Anyway, she had mentioned some of the forum's silly rules so I decided to dip my toe in the water ... sure, I was tweaking the mods name but I thought what I posted was ok. I even read the forum rules before posting. The one that I infringed ...
#3 - For your privacy and security do not post any private information including emails, personal pages, and usernames on other sites or IM's on the open forums.
So - what did I post ... "I haven't been watching the second season of Seeker ... mainly I am watching The Mentalist - those guys make me laugh. BTW - if anyone wants to email me, my email is ruff dot hi at gmail dot com. I know that this breaches #3 but I waive my privacy and security in this instance - that email address is more than safe enough".
So - what happened? The post got deleted and I got banned (no warning, no email, just blocked from posting). Pretty bad hey! Other forums that I am on have a warning system so you know when you are pushing the rules. So, was that the worst part? No, my wife also got banned - because I broke the rules. Everyone thinks that my post was actually by Kareyn ... she didn't even know about it and her faced drained of color when I told her about it.
Reading further, I find that pricescope isn't actually a community forum ... it is a privately owned site that restricts member to member contact, does not allow you to post links to flickr, imageshack or the like ("To reduce the number of broken links and keep the forum clean" - what a lame excuse). They allow you to upload pictures, but anything ... ANYTHING that you do upload, post, contribute, etc remains yours but they have full rights to use. You better not post the cure to cancer on their website because they will rob you blind. Here is that section of their forum agreement ...
The Company does not claim ownership of Content you submit or make available for inclusion on the Forum Service. However, by making Content available via the Forum Service You automatically grant (or warrant that the owner of such materials expressly granted) to the Company a perpetual, royalty-free, irrevocable, nonexclusive right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and display, create derivative works from and distribute such materials or incorporate such materials into any form, medium, or technology now known or later developed.
You hereby waive all moral rights in any Content that you author and make available via the Forum Service. You warrant that all moral rights have been waived by the authors of any Content You make available.
The Company, it's staff and it's moderators reserve the full right to remove, edit or move posts by users at anytime without cause or notice.
You hereby waive all moral rights in any Content that you author and make available via the Forum Service. You warrant that all moral rights have been waived by the authors of any Content You make available.
The Company, it's staff and it's moderators reserve the full right to remove, edit or move posts by users at anytime without cause or notice.
If they were really concerned about privacy and security, they would force everyone to mail (not email!) their posts in, then a mod would physically remove all identifying information and post the balance. Wait, that wouldn't work - the mods would have your postal address. Guess you would have to put your post inside an envelope and then inside another one - they open the first and throw all of the others into a big bin, then open the others - that would break the link between your post and your postal address. I'll wait for them to implement that level of security and privacy!
