Moderator reports are not anonymous.

[scigeek101]

I've just gotten a moderator warning for making a report. This is clearly an abusive president and will be ending my good faith relationship with this sight immediately deleting my account permanently. 

 

I request all others to do the same. 

[scigeek101]

There is no easy option to delete an account. Another issue with this site. 

[Integrity]

you got a single warning point, out of a hundred, which will go away automatically, for reporting a moderator doing her job in a thread from two years ago for, and i quote, "killing the general vibe"

 

if that tiniest slap on the wrist that's ever been given is what destroyed the good faith we have, okay i guess?

 

E: the code of conduct, which you read, says that you can be punished for misusing the report system. what about that made you think it was anonymous?

Edited June 26, 2023 by Integrity

[TheJavKnowsNobody]

lol

[Hanes]

lmao

[Hectorcopter]

… I’m more confused by the reveal that they reported a post from two years ago than anything else.

[Armchair General]

4 hours ago, Integrity said:

 

E: the code of conduct, which you read, says that you can be punished for misusing the report system. what about that made you think it was anonymous?

The sheer fact that an lot of forums actually have an rule similar to this makes me kind of concerned on what is going through OP's head, tbh

 

4 hours ago, Integrity said:

you got a single warning point, out of a hundred, which will go away automatically

I actually had exactly one point given to me as an act of goodwill and that one expired...Honestly, I actually forgot, I know that it was around an year ago.

 

4 hours ago, Integrity said:

for reporting a moderator doing her job in a thread from two years ago for, and i quote, "killing the general vibe"

Wow, you certainly wasn't kidding when you said people would report anything on here.

[coldhand25]

To be fair, anonymous reports would make it easy for bots to mass report multiple users, as it would be difficult to get them banned, no matter how many reports they send in.

6 hours ago, scigeek101 said:

I request all others to do the same. 

More like "suggest", I think?

6 hours ago, scigeek101 said:

There is no easy option to delete an account. Another issue with this site. 

Looked around a bit and haven't found an easy way either, and I agree with you on this one thing. There should be a way to delete your own account. I mean, I can see why it's also a security issue (if someone gets access to your computer they can delete your account without you knowing), but I couldn't find any info about account deletion in the profile and account settings page either. Maybe just a button that let's you contact a mod, or maybe a message like "you can request the deletion of your account at a moderator" or something.

[Integrity]

there isn't a method and we historically haven't offered anything because the actual server load behind deleting an account with any kind of post history is disgustingly unoptimized (i did it once, it took three days and i got chewed out by jyosua over it) and, outside of exceptional circumstances (the one time i did it for someone) we've always had the stance that you can just not come here and post instead, and we have a blanket no on it so we're never the source of regrets

[Florete]

"abusive president"

"this sight"

[Integrity]

1 hour ago, Florete said:

"abusive president"

i absolutely am, what's your point?

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

19 hours ago, Integrity said:

the code of conduct, which you read,

6 hours ago, Integrity said:

7 hours ago, Florete said:

"abusive president"

i absolutely am, what's your point?

POV: that´s my boy

Spoiler

[coldhand25]

23 hours ago, Integrity said:

there isn't a method and we historically haven't offered

I would tread carefully with this, as the GDPR is taking things more and more seriously about data protection, and you have an obligation - with very few exceptions - to delete personal data upon request. So unless you can justify not giving the option for the deletion of data with one of the points listed on the European Commission website's website, you can get into trouble. I believe even more so if the personal data of EU citizens is being stored and processed on servers outside the EU, or if the member is underage.

 

23 hours ago, Integrity said:

disgustingly unoptimized

As someone who works in IT I can totally understand how frustrating these things can be - mind you, I never worked with forums, so I don't know how bad things are here, but I do have quite the extensive experience with unoptimized processes. This, however, is most probably not a valid reason for retention of user data.

