Banned members say remove my post

[Tim1456]

Good that this was discussed already. I have recently was thinking about this and thought in such a situation the person maintains its right to ask for the removal of his/her content.

So far regarding banning I only had to deal with spambots / spam accounts so the account was removed with the "also remove posts" checkbox checked.

Personally I would still prefer to remove the posts of such a user, as, who wants to read the... stuff of one such a person, most probably if deserves a ban the person doesn't worth respect nor attention and even his/her sane posts should be treated the same.

Content should never become more important than rejecting what is unacceptable.

 

[djbaxter]

Often I will remove content on request, as long as it doesn't mess up the flow of the thread. The question was do you have to? The answer is no. But you may prefer to for several reasons, not the least of which is to stop the whining emails and get rid of the member.

 

[cooljeba]

Omg I am going to change my toss such a way that not only do I own their content but also them there property everything


Sent from my GT-I9003 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Daphne]

Coming from someone who was inappropriately "banned" from a site, yes you should definitely remove anything that was started by that member and possibly other posts that might be considered personal in nature.

My situation was a bit different however. The board owner who "banned" me didn't really ban me. He just made it so I had to go through moderation for every post that I made, was unable to send private messages AND he removed my access to a section of the board which had personally identifying information about me. He did this with no notice, so I had no opportunity to remove the content I wouldn't want others having access to without me being able to respond (It was an online dating advice site, if that helps clear up any confusion). The board was still new (less than a month old) so the amount of posts was low and removing the threads I started should have been no big deal.

If you deal with personal information (even in a private, permission based setting) you should always consider removing posts that hold any of that information.

 

[Librarian2000]

As a general rule - it's rarely advisable to allow members to post personal or RL identifying information and should that occur, those posts should be removed, especially if requested by the 'former' user.

For everything else - the vast majority of the time these 'remove my posts' demands are attempts to disrupt the board out of malice.

I have been told by someone who works in the publishing industry in the US that the rule on their forums is that nothing is removed except under circumstances of copyright issues - specifically plagiarism or the poster has the opportunity to actually 'sell' something they had posted. (As in an article or piece of fiction being picked up by a magazine.)

 

[tracymw]

Have any of you ever received a Cease and Desist order or Court Order from members to remove their post? If so, how did you handle it?

 

[Librarian2000]

Frankly, paying a real attorney to file a cease and desist order is just plain harassment (unless the forum is breaking the law by keeping up copyrighted material or otherwise legally actionable material in which case the forum owner should be hearing from the police.)

But hey, if they want to send their money... As to a court order - it's extraordinarily unlikely any reasonable judge would look at demands to remove content from a forum as anything but frivolousness and a waste of the court's time - unless there are real copyright issues as in posts contained material belonging to 'fill-in-the-blank professional-author'. In which case the poster should be the one in trouble for posting it in the first place.

Just as an aside, real attorneys contact people by registered mail - not by threatening phone calls.

 

[tracymw]

I posted a thread "Legal Issues" to explain my situation. I agree that removing ones post and threads are not right. I have owned a few forums and would never do that just because they got mad and left. But my issue is a serious issue as my site was basically stolen from me and moved to another domain and it's turned into a porn site and I have pictures of my children posted there. It's stressing me out to the point of making me sick!!

 

[CMOBOSS]

Okay, when a user is banned - the posts/content of the user becomes the communities' right? Have you ever had a banned member come on another account and tell you to remove the posts? I don't do it, I just ban the account and that's it because my community doesn't need drama from that member - and if you posted, it was because you enjoyed the community.


So, if a banned member told you to remove all his/her posts, what would you do?

I would just inform the banned user that I am sorry for their inappropriate behavior being the cause of their inability to edit their posts or account. Inform them of the time period the ban lasts for, and welcome them to return after the ban ends... To edit or modify their account and post details as permitted by tos and board permissions/restrictions.

