A Question for the Mods ( and no, not "The Jam" fans...)

[Guest]

Hi there, apologies if this is a little off topic but as the title suggests, I have a question for the moderators.

My wife is a member on another forum ( some woman thing, I know as much about it as she knows about this site !! ), and has reciently been accused of hacking the site and interfereing. Now apparantly this has all been resolved, but no explanation as been given, either publicly or to my wife directly, as to how or why this happened.

My question to your good selves is - is there a higher level that you report to that and ordinary person can go to / contact if there is an issue that we feel has not been delt with in a proper fashion - I guess a kind of "Moderator Ombidsman" of some sort?

Any help or information would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers, Neil

[Guest]

It would depend entirely on the site and ownership, generally speaking the only 'higher' rank than a forum mod is the forum / site owner.

You might get somewhere if it's a forum belonging to a corporation / company, but if it's an individual you'll likely get nowhere, bear in mind accusations levelled at your wife would have to be backed up with appropriate evidence

[Guest]

Is it a free forum at all ie freeforum.org etc etc, if it is then theres a support forum

[Ian M]

John the site owner might come with a specific reply but don't expect one. No offence John, I just know you are a very busy man.

I don't want to get into things to deeply but if the wife's forum owners have come with the allegation, then they need to justify it and then be very careful.

If its one of the other forum users, then they should also have proof and your wife should report them to the forums moderater/owners.

One thing that has been happening a lot lately on several fora, is ID theft. People hack a forum and find all sorts of weird things about the users. Britmodeler gets attacked frequently, and there has been a spate of it again last week.

It could just be that some one has gotten hold of your wifes log in detail and is pointing the finger at her that way.

Change log on passwords often. Dont have your username as shown on screen as your log in name. Chose an obscure pass word. Chose a long pass word. A mix of capital and lower case letters with numbers and if the form allows it special symbols like % also make it a pretty tough nut to crack.

Ian M

[Guest]

A forum is no more than a piece of software that anyone can go out and buy and set up on a server. This one, as with many, is privately owned and therefore we have to accept the direction and decisions of the owner.

If someone feels that they have been dealt with unfairly they have exactly the same course of action available to them if they were accused of something in the street but, as always, this would end up being more costly than it's worth.

I have been dealt with appallingly by a forum only recently but, as it was again a privately owned forum, I have no comeback other than to put it down to experience and move on.

If someone at work called you a liar or a crook would you want to take them to court for defamation of character? It's just not worth the time or money. Unfortuately forums seem to bring out the little tin pot gods in some people and they tend to end up being run by bullies and egos. I regularly think how lucky we are here not to have that and what a friendly atmosphere we have here but it does require vigilance and work to keep undesirables out.

[Guest]

Gents, thanks very much for taking the time to answer, it's much appreciated. It's pretty much as I / we thought, but figured it might be worth checking around.

It seems it was just a case of someone getting in and stirring things up by the looks of things, and either my wife was the intended target or was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Whats really got her goat, and others on the same forum, is that no-one has actually come forward and explained what has or hasn't happened, along with the fact that there has been no form of apology at all. It didn't help when all the mods on the forum seemed to strangely dissapear at the height of the crisis !!

I know that they ( and yourselves ) volunteer do to this and there may have been an understandable reaction to run off before being blamed for something out of their hands, but you would have thought someone may have stayed to sort the mess out !!

I don't get in here that much, but as has been mentioned, this is always a helpful and friendly place and I find this particular forum one of the best I have been on.

Thanks again.

Cheers, Neil

[yak face]

I can only agree with everyone else, neil, if its a privately owned forum then the owner is the one to go to or if its another member making accusations etc ,then the mods can deal with it. As richard says we're thankfully free of any nastiness on here, which is down to the members every bit as much as the mods. The mods have the tools to deal with any problems but we rely on everyone else keeping an eye out too,which works very well on here, hence the great atmosphere. Hope your wife is ok and if i were her i'd not bother using that forum again. cheers tony