Banning / deleting people from Forums - freedom of speech etc
 

As a forum owner, if someone pissed you off, you are free to ban and delete them, it's your site right?

I just banned someone from a mainstream site I run (with very good cause), and this muppet is sending me emails now about freedom of speech, constitutional rights etc, and even (I LOL'd) threatening to sue me because of it.

The site is hosted in the US. Surfers / members have no rights on my site do they? I should be at liberty to ban people at will, it's a privately run site, and I'm not answerable to anyone, correct?

tell them you are sorry, unban them and then install the 'miserable user' hack

he has no rights on your site legally at all - you don't need to give him a reason even.

i do think if a private business were to kick out people based on race or religion they'd probably have a case.

That's what blogs are for...

You are allowed to refuse service to any person as a business is yours to run and protect as you see fit. Access to your forum is a privilege, not a right.

Exactly.

All those who oppose raise your hands!

That is exactly what I thought. Thanks for the confirmation.

yeah ... and if people are visiting your forum for years, then you kill someone in real life and people will start asking you as the forum owner you will ban them? i mean, you can do what you want at your forum, but first you have to ask yourself if you are not pissing in the face to your loyal members ...

Sounds simple at first... but if you are suppling a service that the community comes to depend on, not being a member can be a big disadvantage,,,,,

Imagine being banned by Google, or a photographer being banned by the only photographic site?

If your site has an important role in your community, you will have obligations as well as rights, moral if not legal.

Too cryptic for me Teencat. Did I say cryptic, I meant total and utter dross as usual.

sorry for my bad english ... so if you are now saying something about what happenned at gfy, i say it was a big fault and a big fuck off to everyone who is working hard in this industry. its your forum, but if you are the main webmasters forum you cannot support thiefs as cops cannot support thiefs or killers, if you think so, i am happy i am not a part of your forums ... once again, what gfy did is wrong! but its their fight :2 cents:

I'm not referencing GFY at all. I have a smallish forum with around 20K people, in a specific niche, and one individual has been pissing a lot of people off. He overstepped the mark, and I'm sick of the idiot.

i have been running forums for 10 years now, with max 500k uniques daily and 5k threads per day. i think i know the people you are talking about, and the one and only thing is "do not feed the troll". he was there to make problems, he will try to make problems in future, and if you want to make problems you need the second side. just stop communicating with him and he will end in nervous agony one day :) believe me, that is the only one way, there is no other! :)

I use to run a mainstream forum too. I never banned anyone, but I added some code that didn't allow anyone else to see their silly posts. So they would be 0 read 0 replied all the time. They would bitch with more threads but no one could see them. Not even me.. lol It was funny, after a while they would just register new accounts and they would also be "banned" the same way. They soon got sick of it and pissed off.

your board, your rules...

Your board is just like a private club - you make your own rules.
(I know a few in Florida where you can still smoke in the dining room, while the whole state is smoke free)

Telll you member to eat shit, as he is shit out of luck.

I have been a moderator on several webmaster boards and even one now - if the board has rules then they must be observed. Moderators should not just go on who they like or dislike and what they say about you, but if they cross the line and break one of the rules then they are banned. Simple as that.

Can moderators/boards go over board? Yes, one such board I was on banned someone that was never breaking rules but only mod's didn't like him - so I left and do not visit that board anymore. GFY on the other hand has good moderator's who know the rules and simply don't ban based on a whim but ONLY if the rules are broken, even then they try and give warnings first.

Freedom of speech is not what is being thrown out there as you see many threads dedicated to the subject(s) and from my knowledge the threads are still there as are the posters.

In your situation, the poster knew when they signed up (or should have known) that breaking the rules would result in banning - and as a moderator you know that anyone can use Freedom of Speech as an excuse. Saying you want to harm someone can be said as freedom of speech, but it is illegal so there are limits to that freedom. Freedom comes with responsibility not to abuse it.

you can ban whoever for no reason and aint shit anyone can do

I am interested in your take on this....

I joined Purestorm as it has a lot of good models looking for work, I was willing to abide by their rules etc....

They banned me without any comeback just because of our erotic website, even though I did not do anything. Their website is a majot resource for finding models and we are not allowed to offer work to these models, even though we have done nothing wrong.

They do not answer e-mails. I am sure there are lots of examples of people being banned just for their part in adult work....

The 1st amendment applies to the GOVERNMENT not to businesses.

:2 cents:

"Freedom of speech" generally means that a government will not suppress a citizen's right to political speech.

Tell him to start his own loudmouth forum...

Yes, there is freedom of speech, but a business owner has the right to regulate what is said on his/her forum, right?

Yeah, I thought the same thing.

LOL, I like that option. I'll put it to my programmer. :1orglaugh

Thanks for the responses everyone, I thought this idiot was barking up the wrong tree.

Private property, tell them to eat a dick then GFY.

freedom of speech applies to public speech, not speech made publicly in a private forum

I CAN walk into a McDonalds and start talking up Burger King, but I have a funny feeling I will be told to leave and if I refuse that I could be arrested for public nuisance


spaz

In all meanings, your visitor is your customer and you shouldn't discriminate anyone.
One other hand you can protect your business.

In world of interweb, you can e-mail him nice "fuck off"

But if he just made some stupid mistake and he's fine and calm just unban him and keep rolling ;)

you have never eluded to running a successful forum in the past. can you send me an email if your interested in selling a banner add? My ideal target would be adult (18+) surfers, can be mainstream site or adult... either one would work well.

The program (not adult paysites) will be launched shortly and needs some surfer lovin

thanks... :thumbsup

mmcfadden at vstrippoker dot com

Tell him to let him sue you, LOL the judge will throw him in jail for being an idiot