Harrassment

[Ashley]

It has come to the staff's attention that there have been some abuse and/or harrasment going on within our ranks. This deeply disturbs us and we want to put a stop to it as soon as we can; it's our job to provide a safe, comfortable environment for all of our members.

What is harrassment? - For these purposes, anyone pressuring you into an uncomfortable conversation, to post/share your picture or other personal information, asking to meet up, or prodding you about your dating life, etc. The key word here is pressure.

What can you do? - First off, remember that you do NOT have to do anything someone like this tells you to. Secondly, the most important thing you can do is to contact the administration. PM, email, IM--however you want to is up to you. Contact any one of us immediately with what's going on and we will handle it. Also, if you think of it, save any transcripts--these will help us tremendously.

We take this issue very seriously and want to see it resolved as quickly as we can.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

agreed!

[Zarn Ishtare]

Good call Ash.

[Solid Ronin]

A good idea ,Indeed . However this new issue leaves me troubled as one would think of CAA has a good place that one wouldn't hafta worry about such things.

[Ashley]

Well, from what I understand most of the problem seems to be users joining with the sole intent of getting girl members AIM/YM/MSN names and then harrasing them through that. This is not uncommon to any message board, and certainly not unique to ours. So there is really nothing we can do besides tracking these people down and removing them as they appear--even if we were to screen members before they join like other message boards, there would be no way to catch all of them, especially since you can rarely judge a stalker or harrasser like this based on a user name.

Don't get me wrong though, we're going to fight this with everything in us and won't rest until everyone here is safe and comfortable.

[panegryst]

thanks for your dedication, mods

[Kura Ookami]

I hope you and the admins/mods can be successful. I pray for the best.

[Mangafanatic]

That's scary. Thanks for taking it so serious, mods!

[Mr. SmartyPants]

that... just wrong, joining for the sole purpose to harrass others

[Vyse]

Don't tell me its that one dude again... gah...

[Nate]

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day...she said one guy told her, "Yeah, Ashley doesn't let me look for romance on the boards, but I do anyway." She said he was banned (yay for mods! W00t!).

It's disturbing to think that there are people here with the sole intention of obtaining information on people of the opposite sex...ESPECIALLY if they're under 18...I know they play that "sexual predators" commercial like 15 times a day here in Virginia...

It must be a tough job, especially since even if you ban a person, they can come back with a different username...

So go get 'em, mods! You guys are awesome!

[Fsiphskilm]

[quote="Ashley"]W

[Solid Ronin]

That's so.... Hilarious & Scary at the same time. Kind of... sad.

Hey Ashley? Jot this down in your notebook.
<----------------------------------------------------------------------->
Future Ideas for CAA
CAC (christian anime connections)
Christian anime cosplaying dating service for 18+
monthly fee of [1 Anime DVD] or [2 manga] /or/ yearly fee of [Box set]

That sounds like a winner, Volt!

Vyse if it was that dude (not that dude but that other dude) I believe the mods would have posted his banning on the Banned members thread..unless its a cover up...

[JediSonic]

this thread reminds me of the school handbook

it's sad that trolls have taken us to this level but.. thanks for doing what has to be done, mods! j00 r0c|<!

[Kinkosami]

I'm glad you guys are taking this seriously and doing your best to get rid of people like that here, I appreciate it.

[Jasdero]

I'm glad you guys are taking this seriously and doing your best to get rid of people like that here, I appreciate it.

I second that. Good call.

[Heart of Sword]

Nyah nyah nyah nyah, stalkers! Hah! *pbbbbbt*

[Mithrandir]

Now now. We don't want to *encourage* trolls here.

[agasfas]

Well, from what I understand most of the problem seems to be users joining with the sole intent of getting girl members AIM/YM/MSN names and then harrasing them through that.

Good call Ashley, i totally agree. If the other members wanted others to know their Screen names they would have posted them in their members profiles. I agree, harrassment is not a good thing. I joined, like most people, to meet and talk to other people w/ similar interests (God, anime & etc), if i meet someone so much the better, but i'm not going to force anything out. It's wrong to make someone feel uncomfortable. Fight the good fight!
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[Mr. SmartyPants]

yeah... stupid sickos

[Kaligraphic]

er, collect the problem people's screen names, and give them out to other problem people. Or give the problem people's screen names to me and I'll... er... dissuade them. (nothing too bad, really - I just know some people who like playing with people's minds - not in a bad way, but just in a way that could make them think twice before trying to meet people online.)

Personally, I'm here to get ideas of good anime/manga to check out. If I meet someone from this board in person, there had better be 120mm plastic discs or books that you read right-to-left involved. I give computer help and advice because, well, I just do.


Oh, and if people keep coming back under different screen names - so non-mod/admins know, it's possible to ban people by IP address if they have broadband or a static IP address, and harrassment can be reported to ISPs along with identifying IP address, time, and logs. Harrassment is a violation of most ISPs' terms of service. Losing Internet access may seem like a stiff penalty, but they agreed to those terms when they signed on.

[AsterlonKnight]

I agree with the third part of that post. Do an IP ban if possible!

I am very impressed at how quickly the mods and admins have moved to correct this problem. I also feel it was a good call to take down the instant messanger icons. The staff here are far more impressive than the other two message boards I've visited in the past. ^_^ I appreciate the effort to keep the environment clean and safe since I want to give the address to some of the young people in my church. They'd really enjoy it here I think.

[shooraijin]

We do IP bans on occasion, although in this day and age of providers who assign random IPs to their subscribers (dialup and so-called "dynamic DSL"), they aren't effective for long periods of time.

[Kaligraphic]

Still, ISP-run DHCP servers typically keep logs of who gets what IP, and with sufficiently actionable evidence put before them, they will drop customers. It might take more than one complaint (number depends on type/severity/amount of evidence of complaint, a particular adjustment facter for each ISP, and a little bit of randomness, but in general, ISPs don't like customers that could get them sued), but after receiving complaints, ISPs will typically sit down and decide whether to ToS a customer.

(ToS = Terms of Service - getting ToSsed means being dropped from an ISP for violation of said terms.)

[starfire]

Well, from what I understand most of the problem seems to be users joining with the sole intent of getting girl members AIM/YM/MSN names and then harrasing them through that. This is not uncommon to any message board, and certainly not unique to ours. So there is really nothing we can do besides tracking these people down and removing them as they appear--even if we were to screen members before they join like other message boards, there would be no way to catch all of them, especially since you can rarely judge a stalker or harrasser like this based on a user name.

Don't get me wrong though, we're going to fight this with everything in us and won't rest until everyone here is safe and comfortable.

It makes me so mad that people would do that! Anything else we can do to help?

[shooraijin]

> Still, ISP-run DHCP servers typically keep logs of who gets what IP,

All true. However, it doesn't make it any easier for -us- to block them, alas. We do try to keep tabs, though, and a large number of trolls from an IP block will get investigated for anything actionable.

[ZiP]

You've dicovered harrasers on CAA?

*whistles inocently*

[Galant]

Perhaps a MOD specifically assigned to dealing with and blocking them, and posting a list of offending usernames that CAA users can check before giving out any contact info.

If the issue gets seriousness enough, maybe remove the option to include your various usernames on your profile so that it can only be given out manually. I know that's a limitation but, I don't think it's really over the top since anyone can freely give their information in private. What's more, the lack of availability of such information might make CAA a less viable target for offenders, forcing them to work much harder to get contact info. That and the offender user board might work together to create a hostile environment for potential harassers.

???

[ZiP]

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[Fsiphskilm]

send them a hid