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Terms of Service/Legal/User Agreements

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 1:04 am
by Field Marshall
So, I've made a couple of complaints recently directly to the mods involved and quoted the Terms of Service for herebegames.com.

Dissapointingly, neither mods really managed to make an executive decision, so I thought I would ask the question here...

The terms of service for herebegames.com (the parent website for this forum) under the following URL: http://herebegames.com/legal/tos.php and http://herebegames.com/legal/privacy.phpclearly defines the parameters to which every user should be complying to.

There is also the terms of service that everybody signs upto when registering to the forum under https://talk.gatewa.rs/ucp.php?mode=register.

With the following terms of services, legal and user agreements, my question here, is do your rules allow you to moderate to the standards defined under these URLs or should my offical complaint for hate speach relating to racism go directly to the hosting websites?

For your information:

Dovahkiin wrote:This:
yellow eyes wrote:Blow up all [race] that then ends half the worlds proberlems :)

Really isn't against the rules.


So if it's not against the rules. It should be. End of story

I will also add, that the Freedom of Speech that you usually mention is now redundant, considering that all users AGREE not to participate in such hatred speech.

Re: Terms of Service/Legal/User Agreements

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 1:10 am
by R0B3RT
mods can decide not need terms :( i understand this after long time

Re: Terms of Service/Legal/User Agreements

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 1:29 am
by Juliette
Muslims are not a race. Ergo, no racism.
Get your facts straight, you are misrepresenting an otherwise interesting complaint.


The comment did appear to be in bad taste though, and was removed earlier.





JMO

Re: Terms of Service/Legal/User Agreements

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 1:47 am
by The Doctor
Juliette wrote:Muslims are not a race. Ergo, no racism.
Get your facts straight, you are misrepresenting an otherwise interesting complaint.


Regardless, what was posted would be considered discriminatory, and would even count as hate-speech.

Re: Terms of Service/Legal/User Agreements

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 2:10 am
by Field Marshall
Haz wrote:
Juliette wrote:Muslims are not a race. Ergo, no racism.
Get your facts straight, you are misrepresenting an otherwise interesting complaint.


Regardless, what was posted would be considered discriminatory, and would even count as hate-speech.


Precisely, thank you Haz.

The complaint and bulk of the text explains what I am trying to portray.

http://talk.gatewa.rs/ucp.php?mode=register wrote:You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-orientated or any other material that may violate any laws be it of your country, the country where “StarGateWars Forums” is hosted or International Law.


http://herebegames.com/legal/contentguidelines.php wrote:
Hate speech (speech which attacks or demeans a group based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, and sexual orientation/gender identity) are not allowed.


I ask that all future posting is constructive and not with the intent of deminishing this thread. I would like an answer to whether the current protocol addresses the URLs of the forum guidelines and registration agreement. Not a discussion into races, religions or whatever.

Re: Terms of Service/Legal/User Agreements

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 3:37 am
by Zeratul
so, just to verify... You ask if it is possible to have the signup terms modified so that they specifically cover overt attacks on user(s) religion(s)?

Re: Terms of Service/Legal/User Agreements

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 4:12 am
by Field Marshall
Zeratul wrote:so, just to verify... You ask if it is possible to have the signup terms modified so that they specifically cover overt attacks on user(s) religion(s)?


No, not at all. Without prejudice, but if you could actually read my post, it would make it a lot easier, a tell tale sign of the current admin/moderator incompetence. The current sign up terms already cover religion, race and hatred speech. The rules within the forum itself, do not.

I want to know, if within your rule structure, whether you have coverage to cover the forum policy.

The answer is no you don't.

Otherwise the Swastika issue all those years would have been banned. However, a complete failure of your system and lack of communication has not allowed additional rules to protect those that may have been insulted by particular comments made by other forum users.

Respect has not been naturally picked up by those in charge of us. Respect is not modded because it is not within the "rules" with your lazy and inactive moderators simply saying "no, it's not my job as it's not in the rules". The admin team is out of touch with the forums, people and moderators are not voted in as champions of change or improvement but instead on their friends and allies. Most moderators can barely justify their decisions using the very lax rules which you have failed to underpin the basic necessities of such a large forum.

To be told that people can say what they want because of freedom of speech is ridiculous. Freedom of Speech does not apply here because the basic sign up covers that in it's entirity. This coming from current Admins is disgraceful. They do not apply common sense morality.

Here are my suggestions at an extremely fundamental level.

Firstly, you need to find out from Jason whether the herebegames.com legal and privacy policy applies to this forum. As a domain of the original URL, I would imagine it is.

Secondly, you need to revise the user agreement the people sign up to when registering to this forum.

Thirdly, depending on your findings, implement these into the rules of this forum.

If you are going to choose people who fail to apply common sense, you will have to spell it out to them.

Re: Terms of Service/Legal/User Agreements

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 4:16 am
by R0B3RT
Field Marshall wrote:
Zeratul wrote:so, just to verify... You ask if it is possible to have the signup terms modified so that they specifically cover overt attacks on user(s) religion(s)?


