents quickly. From day one 'The Ring' and the site was about the people not exclusion. We wanted to come from a place of thinking that you cannot exclude people and call yourself a community. Whether you like someone or their views that does not make it okay to not let them talk in such an important tool of the community.
You all have heard about the problems of Facebook and their privacy issues. I know several people that will not join because of those issues. There is a difference in our social media outlet compared to sites like Facebook. Here you get to know your neighbors but use nicknames (member names). That way the focus is about the area you are in and you are not limited to just a small group of friends. On FB you have to know people before becoming a friend. Here you meet people in your communty and then become friends. I love this because it gives you a wide range of ideas from people that you never would have known otherwise and we all have something in common, where we live. On our sites all you have to provide is an email address. That is it. This provides a huge level of anonymity and that way the focus in on the community and people can be honest without fear or worry about their standing in the community. We take personal information very seriously. People need to feel safe. It causes some issues as well and that is why we have to have some limits. And I think the limits on this site are very loose compared to several other forums, not just other sites in this area.
So here is a little history, JMC was always frustrated with the other site's nonsensical rules about being 'nice' to each other. He likes to go overboard and he likes to call people names while arguing politics. He is the one that came up with
'The Ring'
. We also thought of other names like 'The Coliseum' but the point was all about having a place to have an all out war for those who wanted it. We wanted there to be a place for EVERYONE in the community. The Courthouse was set up for real discussion based on debate. The Ring was set up to just say whatever you wanted with others that wanted the same. The reason for all the
disclaimers
was to tell the ones that were offended not to go there. If it is not for you that is great but having a place for everyone was still the goal.
The original idea of 'The Ring' was for those that really wanted to call people names and get it back. SC was following that same principal when this issue came up yesterday. It came from a place of protection of members and people of the community in as minimal way as possible. We have always taken out nickames of people that were not actually participating in the thread.
Here is another example. We were alerted a few months ago that another site in the area (park bull) had some inaccurate remarks about 285bound.com. When we were alerted, I tried to sign in to set the record straight by registering on the site and found out that new membership was closed. We were not allowed to sign up or defend ourselves.
Increasingly, there is more and more liability for websites. Hence the fair use act. (this is why we ask members not to post whole excerpts of articles and ask that there be a link). I think SC mentioned that we do research on liability of copying other sites. She found some articles on intellectual property and forums may fall under that. Usually, we ask for 4 lines and a link to the item.
Now there is a post on the 285bound.com site that, for whatever reason, is not on the other site. There is no way to know if it is accurate now. Is it public property? From what we have researched it may not be. It is not posted from another site it is now only on this site. The name was pulled and that was the only thing taken out and the OP was informed as always. So, where does that leave us? Really, if it were anything other than a local forum we would have asked the OP to cut it down to 4 lines and add a link and the item would not be there anymore.
We do our own research and continually look out for our members and our businesses. As SC said we do this based on logical reasons and not emotion or personal agendas. We all share this information continually between other Community Bound forum owners as well.
Respectfully,
Robyn Honsey
AKA Cinnamongirl
A forum owner and Co-founder of Communities Bound