Lol

 

[Librarian2000]

I posted a thread "Legal Issues" to explain my situation. I agree that removing ones post and threads are not right. I have owned a few forums and would never do that just because they got mad and left. But my issue is a serious issue as my site was basically stolen from me and moved to another domain and it's turned into a porn site and I have pictures of my children posted there. It's stressing me out to the point of making me sick!!

In your case - you have genuine copyright AND child protection issues on your side. Assuming they and you are in the USA - child protection is a serious issue and there is the law to back you and and probably shut them down. (Children + Porn site?)

 

[dojo]

Whatever they post in the forums remains there. They can have the account changed to another name, different address etc. But the posts remain. I don't delete posts even if asked by people who never caused problems, but left the forum, won't budge for someone I kicked out for really stepping on my admin toes

 

[Timothy Vander]

Yes. But what would you do if you received a DMCA takedown notice (sent to the hosting company) demanding that you delete the banned members posts on the grounds that it was copyright? Would you go through the hassle of defending it or would you simply give in as the easier and less hassle option? I believe the hosting company itself would delete the actual content rather that yourself although I may well be wrong.

 

[zappaDPJ]

I believe the hosting company itself would delete the actual content rather that yourself although I may well be wrong.

Under the circumstances described that is the most likely scenario. Your only options would be to remove the content or file a counter-notice which rarely happens.

Welcome to TAZ!

 

[Timothy Vander]

Thanks for your reply. Does this apply even if the posts are plainly not copyright in the sense that the poster himself or herself put them on to the forum in the first place for everyone to see. And does this apply even when the matter is covered in the TOS? Does the hosting company even look into the matter in the first place? Thanks again in advance.

 

[zappaDPJ]

In my experience it depends on the host. Some will take the entire site down and leave it to the site owner to remove all the offending material while others will give you a certain amount of time to comply with the notice before taking the site down. From first-hand experience I'd say it's unlikely that a host can be persuaded to ignore the notice.

 

[ethan]

If you write your terms of use right (honestly most forums should have this stock), it will clearly state all content posted on the forum; regardless of who posted it, is owned by the forum (notwithstanding previous copyrights). They're using your service and while they have a right to privacy and ect, they're willingly posting content on your forum and should be doing so with the understanding that it's your forum and the content sticks. Same way that Facebook and Twitter "own" all tweets posted, not really the people tweeting.

It's been answered best with this - Should you? Depends on the situation, I have in the past, but do you have to? By no means, and a DMCA/cease and desist would be easily disputable unless they explicitly copyrighted/'own' it. (I.e, a news post/article would have more merit than a casual post for this), but honestly if they actually lawyer up to get you to take something down, chances are it's not worth you fighting over it.

 

[Timothy Vander]

Good heavens! Would the host actually take the whole site down and not just the offending bits?

 

[John Yoerger]

A common misconception about DCMA takedown notices is that your hosting provider will just permanently delete your content. In actuality, hosting providers are only obligated to remove content after they have received a court order to do so. They may have certain internal policies (like GoDaddy, who will remove your content for 10-14 days, and if they do not receive a court order, will restore it- and they will always contact you and ask you to remove it within a 48 hour window before hand). If you have a hosting provider that just removes your content at the drop of a hat when a DCMA comes in, you need a new hosting provider. There's been plenty of online trolls that send in DCMA's for pure enjoyment of screwing with Administrators.

 

[ethan]

You also can keep the content on (in case of a DMCA) and declare that you intend to contest the claim. The host has to restore the content and notify the filer of your intent.

They'd then need to lawyer up to actually pursue it, which means you'd need to in return, but it's usually a good move if the DMCA is obviously stupid/won't result in anything - they obviously won't pay for a lawyer over it.

 

[zappaDPJ]

Good heavens! Would the host actually take the whole site down and not just the offending bits?

Definitely. In fact I'm struggling to think of an instance where that hasn't been the case but it's more likely that they will give you time to remove the content yourself. In addition, as said above, hosting companies won't delete your site or any of your content including the content which is the subject of the take down notice, but they might well take it off-line.