No, not at all. Without prejudice, but if you could actually read my post, it would make it a lot easier, a tell tale sign of the current admin/moderator incompetence. The current sign up terms already cover religion, race and hatred speech. The rules within the forum itself, do not.

I want to know, if within your rule structure, whether you have coverage to cover the forum policy.

The answer is no you don't.

Otherwise the Swastika issue all those years would have been banned. However, a complete failure of your system and lack of communication has not allowed additional rules to protect those that may have been insulted by particular comments made by other forum users.

Respect has not been naturally picked up by those in charge of us. Respect is not modded because it is not within the "rules" with your lazy and inactive moderators simply saying "no, it's not my job as it's not in the rules". The admin team is out of touch with the forums, people and moderators are not voted in as champions of change or improvement but instead on their friends and allies. Most moderators can barely justify their decisions using the very lax rules which you have failed to underpin the basic necessities of such a large forum.

To be told that people can say what they want because of freedom of speech is ridiculous. Freedom of Speech does not apply here because the basic sign up covers that in it's entirity. This coming from current Admins is disgraceful. They do not apply common sense morality.

Here are my suggestions at an extremely fundamental level.

Firstly, you need to find out from Jason whether the herebegames.com legal and privacy policy applies to this forum. As a domain of the original URL, I would imagine it is.

Secondly, you need to revise the user agreement the people sign up to when registering to this forum.

Thirdly, depending on your findings, implement these into the rules of this forum.

If you are going to choose people who fail to apply common sense, you will have to spell it out to them.
=D>

Re: Terms of Service/Legal/User Agreements

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 5:33 am
by Zeratul
ahh... We see your point now. We'll take it up with the others and it will be determined where this would fit in under the rules.

Re: Terms of Service/Legal/User Agreements

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 7:31 am
by Field Marshall
Zeratul wrote:ahh... We see your point now. We'll take it up with the others and it will be determined where this would fit in under the rules.


The royal "we" presumably?

Much obliged Mr Zeratul, I look forward to your findings :-k

Re: Terms of Service/Legal/User Agreements

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 9:46 am
by Zeratul
we spoke to the others, and in our forgetfulness, we'd forgotten to check the rules ourselves...
viewtopic.php?f=71&t=101808

5c. Abuse / Racism
Members of the SGW community are required to speak courteously to others. Personal attacks on other members are not tolerated. This includes comments about one’s sex, gender, skin color, religion, or cultural heritage. You may not post personal information about another user regardless of how it was obtained. This includes their address, phone numbers, names, or any other detail about their real life status that they have not already posted on the SGW forums themselves. For exceptions to this rule please see the role playing section (section 6).


does that cover what you asked about?

Re: Terms of Service/Legal/User Agreements

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 2:25 pm
by Empy
Zeratul wrote:we spoke to the others, and in our forgetfulness, we'd forgotten to check the rules ourselves...
viewtopic.php?f=71&t=101808

5c. Abuse / Racism
Members of the SGW community are required to speak courteously to others. Personal attacks on other members are not tolerated. This includes comments about one’s sex, gender, skin color, religion, or cultural heritage. You may not post personal information about another user regardless of how it was obtained. This includes their address, phone numbers, names, or any other detail about their real life status that they have not already posted on the SGW forums themselves. For exceptions to this rule please see the role playing section (section 6).


does that cover what you asked about?
Didn't read your long post FM but the rules already cover what you're talking about. It should fall under the rule Zeratul quoted above.

Re: Terms of Service/Legal/User Agreements

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 11:45 pm
by Field Marshall
Empy wrote:
Zeratul wrote:we spoke to the others, and in our forgetfulness, we'd forgotten to check the rules ourselves...
viewtopic.php?f=71&t=101808

5c. Abuse / Racism
Members of the SGW community are required to speak courteously to others. Personal attacks on other members are not tolerated. This includes comments about one’s sex, gender, skin color, religion, or cultural heritage. You may not post personal information about another user regardless of how it was obtained. This includes their address, phone numbers, names, or any other detail about their real life status that they have not already posted on the SGW forums themselves. For exceptions to this rule please see the role playing section (section 6).


does that cover what you asked about?
Didn't read your long post FM but the rules already cover what you're talking about. It should fall under the rule Zeratul quoted above.


This is personal against an individual as opposed to a race or ideal?

Nevertheless, if you translate it as that, so do I! It's your mods who don't :shock:

Ok, fair enough, I'll keep the look out...and next time it happens, i'll get your advice Zeratul :smt106

Re: Terms of Service/Legal/User Agreements

Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2012 12:39 am
by Empy
Well if it's not directed at someone then I would say it shouldn't be against the rules. If it was directed at someone though, it is!

Re: Terms of Service/Legal/User Agreements

Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2012 2:23 am
by lone dragon
Empy wrote:Well if it's not directed at someone then I would say it shouldn't be against the rules. If it was directed at someone though, it is!

Well if it has no connotations or color, creed, country or ethnicity then it is difficult to state as racism there is no injured party due to a lack of reference to a group of people to be offended.