PhD researcher asking about forum technicalities

[ecoimbra]

Dear all,

I am a PhD student in Linguistics at Queen Mary University of London. I am planning in opening a forum (I'll be the admin and moderator) for a study on how people who experience sexual intrusive thoughts use language to make sense of their mental states. My study deals with observing participants' linguistic behavior and extracting their linguistic data into my computer so that I can use specific software to analyse the whole thing.

As you can imagine, my study deals with a sensitive topic, and I need to be sure that my participants remain safe and anonymous. Hence, I need to know several things before welcoming participants.

I am grateful for any response and help. Please answer me by using the title of each question so that I can have an overview of what I am asking I don't need any answers that tell how to do the things that I ask (I will ask in the future about it), but whether they are possible to do or not. This is for me to plan things ahead.

For your information, I have no experience in coding (I only know how to copy/paste certain codes in order for them to create things).

• Question 1:
  On this page, it informs me about Forumotion's databases. I was wondering how secure these databases are? Would you advise me to do my study here or should I go somewhere else?

• Question 2:
  This one is still related to the databases. I understand that Forumotion has the right to prohibit the extraction of my forum's database. However, it doesn't say that it is a definitive no-go. Would I be able to ask for such extraction? Could I have a backup on my computer in order to analyse it? If not, do I have the right to extract the linguistic data by copy/pasting everything into my computer?

• Question 3:
  Now we get to the more forum-practical questions. Is it possible to insert a Youtube video in the profile-creation page that would explain people why I need certain information?

• Question 4:
  When clicking on "Register", it sends you to the page that contains the terms of service. I was wondering if it would be possible to create another page (containing it information about the study) and inserting it before the ToS one. Basically, people would need to click on a button (saying something like 'I accept to participate in the study') that would send them to the usual ToS page.

• Question 5:
  When new users register, they receive an e-mail confirming their registration. I was wondering if I could add a text and a PDF file to that mail?

• Question 6:
  The following questions deal with the possibility of users wanting to delete their account. When they delete their account, is it possible to delete all the messages that the wrote as well? Or at least deleting the username attached to the message?

• Question 7:
  Is it possible for the admin/moderator to receive an automatic mail when somebody deletes their account?

• Question 8:
  When a user wants to delete an account, is it possible to display a message asking them whether they allow me to continue to use their data or not? If they say yes, then it would be great to keep their profile name related to the message. If they say no, then it would be great to delete all their written posts.

• Question 9:
  Can admin/moderators receive a notification when users change certain things about their profile?

That's it for now. Again thank you very much for your help and patience.

All the best,

Elvis

[TonnyKamper]

• Question 1:
  On this page, it informs me about Forumotion's databases. I was wondering how secure these databases are? Would you advise me to do my study here or should I go somewhere else?

• Question 2:
  This one is still related to the databases. I understand that Forumotion has the right to prohibit the extraction of my forum's database. However, it doesn't say that it is a definitive no-go. Would I be able to ask for such extraction? Could I have a backup on my computer in order to analyse it? If not, do I have the right to extract the linguistic data by copy/pasting everything into my computer?

• Question 3:
  Now we get to the more forum-practical questions. Is it possible to insert a Youtube video in the profile-creation page that would explain people why I need certain information?

• Question 4:
  When clicking on "Register", it sends you to the page that contains the terms of service. I was wondering if it would be possible to create another page (containing it information about the study) and inserting it before the ToS one. Basically, people would need to click on a button (saying something like 'I accept to participate in the study') that would send them to the usual ToS page.

• Question 5:
  When new users register, they receive an e-mail confirming their registration. I was wondering if I could add a text and a PDF file to that mail?

• Question 6:
  The following questions deal with the possibility of users wanting to delete their account. When they delete their account, is it possible to delete all the messages that the wrote as well? Or at least deleting the username attached to the message?

• Question 7:
  Is it possible for the admin/moderator to receive an automatic mail when somebody deletes their account?

• Question 8:
  When a user wants to delete an account, is it possible to display a message asking them whether they allow me to continue to use their data or not? If they say yes, then it would be great to keep their profile name related to the message. If they say no, then it would be great to delete all their written posts.

• Question 9:
  Can admin/moderators receive a notification when users change certain things about their profile?

Q1 + Q2: Needs to be answered by a team member here !

Q3: Yes.

Q4: No , but there is a way around it, you can put a button for question in the profiles which is required to be answered upon registration and you can add information to the registration page, but only after the TOS not before.

Q5: No, but you can send that afterwards because you know their emailadresses.

Q6: The username get's deleted and changes to 'guest' but to my knowledge the messages stay, they need to be manually deleted if you dont want them anymore.

Q7: Yes

Q8: No, not to my knowledge.

Q9: No.

I am the owner of a forum for sexually abused people in The Netherlands and so far I have no complaints whatsoever about the security of Forumotion, the forum permissions work perfectly to secure that no outsiders can read the messages..

Kind regards,
Tonny Kamper

[SLGray]

1.  https://help.forumotion.com/t11386-forumotion-maximum-security-for-your-forums

https://help.forumotion.com/t51-internet-security-on-your-forum-habits-to-be-avoided

2.  No

3.  AP > General > Rules and FAQ > Additional Rules
This will add it to the first page that loads after you click the register button.

4.  Same as 3, but you can not edit the text that is already there.

5.  No

6.  TonnyKamper is correct.

7.  It already does this by default for the administrators group.

8.  No

9.  No