Impersonation, Multiplication, and the Ban Button

[Foxy]

Firstly, apologies to the 99% of you to whom this announcement does not apply.

It has come to the attention of several members of staff that people have been impersonating two of our admins, Dan and Skykat, on MSN. This behaviour is not only juvenile and completely out of line, but also in breach of identity laws. Please be warned that, should reports of this happening again reach back to us, we will be asking the people reporting it to supply us with the MSN address, which will then be passed onto the relevant authorities – they can then trace the IP address to which the address is affiliated and take things from there. Stealing a persons identity for whatever means, is not viewed in a favourable light.

If you do engage in an MSN conversation with a member of staff, and are suspicious or just want confirmation for your own piece of mind, then please feel free to PM the staff member in question to check their validity – we would rather you do this than unwittingly fall prey to impersonators. Please be aware though that only in exceptional cases do we deal with disciplinary matters outside of the PM system, and we would never discuss how we would go about sanctioning someone with other members.

Next up, despite it being a clear rule, we continue to have people who think it’s appropriate to make multiple accounts, with the view to causing havoc with the second account. We are now operating a system whereby every new member has to personally validated by a member of staff before they can post, and we frequently run IP checks to ensure multiple accounts are not being created. Those are still doing this – we know who you are, and we’ve made a note of it, which brings me neatly onto my next point.

There are a small group of people who, despite several conversations with various members of staff, are still intent on causing trouble here, and with other members on MSN. Although we cannot take any action for anything which happens on MSN, we make a note of anything that is reported to us, and our logs regarding a certain group of members are growing bigger practically by the day. As a rule, we do not like using the “permanent ban” button but several members, despite repeated warnings are getting perilously close to this happening. I would like to point out at this juncture that, if you are sat reading this complacently thinking “it’s OK, they have to give me a temporary ban first, and then I’ll be good” – that isn’t always the case. Although we have a rough structure of disciplinary action, we judge each case individually – and in this case, a ban is likely to be our way forward.

Once again I would like to reiterate – don’t give out your MSN address to anyone you do not trust. And if anyone does start abusing you on there, let us know, send us the chat log, and then block them so they can’t carry on doing it.

To conclude – we’re not trying to post this as some sort of “scare mongering” but there is a genuine problem with some of members recently. This is both a warning to the majority of you who aren’t a bother, to watch out for any dodgy behaviour….and a warning to those of you who seem to revel in causing utter chaos that we, as a body of staff, aren’t stupid. We know who you are, and just because we’re not presently taking any action doesn’t mean we won’t come down hard and fast in the future.

Any questions or queries please feel free to reply here or PM myself or another member of staff.

[emmasi]

If I'm on any trouble-causing lists, I'd like to apologize and plead insanity. (I can get a doctor's certificate to prove it )

[Dan F]

And just to note for those of you who have been asking whether you were really talking to me on MSN over the past week or so - no you weren't talking to me.

I do not add people I don't know onto MSN, and staff members who do know my personal address know not to drag me into group conversations with lots of random people.

The only BTTB people, who are on my MSN list are staff members, apart from one member who I know personally.

Even if I did add random people, I certainly wouldn't discuss forum matters on there.

[adellejefferiesxox]

Someone told me that you couldn't match IP address because people have simialar address or something that's why you can't ban members on bttb?

I don't see how people can get kicks out of impersonating people...

[Stephanie]

Thanks for posting this. This hasn't happened to me personally but I have heard about it. I'll be sure to be a bit more vigilant.

I don't see why people would even waste their time doing this (bullying and impersonating others online) but there you are.

[Zetti]

Thanks for posting.

[Ryan]

something that's why you can't ban members on bttb?

Technically since Chris owns the site and it is a private site, you could be banned for any reason you like. If I revealed I supported Cardiff and Chris was a Swansea fan, he could ban me for that if he wanted. Obviously it would probably cause problems if we were constantly just banning people on a whim, so that's why there's a framework of rules exists.

[Eduardo Bearo]

Someone told me that you couldn't match IP address because people have simialar address or something that's why you can't ban members on bttb?

I don't see how people can get kicks out of impersonating people...

As I understand it - and I am no expert - each of us has an individual IP which is unique to us and is allocated to us by our service provider. That is how the police track down individuals who download illegal material, who commit fraud or who commit identity fraud! On all forums of this nature the moderators are able to see the IP numbers of each person who is logged on so they know who is being silly by having more than one account. It really isn't clever and is extremely juvenile and what on earth they think they hope to achieve by it - apart being trouble makers - is beyond me. Pretending to be Dan or Kat to indulge in some cyber bullying, because cyber bullying is what it is, is beyond the pale. People have been deeply distressed by it.

Also as Ryan says- this is a privately owned and run forum - so technically they can ban who the hell they like. The fact that they do not and that they are trying very hard to be accommodating and to give people the chance to behave like grown ups says a great deal. People pay money from their own pocket to run this forum they put a lot of time and effort into producing features and keeping things going, again unpaid, and a small group think its funny to take the ****. One hopes that they reflect, take heed and grow up!

[Eli]

Also, like I have explained to the people on MP who have contacted me and asked, it has a lot to do with us not being able to trust a certain group of people anymore. No, we may not have rock solid evidence against all the individuals in this group, but the fact is that even after they were warned severely a few weeks ago, we have proof that some serious playing, manipulating and impersonation has been going on. Maybe only a few of them have done the actual stuff this time, but at this time we've simply reached a point where we need to put restrictions on them all, because like last time, when everyone was in fact involved, it's the same attempt to play staff and members going on, so we simply can not trust this group. It's sad that a few ruin it for everyone, but that's it, and I guess those who feel like they're ended up being treated unfairly now should be angry with their "friends" rather than us. Every one of them knew there would be consequences if they stepped near the line, and still someone deliberately ran across it, repeatedly, and did a little dance all the way on the other side as well. It's simply over, and because of a few people coming here just to cause trouble, we have had to restrict posting ability for a bunch of members. It's not ideal for us either, and it means a lot of extra work for us; but with 15 000+ (I think, I'm actually no longer sure what number we're at!) members, many of them active on a regular basis, we can no longer sit by and watch a few trying to ruin for everyone.

[Mistified]

It's amazing the stuff that goes on that the majority of us are unaware of. What sort of idiot impersonates someone else on MSN?