PMs from undesirables

Mtn Gramma wrote:

CinnamonGirl wrote: Unless you see a screen shot it is still hearsay as far as I am concerned. And even a screen shot could be altered in today's world of photo shop that might not even be true. Unless the other person agrees then it is just hearsay.

If you use the quote system it just brings up text that could be altered very easily. It has happened in posts on this forum.

Just my personal opinion.

Good points. I hadn't thought of the screen shot/photo shop situation inasmuch as that's beyond my ability. And it wouldn't occur to me ethically to edit someone's PM to me when posting it. If a PM hacks me off I would want to righteously post it so others could see why I'm pissed and be angry along with me.

Exactly. I've seen that it's actually more damaging when someone only refers to a PM - since the information is being presented from a subjective viewpoint, without the senders actual words, the message will change, either unintentionally or deliberately. We all see different messages in the words that people type, especially in written word as it's difficult to convey tone/emotion and intention.

As you can see from this thread about another community forum site called Topix, they allowed personal information about their community members to be posted and one lady had lies spread about her doing meth and having an affair - neither were true, but she and her family were devastated. The other townspeople began to shun them, they ended up having to move. After that, Topix began to face all kinds of lawsuits and had to change their policy to remove personal information.

285Bound has been consistent in not allowing personal information, and we've been a better site for it, in my opinion.

Nobody That Matters wrote: No one should ever assume anonymity on internet forums. That is a mistake that I've seen made and later regretted.

Everyone posting should assume that your name and address are contained within each post. Write as if you were standing on a street corner shouting it out.

Absolutely, no one should (see my thread in the Courthouse - the article with the same name as the title brings up exactly that point - don't assume that what you post is anonymous, and you protect yourself and your information better if you treat whatever you say as going public). We are not Facebook where you have to sign up with your name, our username system permits a degree of anonymity, but of course it's not perfect. However, it is not our job as members to out people's private information, and 285Bound.com does its best to protect our members privacy as best is possible. If I was a hermaphrodite, one-eared, one-toed sloth, only I should have the right to let everyone know that, not anyone else. Moderation on this site is not based on who you are, we don't play favorites, it's not based on emotion; rather, it's based on organization, and to keep the members safe and protect their privacy. What's important is that it's done consistently, without regard as to who posted, or whether the content is deemed "okay" or not; if it's personal/private, then it's pulled.

Yes, a community forum is a place where people can come together and share information, news, events, and have discussions, but as I said above, our system is set up such that people can stay as anonymous as they like.

That's my $0.02.