Ex-mod steals posts & entire forums

[Anonymous]

This was just brought to my attention a few days ago. One of my own moderators joined another forum last February that provides the same type of stuff I do. It was brought to my attention a couple of days back, and I was told to go see what that mod had been up to. This mod for the last 2 months has been stealing posts verbatim, along with entire forums, titles & descriptions. It was like looking at my own forum but with a different color scheme! Needless to say I was quite, um... 'put off' by the whole matter.

I sent an email and PM to the moderator informing of the demotion effective immediately and why. I also included a quote from the mod forum that I posted back in November asking mods not to copy & paste posts to other forums not authored by themselves. This moderator had pulled the same stunt (stealing posts) in November, and I thought I had nipped it in the bud. This moderator simply went to another forum and started all over again.

Well, needless to say several nasty emails from the mod later (one asking for PROOF - which I happily sent -links to over 20+ copied and pasted posts just from that day alone), the ex-mod sort of dropped away.

3 days ago, I discovered this ex-mod had came back and stole another 46 posts the night before. At this point I immediately banned this person. (Which then brought on a deluge of even nastier emails). While I was confirming the 'stolen posts', I noticed a familar name at the other forum.

Seems that after I had demoted the moderator, the admin of the other forum, joined my site. I emailed the admin, explaining the situation (feigned ignorance that I know she joined my forum) and apologized profusely for the acts of my ex-mod and the actions of posting copyrighted material in her forums. I have yet to receive a response from the admin.


I also discovered, through the database tables, that this admin has at least once spammed her link to a member using my PM service.

I have been spending a LOT of time watching both forums, and since the ex-mod can't get on the site to steal, the admin does! This admin has copied and pasted several posts! Unbelievable!

As the site in question is hosted freely by invisionboard, I reported their actions to TOS.

Oh, and I guess the admin knew ahead of time that I might be heading over, because the day I demoted the ex-mod, the admin made her forum a MBA.

Long story, I know. Please bear with me.

So question #1 is:
Have I done everything correctly so far?

question #2 is:
Should I just ban the admin from that site (which might cause a flurry of new vengeful memberships from trolls at her site to mine?)

question #3
If I should ban the admin, her IP is AOL. How can I do that without blocking a bunch of other folks? The main numbers stay the same, the last 2 digits change -

question #4
Will I ever hear back from invisionboard TOS?

Thank you-

[tammikuu]

Hmm... very difficult situation. If you go the banning way, you'd need to check that other site all the time to check if more content is being stolen and keep on trying to find which of your members are the stealers.
I guess one way to possibly try and stop people from that other board to come is to start moderating new registrations and the first few posts. But then you'd need to know which could be from the other board..
I assume your board needs registration to see the posts?

AOL accounts are practically impossible to ban completely without having an effect on other members. Typically an individual aol ip has been shared with a couple dozen members.

[Anonymous]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tammikuu Hmm... very difficult situation. If you go the banning way, you'd need to check that other site all the time to check if more content is being stolen and keep on trying to find which of your members are the stealers. I guess one way to possibly try and stop people from that other board to come is to start moderating new registrations and the first few posts. But then you'd need to know which could be from the other board.. I assume your board needs registration to see the posts?

No, my board is open for viewing by all. So it is pretty much open to anybody who is unscrupulous enough to want to steal content.

And I *think* the only reason the other admin joined was to be able to start spamming/poaching people.

[bowerbird]

Okay - here is a lateral thinking response

Start a thread called "The Original and the Best" and BOAST that the other forums are copying you!!!! Add links so that members can see.

After all mimicry is the sincerest form of flattery.

[jilly]

you need to put it in show thread and print thread - and disable post quoting - in order for it to work.. I can give you more details - here is the main thread on vb.com - http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=88920
I actually give my users the option to make their post copyable or not - you can put it so that the posts cannot be copied period...

also, if you go talk to their web hosting service, this is a violation of most webhosts' terms of service, as this is theft of intelleuctal property under the digital millenium copyright act. If you dont have a line stating you are the owner of everything posted on your boards in your terms of service, go add it now..

[tammikuu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anonymous No, my board is open for viewing by all. So it is pretty much open to anybody who is unscrupulous enough to want to steal content. And I *think* the only reason the other admin joined was to be able to start spamming/poaching people.

If your board does not require registering in able to see the posts, then indeed it's really hard to prevent stealing.
So other means like what was suggested here could be tried.

There is another thread about poachers in this forum, that might give you ideas on how to handle that particular situation.

And if you have no advertising rule, then if confirmed that the said other admin would be advertising their site, that would be a violation, and perhaps enough for a ban. Which could possible lead to the flood of trolls, which you mentioned.
If you ban the other boards admin, then just in case you'd need to be on alert to ban any trolls too. As I said, maybe by moderating new registrations and new users?

[AngelAmidala]

I can answer question 4 from experience.

We had a member at our forums...like a 13 year old kid...who was really excited about forums and wanted to create his own. So he went to Invision. And he created his board.

But get this.

He copied every single one of our forums, rules, moderator application information, FAQs, etc. and used it as his forum. He even tried to steal our images and logos. We reported him to Invision. And they took care of it.

Same kid tried again. We reported it again. He got taken care of again...permenantly.

Or at least permenantly through Invision.

They're not too bad to deal with.