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Firstly let me thank you for the measures you have taken.
But there are also loopholes in your enforcement that allow abusers to circumvent your system and intentions. Firstly, it takes forever to get any response when a report is made.
Secondly, you know that as soon as you delete posts, new ones pop up immediately by the abusers, usually worse than before. You also know that repeat violators use multiple accounts. If you delete an account, repeat offenders just make a new username.
Thirdly, taking the measure of deactivating accounts engaged in illegal behavior is easily reversed if the offender re-validates the account using an online webpage that can recieve TXT messsages as if it were a phone. Those pages are everywhere, and they are free.
Finally, the hackers and trolls use multiple sock accounts to report perfectly valid, on-topic posts to get them deleted, and your automated system allows it.
A few simple measures would fix this problem:
1. Watermark every post with a public display of the originating IP address, as is done with every quality message board. That reduces the false sense of anonymity and therefore reduces the frequency and intensity of abuse.
2. If you delete an account, BAN the IP from whence it came, and do not let anyone create a username that matches the sequence of numbers and letters in the banned username by greater than some arbitrary percentage (say 25%). This will keep people from getting banned with "JonDoe_1" and then creating account "JonDoe_2" immediately after being deleted.
3. If you wipe an account and require re-authorization, do not allow cell phone re-authorization more than once; after that, only allow credit cards. Track the numbers of the credit cards, and if they have been used to validate an account in the past that was wiped, do not allow re-use of the same card for a different username.
4. Require that all new accounts go through a probationary period of 30 days before being allowed to post. You can easily do this without modifying code by setting the "post quota" countdown to 30 days whenever a new account is created.
5. Finally, in cases where there are threats of physical violence being made, you must lock the posts, save them, and refer these threats to Law Enforcement for the safety of your customers.
Deleting a few posts or even wiping a history means NOTHING to trolls and abusers on this website. IMDB has an ethical, legal, and fiduciary responsibility to move swiftly when threats are made, and there should be a ZERO TOLERANCE. And that means account deletion and permanent bans.
AOL only allowed three TOS violations before your account was suspended, and AOL sucked. Don't you want to aspire to be better than AOL? Regardless of the legal risks you expose yourself to by failing to act decisively in cases of stalking and abuse, the far greater price IMDB will pay for allowing such abuse is that no quality people will return to your boards, and you will end up with nothing but a but a bunch of vulgar, hateful, spiteful trolls and abusers on your site, and that's not what you really want for your company, I think, nor do I.
Finally, consider that underage children can read every post made.
And you allow people to continue to verbally abuse, harass, stalk and threaten your honest contributors using tactics and language that belongs in a strip club or a KKK rally?
Do the right thing. Please.
Thank You,
John Michael Hall
But there are also loopholes in your enforcement that allow abusers to circumvent your system and intentions. Firstly, it takes forever to get any response when a report is made.
Secondly, you know that as soon as you delete posts, new ones pop up immediately by the abusers, usually worse than before. You also know that repeat violators use multiple accounts. If you delete an account, repeat offenders just make a new username.
Thirdly, taking the measure of deactivating accounts engaged in illegal behavior is easily reversed if the offender re-validates the account using an online webpage that can recieve TXT messsages as if it were a phone. Those pages are everywhere, and they are free.
Finally, the hackers and trolls use multiple sock accounts to report perfectly valid, on-topic posts to get them deleted, and your automated system allows it.
A few simple measures would fix this problem:
1. Watermark every post with a public display of the originating IP address, as is done with every quality message board. That reduces the false sense of anonymity and therefore reduces the frequency and intensity of abuse.
2. If you delete an account, BAN the IP from whence it came, and do not let anyone create a username that matches the sequence of numbers and letters in the banned username by greater than some arbitrary percentage (say 25%). This will keep people from getting banned with "JonDoe_1" and then creating account "JonDoe_2" immediately after being deleted.
3. If you wipe an account and require re-authorization, do not allow cell phone re-authorization more than once; after that, only allow credit cards. Track the numbers of the credit cards, and if they have been used to validate an account in the past that was wiped, do not allow re-use of the same card for a different username.
4. Require that all new accounts go through a probationary period of 30 days before being allowed to post. You can easily do this without modifying code by setting the "post quota" countdown to 30 days whenever a new account is created.
5. Finally, in cases where there are threats of physical violence being made, you must lock the posts, save them, and refer these threats to Law Enforcement for the safety of your customers.
Deleting a few posts or even wiping a history means NOTHING to trolls and abusers on this website. IMDB has an ethical, legal, and fiduciary responsibility to move swiftly when threats are made, and there should be a ZERO TOLERANCE. And that means account deletion and permanent bans.
AOL only allowed three TOS violations before your account was suspended, and AOL sucked. Don't you want to aspire to be better than AOL? Regardless of the legal risks you expose yourself to by failing to act decisively in cases of stalking and abuse, the far greater price IMDB will pay for allowing such abuse is that no quality people will return to your boards, and you will end up with nothing but a but a bunch of vulgar, hateful, spiteful trolls and abusers on your site, and that's not what you really want for your company, I think, nor do I.
Finally, consider that underage children can read every post made.
And you allow people to continue to verbally abuse, harass, stalk and threaten your honest contributors using tactics and language that belongs in a strip club or a KKK rally?
Do the right thing. Please.
Thank You,
John Michael Hall
Posted 6 years ago
LuvsToResearch, Champion
