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| Copyright |
September 21, 2004 16:08 AST
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As this product is on a constant evolution, we occasionally provide new and/or additional information about various issues that occur on certain topics and content on this site. Recently, in order to preserve the quality of our product, we had to review and enhance our Terms & Conditions of use of this site. In regards to that and to other related topics that occurred online, we are releasing this document to respond to some of the concerns and related requests.
Terms & Conditions
The Terms & Conditions of use of this site is located at http://www.universalthread.com/Term.asp. This document is on acceptance of any new members that join this site. It is used to provide the overall guidelines of a good conduct for the users of this site and to provide information from a management point of view. For those who ignored that document during the account creation process or for simply reviewing, we invite anyone interested to read it again. Most of the concerns expressed by members recently are mentioned and detailed in this document.
Internet Trolling
Recently, as there was some exaggerated situations about Internet trolling, we had to review our Terms & Conditions and decide if we would have to apply this or not. The decision we took was to implement it. We have reviewed the terminologies which relate to that action and we decided that it was time to implement such rule in order to preserve a good and peaceful environment for the users of our product.
Despite the fact that we have tolerated related context in the past, after having done some analysis on prior situations and related topics, we figured this rule was more than welcome to be added to the Terms & Conditions of this site. We understand that the Internet trolling is something that is subjective which may make some users of such site uncomfortable with. For a good reference, this site contains a great definition of what Internet trolling is all about: http://members.aol.com/intwg/trolls.htm
The Internet trolling rule became effective on September 17, 2004. As of the release date of this document, no profile on this site has been or is subject to investigation on this rule.
Sensitive messages
The markup of sensitive messages is something that has been in effect since a few years. As requested by members, the markup of sensitive messages provide the ability for members to adjust their profile to such messages won’t appear when reading new messages.
Such messages may contain materials which relates to broken rules such as vulgarities, profanities, blasting of other members and personal threats. It may also be a message which simply contains specific wording which may offend certain members.
It is impossible for the Universal Thread administration to read all messages. This is why we encourage members, such as described in our Terms & Conditions page, to notify us when such messages may be present. It will be our pleasure to read the related messages and mark them as sensitive if applicable.
As the ability to mark messages as sensitive is an option which has seen the light of day after a few years of operation, it means that a certain amount of messages in the past may not have been marked. If such messages are offending specific members, we also encourage them to notify us so we can verify the related ones.
Many have established a relationship between assumed banned members and the markup of sensitive messages. There is absolutely no relation between them. When a message is marked as sensitive, it does not mean that the member has been notified, has been banned or is about to banned. However, some will interpret such meaning if a member is related to several sensitive messages which may be true in such case.
It is important to understand that a message which is marked as sensitive relates to a specific content created in it originally and not within the quoted text. Otherwise, in many cases, we would have to mark the entire thread and members who would reply to such a message would believed to be tagged to such context when it wouldn’t the case.
We also understand that many would simply want to not see all the related messages as well, assuming they would filter the sensitive messages, when the quoted text contains the related terminologies. In that situation, we recommend to filter the thread.
It is also important to understand the difference of a message which is marked sensitive and another one which wouldn’t be when the same referenced word could be in effect. When a phrase has been written with such wording such as insulting another member, it will be marked sensitive as soon as brought to our attention. But, if another member simply use the same word as a reference in his text such as in quote, this doesn’t mean the message should be marked as sensitive.
Basically, this is probably one of the most important topics which are subject to interpretation by anyone using this site. But, the terminology says it all. A sensitive context could be sensitive to a person and not to another. We reserve the right, as usual, to mark or not a message as we wish for the related context.
Adjustment for specific sensitive messages
Recently, and in the past, we have marked some messages as sensitive when the word “crap” was used. In many context, the terminology was used when a member was blasting someone else by increasing the tone of the context which such wordings. While many members will simply get offended by the use of such wording, and while many of us believe that a more appropriate wording should be used to describe the related context, as requested by several members, we will unmark messages which have been marked as sensitive if that was the only reason.
Note that there could be several messages which have been marked over the years and within the following days, we will do our best to locate them. So, again, after a while, if some members find messages that should be unmarked, they will be more than welcome to inform us.
Banishment procedures
On all related topics that have evolved recently, it is our understanding that one of the most popular was related to the request of how exactly the banishment procedures work. While many have assumed and extrapolated on various related topics, here are the general guidelines.
Again, some of that is described in our Terms & Conditions of use page.
In that document, it is noted that depending on the severity of the situation, when one of the Terms & Conditions has been violated, we may try to contact the member and/or simply proceed with the proper procedures in order to ensure the good running of the site.
So, basically, it doesn’t mean someone will be notified before such an action. Some reasons for that could be that we could simply not reach the individual as the account is simply fake, the phone number provided is simply invalid and not responding and for some other related reasons. In some cases, it could be because the severity of the situation is already so high that we could proceed directly to such action. However, so far, it is assumed that related individuals associated to such an action have been notified and recommended to adjust to our Terms & Conditions.
