# A Rules Question



## SueDonJ (Feb 24, 2012)

Why isn't it against the TUG rules for a poster to put in posts the full name of someone who might have no idea that the posts exist?

There's a thread happening now where a person's actions are being debated, started by a poster who feels this person wronged him/her.  A moderator has removed the contact information for this person that was put in the OP, but his/her full name is still featured prominently throughout the thread.

Honestly, I'm surprised that this is allowed on TUG!  The Posting Rules don't say anything about it being not allowed, so I guess that means it is allowed?  If that's the case, why can't contact information be posted?  There's no rule that says contact information can't be posted, but mods routinely remove it all over the boards.

I just find it so hard to believe that a person could be raked over the coals or praised to the High Heavens or talked about in any manner in between, his/her complete full name posted all over the TUG boards, without ever knowing that it's happening.  That just seems so wrong to me.


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## ampaholic (Feb 24, 2012)

SueDonJ said:


> Why isn't it against the TUG rules for a poster to put in posts the full name of someone who might have no idea that the posts exist?
> 
> There's a thread happening now where a person's actions are being debated, started by a poster who feels this person wronged him/her.  A moderator has removed the contact information for this person that was put in the OP, but his/her full name is still featured prominently throughout the thread.
> 
> ...



Perhaps a Moderator or TUGBrian will stop by and go over this with us, I'm very curious about this as well.


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## TUGBrian (Feb 24, 2012)

not against the rules at all, we do delete information like that at the request of the party however.


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## SueDonJ (Feb 24, 2012)

TUGBrian said:


> not against the rules at all, we do delete information like that at the request of the party however.



I'm sure if the party knew this was happening, s/he would ask for it to be removed.  That's why I have a problem with it, because it's being done without the party's knowledge.

Obviously, it's not in writing that contact information cannot be posted, yet the mods consistently remove it wherever they see it.  So, can we discuss making it a new rule (whether written or unwritten) that full names cannot be posted without the party's permission?


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## Makai Guy (Feb 24, 2012)

SueDonJ said:


> I'm sure if the party knew this was happening, s/he would ask for it to be removed.  That's why I have a problem with it, because it's being done without the party's knowledge.
> 
> Obviously, it's not in writing that contact information cannot be posted, yet the mods consistently remove it wherever they see it.  So, can we discuss making it a new rule (whether written or unwritten) that full names cannot be posted without the party's permission?



All identifying information now has been removed from that thread.

I think your proposed rule change is unworkable due to the law of unintended consequences.  Contact names for scam companies, for instance, would require the scam company's permission before they could be posted.


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## ampaholic (Feb 24, 2012)

SueDonJ said:


> I'm sure if the party knew this was happening, s/he would ask for it to be removed.  That's why I have a problem with it, because it's being done without the party's knowledge.
> 
> Obviously, it's not in writing that contact information cannot be posted, yet the mods consistently remove it wherever they see it.  So, can we discuss making it a new rule (whether written or unwritten) that full names cannot be posted without the party's permission?



As an alternative to a "written" rule, we could affirm that a post with "questionable" information in it could be flagged for moderator inspection?

FYI the small triangle on the lower left flags a post for moderator review.


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## presley (Feb 24, 2012)

It's a tough call, no doubt.  However, as we have seen, posting names/personal info makes the person doing the posting look much worse than who they are complaining about.  At any rate, it could be difficult to deal with the gray area of allowing the name of a scammer.  Pretty much anyone could chime in that the scammer is a great person and that their name should be removed.

This reminds me of Facebook.  I have nothing to do with Facebook.  However, people still manage to find me, or tell me that they read that I was here or there or that they saw a picture of me.  My family and friends can post whatever they want on their facebook pages.  Sometimes, it is about me.  Being the facebook hater that I am, I'd rather stay far away from it, than have to spend my time asking other people to not include me in the boring, I don't have a life, streams of conciousness.  Ooops, sorry./end rant


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## TUGBrian (Feb 24, 2012)

just posting a persons name isnt illegal, or divulging any non-public information that anyone could find out for themselves given 20 seconds and a phone book or internet connection.


