UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums UBB.threads 7 Version 7 Support Internet Harassment?

A mod from another forum once informed me that there are authorities who take this subject very seriously -- like a branch of the police or something. I understand that its rather common.

Anyhow i got an insult directed at me -- nothing new, it's happened before -- part of the job, IMO. But then i got more and more comments.

Then i received a threat.

I laughed out loud!

This moron is sooo stupid and sooo frustrated! He’s been uanble to order me around and he’s been unable to bully me. Then he has a hissy fit when he finds out that this ‘Moderator’ person who he’s been sucking up to is actually me. He’s basically sending me the message that he’s so pathetic that he’ll resort to trolling our own forum while hiding behind a Proxy IP address.

Unbelieveable!

There are only two possible explanations to this

1) it's this idiot who's full name and address i already know.

OR

2) it's someone else who knows a good bit about me and is doing an amazing job in making me think that the forementioned idiot is trolling his own forum – extremely unlikely.

Anyhow i pretty much just forgot about comments direct towards me. But then the troll insults an elder woman on my forum. And it is no longer a laughing matter. Now its time to deal with this coward.

I’m guessing that it's him again attempting to make some weak ass argument.

i.e. "We have trolls on our forum [suddenly, right after he and i exchanged words] and therefore Tacks is not doing his job! Therefore my big fat arrogant self would be the better man for the job because, if elected, i will cure cancer, i will...."

Sorry for being longwinded. But i thought some of you might get a kick out of this.

Anyhow, anyone have any experience with this? I reside in the states. The forum is based in Western Europe (lets say Whales). I believe that i might need to file a complaint with the local police department (which seems like a lot of work for such pettiness, but i will do it). How do i go about this?

And if you don't know but know someone who would know then please tell me.

thanks in advance for your comments,
and thanks for all the help in the past,

Oh, good lord!

This moron has left a ton of remarks, ip addresses and hotmail accounts! Lot's and lots of nasty comments that would easily qualify as "harrassment" in the eyes of any kind of police force and/or authority.

I'm hardly an expert in this area but i think it should be like shooting fish in a barrel -- way too easy.

Anyone else have thoughts?


EDIT: The more i read the better and better it gets.

Ban him/her.

move the threads to a hidden 'evidence' forum.. ban him, move on..

Hi Jaisp,

Thanks for reading.

I wish it were that simple and i wish that i was in a position to make such a bold move without consequence. While I can see that this person is a piece of dirt. Not eveyone else can. He is an expert bull**itter! The older ladies on our forum respect him to some degree. They can't recognize him as a giant piece of poop. I have nothing against older unmarried women -- far from it -- but i'm thinking of one at the moment who could be convinced that this sh**head was somehow serving the greater good by trolling his own forum.

It would be much more diplomatic for the forum owner if i were to have this guy nailed for harrassment instead of banning him. If i just banned him some females -- long time contributors -- would view it as me abusing my moderator powers

Thanks to Sirdude and Jaisp,

It'd be hard for me to actually ban this guy as i can't really prove to the rest of my people that he's the one doing it.

[and then again if these are actually 'my people' then why the f--- would they not trust the opinion of their mod, me.

Maybe i just take a rest from this for the time being.]

sorry for the rant,
and thanks for listening,

There is a multiple login mod that is floating around here or on threadsdev that we wrote that uses cookies to identify multiple usernames from the same computer. I believe people have kept modifying the code so it works with the current version of threads. I'd install it and use that to collect evidence.

We have, unfortunately, been through this cycle far more times that I'd even care to admit in the last 10 years. The range of personalities who do this stuff range from people with a chip on their shoulder to severe mental health issues.

You can call the police, but there is little they can do unless you have a very solid case with serious credible threats they can build off of. Nowadays I think they take this more seriously, but about 5 years ago they definitely did not have the capability.

Really the best way of handling this is putting your pride aside and diffusing the situation as quickly as possible. Get the wrong person and this will go on for YEARS. Ask them very directly, in a non-inflammatory way what their issue is, and then ask them to either respect the rules of the forum or go away. They likely will not. Like Sirdude said, ban them and move on.

Thanks Cascade,

Your response was comprehensive and well written -- I appreciate it. Not what i was hoping to hear but sincere thanks, all the same.



If you all are still willing to read I'll probably be posting up more about this later.

Off to work.

You owe it to your "good" members to ban him. I've been few it a few times. Eventually, they give up.

Well, really, if he's just a moderator he owes it to the owners to not "just ban" someone... If one of my mod's had permission and went around banning people without talking to me about it first I'd be quite pissed...

Hello everyone,

Thanks for the responses. And thanks for listening to my rants.

One of my own took the time to point out that this is merely a case of some fat girl*** being jealous of my position. Which i already knew but its very encouraging to hear that others see it the same way -- or to be reminded of it.

Giz, i'm actually admin. Just by default. It's kind of a weird situation. (actually it was never intended that i even be mod -- if you can imagine)




*** i really mean no offense to any women; thin, thick and medium; you're all great.