 

23 hours ago, Integrity said:

we've always had the stance that you can just not come here and post instead

While I do agree with this, it's one of those things where there are many possibilities why someone could change their mind about having an account. For example, if a minor registered, posted, and a few years later requests their data to be deleted - regardless of reason it must be deleted (yet again quoting the website of the European Commission)

 

Disclaimer: it is not my purpose in any way to judge the work the moderators are putting into this forum. I've been a member for years now, and I have fond memories of using the forum, and wish to do so in the future too. However, as someone who's working in IT, and working towards a career in privacy, data security and cybersecurity, I wish to inform people of the regulations related to their data, and in this case OP's claim about account deletion was valid (unlike the other claims in the original post lol).

I'm no lawyer or an expert in law though. If there is anything I've misunderstood - either about the GDPR, or about how the forum operates, and why it might be perfectly valid to not have an option for data deletion (which there very well might be!) - please do correct me. It would be beneficial for me to learn more from others, and could be beneficial for anyone who gets to this particular post too.

[Integrity]

On 6/26/2023 at 2:58 PM, Integrity said:

and, outside of exceptional circumstances (the one time i did it for someone)

i would say that those would fall under exceptional circumstances, yes

E: not being a legal expert i have no idea if we're bound by the gdpr, being owned and hosted by an american, but if there's any data processing and storage being done it's going to be on the invision power side and should be brought up with the guys who make the forums software, i'd think

Edited June 27, 2023 by Integrity

[Armchair General]

38 minutes ago, coldhand25 said:

For example, if a minor registered, posted, and a few years later requests their data to be deleted - regardless of reason it must be deleted

Honestly, I really don't hope that this leads to sites demanding for an ID check in the distant future. Sure, it's justified for you-know-what; but this is exactly the type of shortcut that I can see happening

[eclipse]

Hey I'm back, for now.

The stuff I posted involves a very hefty warning.  I don't like stuffing those warnings down people's throats if I can help it.  An ounce of prevention being better than a pound of cure and all.

On 6/27/2023 at 9:06 AM, coldhand25 said:

I would tread carefully with this, as the GDPR is taking things more and more seriously about data protection, and you have an obligation - with very few exceptions - to delete personal data upon request. So unless you can justify not giving the option for the deletion of data with one of the points listed on the European Commission website's website, you can get into trouble. I believe even more so if the personal data of EU citizens is being stored and processed on servers outside the EU, or if the member is underage.

Define "personal data", because a hobbyist forum is hardly on the same level as the likes of Google.

[Capt. Fargus]

On 6/26/2023 at 7:45 AM, scigeek101 said:

I've just gotten a moderator warning for making a report. This is clearly an abusive president and will be ending my good faith relationship with this sight immediately deleting my account permanently. 

 

I request all others to do the same. 

Reported quite a few spam posts myself and aint heard boo about it...

[coldhand25]

On 6/29/2023 at 9:34 AM, eclipse said:

Define "personal data"

To quote my law professor: "that's a tricky one". There is no exact definition of personal data, as it can differ depending on context, usage, etc. Basically, if you were to make a definition, you would have to list everything that you mean by it.

Now that's not to say there isn't a definition that can be a guideline to decide whether the given data is personal or not - basically, everything is personal data that can be used to identify the person the data belongs to. Doesn't matter if the process if identification is trivial or not, if there is only one person who can identify you by something you share, that is personal data. If I were to say my real name here, then my personal data is being stored by the server providers. If I were to say I'm the biggest FE fan in X location, and my neighbour finds the post and identifies my by it, then my post also contained personal data.

So it is really not as simple as many think it is (me included before I had a whole semester about GDPR and personal data, data protection, online privacy...). The thing is, being a hobbyist forum, you also store data that can be used to identify the members, which can be proved to be personal data if someone is really inclined to do so, in which case having an accessible way to have their data deleted completely is not option but a necessity. That's just my two cents though, I don't think anyone would strike down the forum suddenly, but as our saying goes "better be afraid than get scared"