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## ampaholic (Feb 24, 2012)

TUGBrian said:


> just posting a persons name isnt illegal, or divulging any non-public information that anyone could find out for themselves given 20 seconds and a phone book or internet connection.



I agree and if the posting is offensive in it's own right, flag it for moderator review.


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## SueDonJ (Feb 24, 2012)

All I could think about was that this person had no clue that s/he was being talked about so badly on TUG, and therefore had no way of defending her/himself or asking that her/his identifying info be removed.  Makai Guy, thank you so much for taking the time to remove all that from the thread.

Of course what you say makes perfect sense, that there are times when it's beneficial for TUGgers to be able to name names.  But I hope that ampaholic's suggestion to look at these things on a case-by-case basis is followed.  The way I see it, if a company is named on TUG and somebody who is participating in the thread thinks that the company should be made aware of it, then it's a simple matter to google the company name and make contact through the company's website.  But if an individual is named in a TUG thread, there is no way for us to just google the person's name and be certain that we're reaching out to the right person if we attempt to contact him/her.  It's worse when you consider that TUG mods routinely delete contact information from the site.

Anyway, I appreciate the chance to talk about this.  Thank you.


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## TUGBrian (Feb 24, 2012)

not a problem at all.

generally i draw the line about "contact" data when it involves personal information beyond a persons name...ie home address, phone number, family info...things of that nature.


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## DeniseM (Feb 24, 2012)

Since we already have the red triangle to report "problem posts," there is no need to add additional rules - just use the triangle - but please use discretion.  You would not believe some of the things that get reported!


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## hypnotiq (Feb 24, 2012)

It took everything I had not to report the last post. 

/smartass


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## SueDonJ (Feb 24, 2012)

DeniseM said:


> Since we already have the red triangle to report "problem posts," there is no need to add additional rules - just use the triangle - but please use discretion.  You would not believe some of the things that get reported!



I actually had used the little red triangle to report that the person's telephone number was still in the OP after Makai Guy's first edit, but didn't think to mention deleting the person's name as well until after that.  Honestly, by that point I was more aggravated that the OP was deliberately ignoring all our requests to delete the person's name from all the other posts and stop using it in new ones.

There's probably a one in ten thousand shot that the same situation would present itself again, or at least I hope that's about as often as we might see this sort of thing.  But if I did use the little red triangle and asked, "can you consider removing this person's name from the thread," would you think I was using discretion?


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## DeniseM (Feb 24, 2012)

hypnotiq said:


> It took everything I had not to report the last post.
> 
> /smartass



There are certain posters who report me all the time.


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## DeniseM (Feb 24, 2012)

SueDonJ said:


> But if I did use the little red triangle and asked, "can you consider removing this person's name from the thread," would you think I was using discretion?



Yes - the ones I'm talking about are things like reporting moderators for doing their job, and requests to move things, or add info., or other things that aren't "problem posts."  Or just silly complaints because the reporting person does not agree with the post.


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## SueDonJ (Feb 24, 2012)

DeniseM said:


> Yes - the ones I'm talking about are things like reporting moderators for doing their job, and requests to move things, or add info., or other things that aren't "problem posts."  Or just silly complaints because the reporting person does not agree with the post.



Thanks.  I guess I can't report the folks on the American Idol thread who disagree with my choice, then?  Oh darn.


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## TUGBrian (Feb 24, 2012)

SueDonJ said:


> Thanks.  I guess I can't report the folks on the American Idol thread who disagree with my choice, then?  Oh darn.



only if I disagree too!


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## SueDonJ (Feb 24, 2012)

TUGBrian said:


> only if I disagree too!



Excellent!  Do your superpowers extend to banning them from voting in the AI competition?  :hysterical:


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