Harassment

Nick · Posted: 12/5/2005, 6:28 pm Post subject: Harassment

I'll try to make this story as short as I can. It's annoying repeating it even this once more.

There was a user who randomly joined one of my boards a few days ago. He immediately began raiding every topic he could with spam and dirty pictures. He then joined my main board and repeated his actions. I banned him from the one IP and e-mail I got, then deleted all his posts. He came back. Same thing, same response. I was getting frustrated, so I tried to find out who exactly it was that had this vendetta against me. He let something slip about being from a forum I used to be part of, so I invesitgated. I had a suspect in my head who was part of that forum and another one I help administrate, and who I had previously banned months back. I compared the IPs I'd gotten to this users on the other forum. They did not match. I started purusing (spl) through the board looking for suspects. I found one user who was openly soliciting the help of a hacker to "get" another forum. Shoot, I forgot to mention I was comparing e-mails too. Well, I looked at his e-mail (gotta love Admin power Laughing

) and they matched. Then I moved to IP's. Obviously they matched. I banned him immediately from that board, then went to my other boards and added all his IPs to them. Well, he has some method (I'm not sure what personally, nor how to block it) of getting around IP bans. After he joined and got banned several times, I figured he wasn't planning on stopping soon. I had to set the configuration to admin approval. I've had to delete him twice since (he hasn't figured out the whole I can see who he is before I let him on my forums thing yet), and it's simply getting annoying. He's not worth my energy to be mad at, nor do I take him seriously, but I'm looking for a way to stop his little tirades and get him out of my hair. Not only has he been trying to spam my boards, but he has also joined other forums which I post on somewhat frequently (and some on which I've never registered) and been using my name and site name in his flagrant posts. He obviously trying to give me a bad name, but so far has failed in his attempts. He's not cunning enough to get away with it, and a simple PM to an Admin on a random forum he joined under "Nick" was enough to clarify the situation. I'm sure he'll go on to forums which I don't have friends on and then try to get people to believe he comes from Bobsnox.com and subsequently turn them against me and my site without the real Nick ever once being in contact them.
I'm not overly worked up about this, but I really would like to know if there's anything you guys think I can do about this kid. Also, have any of you had similar situations? I can keep him away from my site, but I can't keep him away from my name. The most ironic part is, I never once had contact with this boy on any other forum - he basically selected my name and board at random, or possibly because I was an Admin on some other kid's board. Well, what are your thoughts?
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Apologetics?

Martin · Posted: 12/5/2005, 6:47 pm Post subject:

I'm Nick's fellow Admin and if anyone could shed some light or offer some assistance in this problem, we'd appreciate it greatly.

Patrick · Administrator

Hey,

Sorry to hear that. Sure have. Smile

I've had people sign up for like 15 or more accounts over more than a yearish or longer. Likewise, people take shots at me, trying to tarnish my name or whatever.

On the repeat signups, etc., there is probably little you can do to stop him from registering and posting. This is what I do, once I identify the username as being the same person. Ban the account (I don't delete any accounts, plus banning them makes them use another e-mail, spend more time, etc.), remove all of their posts, ban the IP and do nothing else. I remove any and all posts that were in reply to theirs. I don't send them a message. My staff is instructed to not respond to them, in any fashion, should they be contacted or see him posting. They are simply to remove his posts and report any messages that he sents them to his Problem Users thread. Anytime he does something, it is made to look like as he never appeared. No messages go out to him. You have to be persistent and tough. He may give up soon, he may not (like I said, I've had people go more than a year, etc.), but the important thing is that it doesn't affect the culture of your site or your staff. Behind the scenes, it shouldn't be looked at as some sort of important, be nervous, keep your eyes OPEN issue... just treat it as the guy being a joke. When it pops up, handle it and move on without any sort of public emotion or declaration. Share any negative messages you get, share everything that he says about you, etc. in the Problem Users thread with your staff. That's what I do. A lot of the time, it makes for a good laugh.

As far as your name, etc. I certainly sympathize. There are people out there who try to do the same to me. Everyone I have seen do this is either insane or lying (often both) about what actually transpired, ranging from the humorous to the downright nasty. And people believe them. At least, their loyal users and people who have something against me do or whatever and that's well... a part of life on the internet. There is not much you can do. There are a lot of bad people out there. Obviously if he says certain things and it's worth it to you, there may be reason for legal action or for contacting his host (I had someone impersonate me once), but it probably won't be. Take it lightly. Use it as fuel. Don't allow it to swallow you up. If you cannot think of at least one person who hates you, you either have a small site or you are doing something wrong. Wink

If you hear of him going to other sites, simply apologize to the owners of those sites and tell them that it is not you, but a user that you banned from your site.

Hope that helps.
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Nick · Posted: 12/5/2005, 7:58 pm Post subject:

Thanks for all that, Patrick. I really appreciate the time it took to read and respond at such length.

Do you think I should leave some sort of topic in my Announcements section letting any guests who may venture upon Bobsnox.com Forums due to this guy's statements know what the deal is?
Also, should I set the configuration back to user and just keep a constant look out like before?

Yeah, I already had to apologize to an admin from ZeldaGaming.com. He said don't worry about it, but it's still so weird to have to apologize to a person I've never talked to before and about a person I've also never talked to before.

Patrick · Administrator

No worries. Smile

No, I don't think you should make an announcement. I think you should avoid addressing it publicly, especially on your site. Don't concern your users with it. If it comes up elsewhere, address it there.
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Truestar · Moderator

Instead of addressing the matter directly, how about an indirect approach? One such as, "Being as large community their may be some things going around, if you need clarification, please cntact the administrator."

I personally feel taking no absolute public approach may "compromise" your community. There must be something you can do? Dead

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harishankar · Posted: 12/19/2005, 8:53 pm Post subject:

I have also been harrassed by a member over a moderation decision to such an extent that I've temporarily taken down my board.

Now he's attacking me on my blog. I have hade messages of sympathy from other members, but it looks like he's not going to leave me alone.

I would like to know how to deal with this... And this is right during my busy time of examinations.
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dojo · Posted: 12/20/2005, 1:35 am Post subject:

You should deal with it personally. I am against making it public. I had myu share or problems with some members, but we deal with it private. Try to ban and just move the bad topics into a trash bin. Make sure you set the forums to not permit same email address. That way your friend will have to use a new one and email address setting takes some minutes.

I also used admin valiation for a while, till I dealt with the problems. After rejecting the account several times the "friend" ceased with it.

As for the bad mouthing. Contact the admins in the forums. As a community admin myself I don't allow other forums bashing in my own. A decent admin shouldn't allow it either. If they are not as "civil" as they should, ask them privately to delete the bad posts. It's something like an "admin etiquette" in the end.

Little by little your war will end. At the same time try to put many interesting topics in the forums so that people will have interest to join. Whenever I had problems I just made another theme change, added a new mod and made this public ... People would get "news" from the updates and had subjects to talk about.
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harishankar · Posted: 12/20/2005, 9:05 am Post subject:

Dojo thanks.

I tried my best to keep it private, but by openly challenging me on my blog he was the one who made it public.

As to my forum, I'm hoping to bring it back up ASAP banning the said member and his IP as well.

Thanks for the advice.

Regards.
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Patrick · Administrator

An indirect approach just leads to people wondering what you're talking about.
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