Forum deletion warning?

[koimaster]

So why is what is posted about this person Michael Davis of the Invicta Watch Group defamation or harmful. He is a PUBLIC person in everyway. He is on air on a shopping network with 78 claimed viewers. He is the ON AIR technical brand manager for Invicta and has a facebook page which brags about it. And apparently you deleted an entire forum which was full of facts, documentation and more.  I want to purchase a back up of my forum and move it away from forummotions. I would like an exception made for this forum as I have 4 years and thousands of hours and threads.
  I am livid that you would delete an entire sub forum on the truth of a felon and Fake NAVEY SEAL



As a public persona he is held to a different standard.

His fake resume as of today claiming to have graduated from a college he did not graduate from.

[Guest]

Hello Koimaster, I am very sorry to hear you have received a warning on your forum. I have read your forum, and though I have never been a member, I could not find anything offensive. So I don't understand why Forumotion would send you such a warning, as I have read nothing in their terms that says it is not allowed. 

You could make an official complaint to the head of the company Forumotion,as it does seem unfair they have told you,they will delete your forum,for no real reason. A forum is a place where people from all walks of life come together and have different ideas. As such they have a right to express their own personal views and opinions. And no forum host should take action against an admin for this. 

As a former Forumotion forum owner and admin myself( I used to be with FM but I left.) I can only speculate why they might have sent you this warning,it could have been that you or what ever member wrote the post, named the person in the post. 

What you could do is maybe delete the persons name from the post as that may be the problem,though I cannot say for sure. I know when I post on forums, such as consumer and law forums as a member,the admins tell us not to use real names of real life persons or companies involved,probably to cover themselves against site removal. Although the forums I am talking about are self hosted forums. Yes it is better to host your forum yourself though a paid web host if you can. Though that is up to you to decide. Anyway I hope you get your problem sorted out soon. 
All the best,
Andrea Borman.

[koimaster]

Hello Koimaster, I am very sorry to hear you have received a warning on your forum. I have read your forum, and though I have never been a member, I could not find anything offensive. So I don't understand why Forumotion would send you such a warning, as I have read nothing in their terms that says it is not allowed. 

You could make an official complaint to the head of the company Forumotion,as it does seem unfair they have told you,they will delete your forum,for no real reason. A forum is a place where people from all walks of life come together and have different ideas. As such they have a right to express their own personal views and opinions. And no forum host should take action against an admin for this. 

As a former Forumotion forum owner and admin myself( I used to be with FM but I left.) I can only speculate why they might have sent you this warning,it could have been that you or what ever member wrote the post, named the person in the post. 

What you could do is maybe delete the persons name from the post as that may be the problem,though I cannot say for sure. I know when I post on forums, such as consumer and law forums as a member,the admins tell us not to use real names of real life persons or companies involved,probably to cover themselves against site removal. Although the forums I am talking about are self hosted forums. Yes it is better to host your forum yourself though a paid web host if you can. Though that is up to you to decide. Anyway I hope you get your problem sorted out soon. 
All the best,
Andrea Borman.

 Thanks. I have no idea what they want deleted since I was not even informed what is allegedly the issue. This guy has a history of doing this elsewhere and even threatened two forum owners, best damn watch forum and Xtreamemeantime. Everything posted about him is factual, and since he is a public person, the public has a right to know. If Forumotion sells me a backup of my forum, I am out of here to my own site. We bring a lot of traffic to the site, others point to this place as a consumer information site. I received two threat letters yesterday and have handed them off to my lawyers. Now I guess I need to determine if I have to file action against forum motion since I pay $$$ for no ads etc.

Tell me what needs to be removed period and sell me a backup copy of my forum.

[koimaster]

I have access to an autoinstaller for PHPbb. How can I use this tool to transfer my forum. I do not want to do this but forumotion acted without informing me of giving me a chance to seek re-dress. I have enjoyed my time here but I will not allow 4 years of work to be destroyed because some one does not know the difference between defamation and facts.

One recent attempt to get into watchlord by this personwhich is why I vet members.This person was NOT allowed in.



 

This who he is

[Guest]

I have access to an autoinstaller for PHPbb. How can I use this tool to transfer my forum. I do not want to do this but forumotion acted without informing me of giving me a chance to seek re-dress. I have enjoyed my time here but I will not allow 4 years of work to be destroyed because some one does not know the difference between defamation and facts.

One recent attempt to get into watchlord by this personwhich is why I vet members.This person was NOT allowed in.



 

This who he is

So what you are saying is the person in the above picture is a member you banned who reported your forum to Forumotion? And this Michael Davis who you say one of your members posted about on your forum,is the member you banned?

I have been on your forum this evening after I read this thread.Though I could not view the post that you said FM told you is against their terms of service. As it is not visible to guests. There are several discussion forums on Forumotion that discuss political issues. And I am a member of one of them but they have not been deleted by Forumotion. So I don't know why Forumotion are picking on your forum.

[koimaster]

No response from forumotion as to what has to be removed?

[Guest]

No response from forumotion as to what has to be removed?

