Terms of Service re: abusive and inflammatory language

[Sheila]

Dear Board Moderators,

You may wish to reiterate the TOS (Terms of Service) for interacting on this board, particularly those related to abusive and inflammatory language. Thanks to a few isolated users, you are losing contributors to the BBS who are not interested in dealing with obnoxious folks. Board moderators need to, well, moderate.

Thanks for your time.

[Kim Mance]

Agreed, Sheila. It can really kill a cool forum to indulge someone seeking attention with negative personal attacks, rather than just banning them. But it apparently makes BBS liable for some sort of legal problems if they moderate, at least that's what I think I understood from a phone conversation with the moderator recently. I see how that makes it tricky for them. I'll just stay out of the fray in the meantime...

[Sheila]

Well, now that I've poked around some, part of the problem is that there don't seem to BE any Terms of Service (TOS) for the Travelwriters.com BBS like we're used to seeing (for example, here's the one for mediabistro.com - http://www.webmediabrands.com/corporate/legal.html )

Sure, you can't legally block someone off of a board if you haven't provided TOS for them to fail to meet.

So, either come up with some rules, then enforce them, or good luck keeping this board alive and away from trolls.

[Keith Kellett]

Yes, but are there any legal problems if there's a system like on Twitter, where an individual can block anyone they like (or rather, don't like)?

[Shannon]

This forum was a gold mine for me in the beginning of my freelance career. There were many helpful posters offering invaluable comments to help out the newbies. I will be forever grateful to those who offered sound advice, both on and off this board. Thank you.

Unfortunately, there is one member on here who has not only harassed me personally on this board and in private, but he has also harassed numerous users over the years. Since the moderators don't feel it is within their means to moderate what was once such a useful forum, I will make at least one user very happy. I am seeking advice and will give assistance elsewhere.

Travelwriters.com, you had a good thing. What a shame to allow a nut-brain to ruin this community. You have allowed a coward who hides behind a moniker to wreak havoc on women travel writers worldwide and won't do a thing about it.

I guess it's a good thing I know what his real name is.

[Mike Gerrard]

I'll break my silence to say 'hear, hear'.

[Sheila]

Hey, moderator....

I reiterate - there's a reason why this board's gone quiet. The most recent example from today:

"by Islandboy50 » February 22nd, 2010, 6:55 pm - Don't let the door hit your fat ass on the way out, sweetie."

No one wants to put up with trolls. Lay out some Terms of Service and then enforce them, or good luck keeping the board alive (or getting anyone to pay a dime for your paid services.)

Thanks for your consideration,

Sheila Scarborough

[Islandboy50 *]

"...there is one member on here who has not only harassed me personally on this board and in private, but he has also harassed numerous users over the years. "

I have never "harrassed" either you personally on this board or in private, so you are a liar, Shannon Lane. In every single last exchange that has happened on this forum between us, that has been you and you alone that has initiated attacks. But I have never ever done anything that amounts to either harrassment and certainly not in private. You, on the other hand, have abused your access to private information available online to state authorities through virtue of your day job to go and illegally announce information on a public forum. You know, such as someone's birth date. Bad move. And if you were contacted by me about anything else aside from that piece of harrassment, you damn well know that was because I inquired why you failed to follow through (as usual) on your much touted podcasting venture with someone I'd suggested. She's remembered that too. Another bad move by you.

As to the one-way insults and snide condescension you enjoy dishing out? My advice to you is don't dish out what you cannot stomach taking. You are the one with the long and ugly track record of needless disputes, needless drama, needless accusations being made by you "over the years". Shall we recount your litle antics with Jeanne Dee on this board where the thread actually did get wiped out because the moderator got sick of your usual sliming of others? The long. long recitations of being "stalked" and "non-payment" by dead publishers in entire threads -- all of which were nothing but your own problems brought on by you? Let's not forget your supposed new publication announced on this forum that had people (and not me, either) writing in to ask you why you were trying to scam other writers, and right on this board?

Pretty mind-boggling, coming from someone predictably playing the victim card and who has abused this board repeatedly with her self-serving antics.

"What a shame to allow ..."

And what a shame to bother answering the rest of your venom, so why don't you just stick it.

[David Whitley]

Agreed. Travelwriters.com was extremely useful to me when I started out. It's sad to see it die. It's partly a natural progression of things (many more active members have moved into other fields), partly because a lot of us now converse over Twitter and partly because of the unnecessary vitriol.

By the way, Islandboy50 - do you know a chap called Hal Peat? He seems to have left a few remarkably similar diatribes as comments on my own site. Alas, I've had to delete the more nonsensical ones because they were blatantly off-topic.

[Sheila]

Bingo, Mr. Whitley.