Howdy all…
During the past two weeks we have had some interesting times for this board. There were some people banned, one permanently. This was due to a long-standing personal battle that has been going on since long before these people came to our little corner of the cyberverse.
During the time they have graced us with their presence there have been good times, and some very bad ones. They snarked at each other with brutal cruelty, harassing each other by posting personal (and sometimes very private) information. Sometimes it was blatant, and other times it was done with hidden messages so that the Admin team wouldn’t immediately spot it. In every case it was done to harass and intimidate the other party.
As they escalated the war between themselves, we escalated our answers. Our rules regarding personal information evolved, and became more succinctly defined, to the point where any attempt at posting this private info was dealt with harsher measures. We started editing posts. Sometimes we would delete the posts, tried to intervene, warned, cajoled and finally, just recently, started banning.
During the last two weeks there has been a culmination of this decade long personal battle between these posters. One (henceforth will be referred to as 'poster1') posted information about somebody who isn’t even a member here any longer and hasn’t been for some time. I don’t know why somebody who hasn’t posted in a year or more on the board became a sudden target again, but suffice it to say that they posted information that contained what was supposed to be “hidden” information - but were caught. The information in that post was A) extremely personal and B) made in an attempt to harass and intimidate the other party.
The said post resulted in a permanent ban, and came after years of increased warnings, post edits and post deletions. This person knew full well the extent we were going to clear the board of this material, but continued to ignore our requests until they, in our opinion, posted something that crossed the line.
Around the same time, another party ('poster2') also posted personal information, but it was (in our judgment) overall less disconcerting information, less personal, and it was a less egregious error. We took action against that poster too, and banned them for one week.
In the time that both posters were banned, a post made by 'poster2' from over a year ago was brought to our attention by a 3rd party. This post was quite similar to the post that resulted in a permanet ban for 'poster1,' and a demand was made that we take the same action on 'poster2' that we took on 'poster1.'
The one important key difference in our eyes though, are the culmination of events that have taken us to where we are now. The personal information rule was at its inception meant to protect the identity of our users, and as such there would at times be murky grey areas of what crossed the line. As time has gone on, we have taken a much more zero tolerance approach to the personal information rule. What may have been a simple post edit a year ago, may be met with a short or long term ban today.
All parties involved in this personal information war have been well aware of our attitudes concerning their approach to releasing private information. They have been warned privately and publicly many times, and they have had their posts deleted.
Said 3rd party has essentially requested that we ignore the evolution of how we handle the personal information rule, that we should not take into account the buildup of actions taken by our Admin team, that we should disregard our past warnings, private messages and pleas to stop the madness.
They suggest we take harsher action on 'poster2' as if their offending post from a year ago was made in a contemporary timeframe. This does not seem just, nor even close to the same thing as the year old post was never reported to us at the time and only brought up now in an attempt to force our hands into action that we wouldn’t have taken a year ago - as we had barely begun the path then that led us to where we are today.
Thus after extensive deliberation, we do not believe poster2 deserves the same punishment as poster1. Though poster2 made a similar post a year ago to what got poster1 permabanned recently:
The timeframe of the post matters. The difference in the sheer amount of personal information that has been posted in the information war between poster1 and poster2 is huge, and the pattern of ignoring warnings and deletions to escalate and continue to post such information matters. The reporting of such hidden information matters as well, in order to take action we must have some knowledge, to let it stand for more than a year without reporting it matters.
The culmination of our efforts involving edits, deletions, warnings, and private messages over a year long period, matters.
We do not plan on going back more than a year and punishing people for things that were not reported and, at that time, had not even entered our radar.
Instead, in such cases we’ll delete personal information in old posts, and go no further. It doesn't make sense to punish people for doing something at a different time and place than we are at now in regard to the rules and actions taken by the Admin team.
As a very important reminder, and something that cannot be stressed enough, personal information has ALWAYS been against the rules here. 99% of all posters here have understood this rule and have never had any violations. Anyone that has systematically engaged in posting personal information on a regular basis was ALWAYS treading thin ice.
I hope this clears up what has happened on the board of late.
Thank you,
The JPP Admin Team
Cliffnotes:
1) poster1 was permabanned for posting some serious personal info
2) poster 2 was banned for a lesser offense
3) 3rd party found a post by poster2 from a year ago, wants same treatment for poster1 and poster2
4) We believe the offenses are ultimately not equal as poster1's infraction took place after our escalated efforts to curb the personal information war. Poster2's infraction was made at a time when we were less strict and some areas of the personal information rule was still murky.
5) Older posts violating the rule that have gone unnoticed will be edited, and the poster warned. Newer posts violating personal information will be dealt with far more harshly.
P.S. (From Damocles)
I really do appreciate all the people who post here, I respect people who are willing to come and speak about what they believe, disagree, argue and generally care about the direction we take in this nation and the world in general.
I created this board because I care about these things and believe that a place should exist where people can speak their minds. I take action to protect information because I believe that this should happen without constant fear of retribution. This has never been a venture that I thought would make me rich, a hero, or “successful” it is just a place where I can partake in something that I believe to be important, the realm of ideas is a comfortable and exciting place for me and I wanted a place where I could come and speak with friends both on the “left” and “right” and I do consider almost everybody here to be a friend. We share one important thing among us, and that is a space in the realm of ideas.
I hope that we can continue to speak on politics, express ideas, argue, debate, and irritate each other for a long time to come.