No it does not seem like it. Maybe you could PM one of the admins,if they allow it. As I don't know what it is that Forumotion wants you to remove or edit.

As it could just be that one thread that's the problem or it could be other posts. Though I don't know. Maybe if you could contact one of the staff and explain. Maybe that will straighten this out.

As until you know for sure what is breaking FMs terms, you don't know what posts to remove. Then there is the possibility it could all be a mistake, and you have not broken any terms of service.

[SLGray]

Hello Koimaster, I am very sorry to hear you have received a warning on your forum. I have read your forum, and though I have never been a member, I could not find anything offensive. So I don't understand why Forumotion would send you such a warning, as I have read nothing in their terms that says it is not allowed. 

You could make an official complaint to the head of the company Forumotion,as it does seem unfair they have told you,they will delete your forum,for no real reason. A forum is a place where people from all walks of life come together and have different ideas. As such they have a right to express their own personal views and opinions. And no forum host should take action against an admin for this. 

As a former Forumotion forum owner and admin myself( I used to be with FM but I left.) I can only speculate why they might have sent you this warning,it could have been that you or what ever member wrote the post, named the person in the post. 

What you could do is maybe delete the persons name from the post as that may be the problem,though I cannot say for sure. I know when I post on forums, such as consumer and law forums as a member,the admins tell us not to use real names of real life persons or companies involved,probably to cover themselves against site removal. Although the forums I am talking about are self hosted forums. Yes it is better to host your forum yourself though a paid web host if you can. Though that is up to you to decide. Anyway I hope you get your problem sorted out soon. 
All the best,
Andrea Borman.

 Thanks. I have no idea what they want deleted since I was not even informed what is allegedly the issue. This guy has a history of doing this elsewhere and even threatened two forum owners, best damn watch forum and Xtreamemeantime. Everything posted about him is factual, and since he is a public person, the public has a right to know. If Forumotion sells me a backup of my forum, I am out of here to my own site. We bring a lot of traffic to the site, others point to this place as a consumer information site. I received two threat letters yesterday and have handed them off to my lawyers. Now I guess I need to determine if I have to file action against forum motion since I pay $$$ for no ads etc.

Tell me what needs to be removed period and sell me a backup copy of my forum.

I have access to an autoinstaller for PHPbb. How can I use this tool to transfer my forum. I do not want to do this but forumotion acted without informing me of giving me a chance to seek re-dress. I have enjoyed my time here but I will not allow 4 years of work to be destroyed because some one does not know the difference between defamation and facts.

One recent attempt to get into watchlord by this personwhich is why I vet members.This person was NOT allowed in.



 

This who he is

   Please don't double/triple post. Your post need to be separated by 24 hours before bumping, replying or adding more information. Please use the edit button instead!

How do you know that the litigation report is exactly about the specific person. I would go through the whole forum and check everything.

[koimaster]

I have received not one but two letters from lawyers in the last 48 hours who claim to represent this man. Both are demanding I remove him from my forum. It appears that forumotion will just delete the forum rather that defend their members when treatened with litiagation, no matter how false it is.

I have informed my own attorney to prepare legal action to defend the forum from false accusations. I will not bow down to a thug, a felon, a fake SEAL and a liar who goes on air to convince people to purchase over priced garbage, most of it of dubious origins. Forumotion on their own deleted two sub-forums, one about him which had documents and photos of this man in jail, his prison records, his false resumes and more. So that is how I know.

[Guest]

I think what the OP is saying is that she does not know why she was given the warning by Forumotion, or what is the offending content. 

If you could tell her or try to find out it would be a big help to her. Then she could at least know what she needs to do or remove to rectify this situation.

[SLGray]

It says in the message what category is breaking the Terms of Service.  Do you have any information that gives this person's private information out?  Like home address, birthday date, etc.

[Guest]

It says in the message what category is breaking the Terms of Service.  Do you have any information that gives this person's private information out?  Like home address, birthday date, etc.

From what the OP told us it seems to be the post on her forum about this Michael Davis,which is breaking Forumotion's terms of service.Though I don't know what's in those posts. As the thread is not visible to guests and so only members can read it.

So it may be a good idea for her to delete that thread and any other other threads about this person,Michael. Then for the OP to not allow any of her members to post other threads or posts about him. Though it's up to her if or not she wants to do that.

[koimaster]

It says in the message what category is breaking the Terms of Service.  Do you have any information that gives this person's private information out?  Like home address, birthday date, etc.

 No we have not. We give out his prison record number. This person is a PUBLIC person and the rules about alleged libel or defamation are far different for someone like him. The public has the right to know about a fraud. Many men and women have given their lives to serve their respective countries. This man, who did 5 years in prison for an armed robbery using a weapon and was not a first time offender according to records, has claimed valor and honor he is not worthy of. He has participated is selling watches on cable tv and elsewhere which are not what they are represented to be. On the forum is a post about fake sandstone dials sold by his employer. He participated is selling these as real sandstone and when the facts were made public by us, he threatened legal action. I ignored him, fraud is fraud.