There is no voting process nor will that ever be into this site to collect and populate feedback from other members on such action. This is an administrative decision only and no justification has to be given, despite the fact that we have and sometimes continue to provide some such as we did recently and such as in this document.
There is also no standard on the re-insertion process. This is not something which is part of our administrative procedures. Some individuals may have benefited of such gratitude from the administration of this site but this is not something that is likely to be considered. Assuming such situation, we simply show zero tolerance on further related actions.
For those who had some concerns about potential refunds that might occur when someone is subject to the banishment procedures, as per our Terms & Conditions, this is not applicable. When members are banned from the site, any prior payments are not reimbursed.
The banishment procedures include networking and other physical security restrictions. That can be the blocking of specific Internet IP classes which could affect personal and corporate connections. If the administration judges that the situation requires it so, it can also coordinate efforts with the authorities for various reasons, also defined in our Terms & Conditions.
While the security restrictions in regards to the blocking of IP addresses serves as a first level networking security mechanism, it should be understood that this mostly serves as discouraging the related individuals to bypass our security mechanisms and to respect the banishment procedures. Without doing anything, it would be too easy for someone to simply keep continuing to use the site and create additional accounts which would probably contain false information. This is a situation we have faced before at several occasions and we believe that the additional security measures that we apply are usually working well. We understand that anyone could use a new Internet connection, go in an Internet cafe, use the Internet by the use of a Proxy or any other trick to use a different route to the requested host. However, as those restrictions are in effect in regards to the writing restrictions we have applied, anyone who would simply insist by using different backdoors will simply face a more severe situation as soon as we would have collected enough evidences and proofs of such actions which would simply force us to make use of legal actions such as detailed in our Terms & Conditions.
In regards to that specific topic, it is also understood that anyone being aware of an individual in such situation who would provide him/her access to our site through VPN or by any other means of remote access, in order to allow that individual to bypass our security mechanism either by creating a new account or allowing his/her account to be shared with that individual, could also be affected during the process.
Complaints from members
Every member on the site has the ability to issue a formal complaint to the administration. That can be done either by email or by private message. A message created to all members will not be considered a formal complaint.
For the security of the individuals, we recommend to fill your complaints by the use of the mentioned mechanisms. Doing it online could create a sensitive security context between the related parties.
There is also no relation between complaints and administrative decisions.
Updating a message
Recently, we have found a pattern some isolated individuals are doing on the site. The feature of updating a message is great and allows members to fix typos, layout and such. However, we have discovered that some are using that feature to remove vulgarities, threats, insults, personal attacks and other related topics form their message as soon as they discover that the message has been marked sensitive.
Members should know that, even if a message has been marked sensitive and that nothing in it seems to justify that, that the situation described in the above paragraph could be in effect. This has been the case recently from various messages. Some members could become afraid of being banned after having created such message. In that situation, they could benefit of the update ability to remove those unpleasant words. This doesn’t change anything as we have all original messages in here and this is what we use in such situation for our investigation.
Note that one justification to rely on the original content is that, even if no reply is present, many members could have read the message before the update took place. So, in this context, it doesn’t change anything as the original content has already been used by several members.
Removal of content
Recently, a request was brought to our attention to remove an entire thread because a member was not aware that specific information present in the content of the message wasn’t suppose to be known to the public.
In the past, we also received requests to remove some other threads about NDA information in regards to beta version of a product which shouldn’t have been posted.
The administration of the site cannot respond to such request as we do not remove posted content. It is the responsibility of each member to verify the accuracy of their “about to be posted” content. The administration cannot take any responsibility for what is being written by its members.
One situation where we could remove a message is when a duplicate message has been submitted such as a double click on the save button or something related to that. But, that can only apply if no reply has been done to the duplicate message as the other copy of the message would serve for that purpose in such context.
Another situation is when the administration is doing some testing on the product. In such situations, a message could be created and will be removed after.
Private messages
It should be known to the members that the content sent by the use of a private message on the site is also bound to the Terms & Conditions.
The private message option is among the options supported by the product thus applicable to the same Terms & Conditions.
A targeted member may decide to expose to the administration the content of such message for investigation.
Quoted private content
The administration of the site has been victims of quoted private content at several occasions in the past. The same has happened between members when they were exchanging private messages and suddenly some quoted text has been moved into a public discussion.
Members should know that this practice can have severe consequences. This is especially true when a highly confidential email is being sent and suddenly, some of its content is broadcasted to public.
Among other things, some consequences could affect the image integrity of the related members and could be the cause of additional unwanted private discussions. In most of these situations, only a fraction of the content would be used at the advantage of the related party which could harm the other party involved. We ask one more time to think twice before doing such an action.
62 Rue Doucet, Petit-Rocher, New Brunswick, E8J 1L3
Telephone: 1-506-783-9007 Email: mfournier@levelextreme.com