Thanks,
Damocles
During the past two weeks we have had some interesting times for this board. There were some people banned, one permanently. This was due to a long-standing personal battle that has been going on since long before these people came to our little corner of the cyberverse.
During the time they have graced us with their presence there have been good times, and some very bad ones. They snarked at each other with brutal cruelty, harassing each other by posting personal (and sometimes very private) information. Sometimes it was blatant, and other times it was done with hidden messages so that the Admin team wouldn’t immediately spot it. In every case it was done to harass and intimidate the other party.
As they escalated the war between themselves, we escalated our answers. Our rules regarding personal information evolved, and became more succinctly defined, to the point where any attempt at posting this private info was dealt with harsher measures. We started editing posts. Sometimes we would delete the posts, tried to intervene, warned, cajoled and finally, just recently, started banning.
During the last two weeks there has been a culmination of this decade long personal battle between these posters. One (henceforth will be referred to as 'poster1') posted information about somebody who isn’t even a member here any longer and hasn’t been for some time. I don’t know why somebody who hasn’t posted in a year or more on the board became a sudden target again, but suffice it to say that they posted information that contained what was supposed to be “hidden” information - but were caught. The information in that post was A) extremely personal and B) made in an attempt to harass and intimidate the other party.
The said post resulted in a permanent ban, and came after years of increased warnings, post edits and post deletions. This person knew full well the extent we were going to clear the board of this material, but continued to ignore our requests until they, in our opinion, posted something that crossed the line.
Around the same time, another party ('poster2') also posted personal information, but it was (in our judgment) overall less disconcerting information, less personal, and it was a less egregious error. We took action against that poster too, and banned them for one week.
In the time that both posters were banned, a post made by 'poster2' from over a year ago was brought to our attention by a 3rd party. This post was quite similar to the post that resulted in a permanet ban for 'poster1,' and a demand was made that we take the same action on 'poster2' that we took on 'poster1.'
The one important key difference in our eyes though, are the culmination of events that have taken us to where we are now. The personal information rule was at its inception meant to protect the identity of our users, and as such there would at times be murky grey areas of what crossed the line. As time has gone on, we have taken a much more zero tolerance approach to the personal information rule. What may have been a simple post edit a year ago, may be met with a short or long term ban today.
All parties involved in this personal information war have been well aware of our attitudes concerning their approach to releasing private information. They have been warned privately and publicly many times, and they have had their posts deleted.
Said 3rd party has essentially requested that we ignore the evolution of how we handle the personal information rule, that we should not take into account the buildup of actions taken by our Admin team, that we should disregard our past warnings, private messages and pleas to stop the madness.
They suggest we take harsher action on 'poster2' as if their offending post from a year ago was made in a contemporary timeframe. This does not seem just, nor even close to the same thing as the year old post was never reported to us at the time and only brought up now in an attempt to force our hands into action that we wouldn’t have taken a year ago - as we had barely begun the path then that led us to where we are today.
Thus after extensive deliberation, we do not believe poster2 deserves the same punishment as poster1. Though poster2 made a similar post a year ago to what got poster1 permabanned recently:
The timeframe of the post matters. The difference in the sheer amount of personal information that has been posted in the information war between poster1 and poster2 is huge, and the pattern of ignoring warnings and deletions to escalate and continue to post such information matters. The reporting of such hidden information matters as well, in order to take action we must have some knowledge, to let it stand for more than a year without reporting it matters.
The culmination of our efforts involving edits, deletions, warnings, and private messages over a year long period, matters.
We do not plan on going back more than a year and punishing people for things that were not reported and, at that time, had not even entered our radar.
Instead, in such cases we’ll delete personal information in old posts, and go no further. It doesn't make sense to punish people for doing something at a different time and place than we are at now in regard to the rules and actions taken by the Admin team.
As a very important reminder, and something that cannot be stressed enough, personal information has ALWAYS been against the rules here. 99% of all posters here have understood this rule and have never had any violations. Anyone that has systematically engaged in posting personal information on a regular basis was ALWAYS treading thin ice.
I hope this clears up what has happened on the board of late.
Thank you,
The JPP Admin Team
Cliffnotes:
1) poster1 was permabanned for posting some serious personal info
2) poster 2 was banned for a lesser offense
3) 3rd party found a post by poster2 from a year ago, wants same treatment for poster1 and poster2
4) We believe the offenses are ultimately not equal as poster1's infraction took place after our escalated efforts to curb the personal information war. Poster2's infraction was made at a time when we were less strict and some areas of the personal information rule was still murky.
5) Older posts violating the rule that have gone unnoticed will be edited, and the poster warned. Newer posts violating personal information will be dealt with far more harshly.
P.S. (From Damocles)
I really do appreciate all the people who post here, I respect people who are willing to come and speak about what they believe, disagree, argue and generally care about the direction we take in this nation and the world in general.
I created this board because I care about these things and believe that a place should exist where people can speak their minds. I take action to protect information because I believe that this should happen without constant fear of retribution. This has never been a venture that I thought would make me rich, a hero, or “successful” it is just a place where I can partake in something that I believe to be important, the realm of ideas is a comfortable and exciting place for me and I wanted a place where I could come and speak with friends both on the “left” and “right” and I do consider almost everybody here to be a friend. We share one important thing among us, and that is a space in the realm of ideas.
I hope that we can continue to speak on politics, express ideas, argue, debate, and irritate each other for a long time to come.
Thanks,
Damocles
You HAVE been gone a while.