He has claimed to have a degree from the University of Texas which is false. Now he is claiming on Linkin and elsewhere to have a BS degree from Wilminington college, a Quaker run college, and he does not. Those are facts.

[SLGray]

Well this is something that will have to be taken care by you and the person in question. We can not tell you for sure what is breaking the Terms of Services. If this person has talked about legal action, then more likely he was the one who send the litigation report to Forumotion. Even if a section of your forum is not visible to guests and/or members, Forumotion can see it.

[Guest]

Well this is something that will have to be taken care by you and the person in question.  We can not tell you for sure what is breaking the Terms of Services.  If this person has talked about legal action, then more likely he was the one who send the litigation report to Forumotion.  Even if a section of your forum is not visible to guests and/or members, Forumotion can see it.

Yes that is true. But Koimaster also said she banned this person from her forum which she has a right to do. I used to have a forum and I have refused membership,I.E, refused to activate accounts of members who were previously banned for tolling. A forum admin has a right to ban or refuse membership to anyone,and does not have to give a reason.

I think it's very harsh of Forumotion to threaten a forum with deletion on the complaint of someone who it seems has a grudge against the admin. There are members who I banned from my forum who probably wanted to do the same thing to me. All right this case is different because there is a post on the OPs forum about a member being in prison and it names and identifies that person. Which is probably what could be breaking Forumotions terms, though we don't know for sure.

Though there are many websites and forums that post about other public figures which this Micheal seems to be,though I have never heard of him until reading this thread 2 days ago. Yet those websites are not banned and I think Forumotion should just let it drop and let the OP keep her forum,and whatever posts she has on it. After all the laws in both England where I live and America allow freedom of speech and I am sure France does too. And from what we can read of the post here, it is simply an article that you or I could have read in any magazine. I don't see it as against any laws or morals, if you know what I mean.

Though having said that, I suppose each web or forum host has their rules and if the post has broken those rules.The best think to do is to delete that, and any other posts like it from the forum. And tell the other forum members not to create such posts again. As maybe the post boarders on something political which has been misunderstood. For example, if we posted something about a well known English MP or government official being in prison,it is possible the website concerned could be shut down by the web host or forum service, if the content was not removed.

So the now the OP has to decide if or not too keep that post and risk possible shut down of her forum. Or remove all posts and references to this man,whoever he is. I know that when I post as a member on law or consumer advice forums. The admins there have this rule called the no names rule. Which is members are not allowed to post names of Shops stores,Energy Providers or companies. It seems a bit silly, but I can see one way why they have this,to protect their sites from being shut down, or suspended by their web host.

So maybe it would have been better if the OP had not allowed the member to write that post on her forum. Or at least not to name or identify the person. Though it seems very harsh of Forumotion to close down a whole forum because on one mistake. But it could simply be that the person who made the complaint to FM is just trying to get back at the admin for banning him. I have met a lot of members like that myself, but Forumotion should just ignore this, and not shut down a forum on someone else's say so. As it is rather unfair, as I have read Koimasters site as a guest, and have never been a member of her forum. Watchloads is simply a watchmakers forum about watches, for people who are interested in watches and jewelry, I don't see anything offensive about that.

[koimaster]

Well this is something that will have to be taken care by you and the person in question.  We can not tell you for sure what is breaking the Terms of Services.  If this person has talked about legal action, then more likely he was the one who send the litigation report to Forumotion.  Even if a section of your forum is not visible to guests and/or members, Forumotion can see it.

 Isn't litigation supposed to be a two way street? I get told what it is and what to fix, not just a drop dead, generic fix what we will not tell you is the problem or you lose 4 years worth of work because of some felon being exposed.

I have put the forum on holiday until I can figure out what has to be removed but I still want to purchase my database so in the event something like this happens again when another fraud is exposed, at least I will have the information compliled by myself and others on the forum.

[Guest]

Isn't litigation supposed to be a two way street? I get told what it is and what to fix, not just a drop dead, generic fix what we will not tell you is the problem or you lose 4 years worth of work because of some felon being exposed.

koimaster do you have any proof that you could show FM litigation team that there is no defamation in those posts?

As I don't think there is any myself, and Forumotion should not delete someones forum based on another persons say so. Particularly if that person is an ex-member who has been banned or refused membership to the forum.

SL Gray, is there any way the OP could contact Forumotion litigation herself and explain it all to them,as she has done here? As it seems that FM litigation have made a mistake. I don't think her forum should be deleted or closed down. There is no reason for this.

[SLGray]

We do not have contact with the litigation team.  

P.S.  You can not purchase the database. If it was me, I would just remove any threads about the person.

[Guest]

Well the OP says she will remove the post if only she knew which ones were breaking the terms of service. If Forumotion would just tell her, then she would do. As she does not want to loose the forum she worked so hard to create.

[SLGray]

The litigation team does not tell you the specific things, but gives a general category. As the founder/administrator, you should know what is on your forum and know the Terms of Service.

[Guest]

Well it's not my forum, it's the OPs. I am just following and replying to the thread that's all. Though I feel very sorry for the OP, having been a former forum admin myself.