CHANGES TO THE FORUMS

Hi Folks-
As you may recall, the HOA considered making some changes to the forums based on the attacks, name calling, and complaints the HOA received about some posts. After considering it, we chose to leave things alone. Now, however, some changes will be made.

Recently, a participant "Maryjo" claimed to have received hate mail from hospital supporters. "Chris" verified that she had seen the hate mail. Due to the seriousness of the allegation, the HOA asked the Forum Administrators to look into it. They spent a lot of time researching this and concluded that no hate mail was sent through our system.
They also discovered something else disturbing. They were able to
determine that four users:
Chris / MaryJo / brian_staerker / luvmyredslk320 are actually a SINGLE user.

You may not be been aware, but the system records special tracking information on our forums for nearly everything you do; from signing up a new user to posting a message.

Due to the seriousness of this offense, the time wasted by the admins trying to help these users who were playing us the entire time and the heated threads that ensued due to these users, the HOA has decided to ban user 'Chris' and all of her accounts (MaryJo,
brian_staerker and luvmyredslk320) from the Broadlands
Forums effective immediately.

Also, the HOA Board will be considering changing the rules of participation. Although we agree that a degree of anonymity is appropriate for the forums, we may require that all users supply name, address, phone number, and email account address in order to register and post on the forums. This information will not be listed or available to forum participants. If however, the Forum Admins or the HOA attempts to verify the information and finds it to be false, the account will be immediatley terminated.
We are also considering the blocking of free email account suppliers, such as yahoo, hotwire, etc. and require the use of an email account from the participants ISP.
The HOA Board will be discussing this at our next Board meeting this Tuesday, 4pm, at the Nature Center. Feel free to come and express your concerns/ideas or post them here.
Cliff

 

I knew it! I was sure that chris=MaryJo, and I even had my suspicions that chris=luvmyred (but who wants to be called a conspiracy theorist?).

THANK YOU, HOA, FOR EXPOSING THIS! Now maybe these forums can start to become more of what they were meant to be -- a helpful resource for the entire community (unless, of course, the person behind 'chris' comes in with a new alias! )

 

I wonder if Chris, et al, voted (and voted, and voted) in the neighborhood survey about Hospital support.

 

I'm a little surprised there weren't more users with multiple accounts. Thank you Admins!! Anyone wanna take an over/under on how many days it will take for a re-incarnated Chris?

 

It has probably already happened!

 

Oh, and by the way, Admins. I won't be pressing for an "ignore poster" feature for the forums any longer. You just eliminated the reason I was asking for such a function. At least for now....

 

You should also delete all posts made by these four user IDs.

 

Good job Admins!! We all appreciate the incredible effort that this must have involved. I think everyone had suspicions that Chris et al were one person. Now that a big troublemaker is gone, it will be nice to have civil discussions again.

 

I'd suggest keeping the posts. The context of many of the reply posts would be lost. Additionally, it provides a writing style that can be compared to the reincarnation, that is sure to happen.

 

I will have to admit that I will miss her/him/she/he/it/they. Her posts WERE entertaining at times.
As Chris, et al was (were?) very anti hospital, this "blemish" in my opinion is not good for the "anti" crowd. I use to wonder a bit if she did indeed work for LHC, but now I think it is all the more likely.

 

I agree. However, I think there are some good anti-hospital arguments out there that don't relate to the "evil" HCA. Now, maybe some of those arguments can be presented and constructively debated without being overshadowed by chris et al.'s hostile and polarizing posts.

 

I hope that you can find a way to validate legitimate users without blocking those with only free email accounts. My email is free and my ISP does not provide email, so a ban would eliminate my participation without having to pay for an email account just to use these forums.

 

Cliff,

I completely endorse these changes. One concern that I have: I would hope that current users would be able to provide this personal information and have it apply to their current member names (i.e., I would not want to have to open a brand new account).

I cannot attend next week's meeting (although I think it would be an interesting one!), but feel free to pass on my endorsement and concern (for the record, I am a Broadlands resident). Thanks.

One more thing: for everyone who has called the HOA to complain about the content of these forums, if you are happy with today's announcement I urge you to call and express your satisfaction with the results that the HOA achieved in this matter. I am sure that the HOA gets a lot of negative feedback for actions/inactions in the community, I am sure they will be happy to hear some positive feedback for a change!

 

PatsFan,

I don't think you have to worry about losing your user name, I can't imagine there being a high demand for it.

Now, if it said, "Skins Fan"...then I would be worried. In fact, that probable could be sold for a hefty price!

 

Very funny []
I'm sure your username would be safe, too! (Outsider!)

 

I also have to wonder if "chris" = "Killer Bee". I know the politics were different, but the trolling/inciting a riot behavior was soooooo similar ... who knows

 

hmmm, I'll miss whoeveritwas. They provided for some good arguments.

 

Thank you to the Admins and the HOA board for investigating the claims and cleaning up the user community. The debates on the board will be much more civilized now.

Thanks again!!!

 

Looking back at some of the posts by the "gang of Chris" in this new light is both funny and sad at the same time. The same feeling I had when I saw the movie "A Beautiful Mind".

Edited for spelling

 

I agree. Check out this one: http://www.hoa.broadlands.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=847 ("HCA Seeks to Deny Citizens Access to Healthcare"). This is the thread that introduced "MaryJo." Something about how smoothly chris and MaryJo played off each other's posts piqued my interest, and that is when I first started questioning the existence of the hate mail and whether chris=MaryJo.

Now we can turn our attention to rooting out the next 'chris' on these boards. We just have to look for the one who can't say anything but "evil HCA...evil HCA...evil HCA..."