FAQs re RECENT CHANGES TO THIS ABPA FORUM

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Shelley Hansen
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FAQs re RECENT CHANGES TO THIS ABPA FORUM

Post by Shelley Hansen » Mon Sep 19, 2016 11:18 am

ON BEHALF OF THE ABPA EXECUTIVE …

It has been brought to our attention that some Forum users still have unanswered questions regarding the recent changes which limited the right of Forum contribution to financial ABPA members only. Here is a summary of frequently asked questions we’ve received. We trust the following concise answers will allay any remaining concerns on this matter.

1. What prompted the decision to implement the “Members Only” rule?

The issue of legal liability was raised by experienced Forum users who had concerns regarding the risk of defamatory action arising from certain past posts – in particular the ABPA’s liability in the case of third parties (outside ABPA) being verbally attacked.

2. Why not just remove any offensive posts if and when they appear?

That may address the immediate issue, but not the underlying problem – and would not prevent future occurrences. Moderators cannot be expected to monitor the site 24/7, and an offending post may well be seen by others and even copied, in the interval between the visits of site moderators. An alternative would be to moderate all posts before they are published, but we don’t have the resources for that.

3. Is the legal risk a real one – and if so, who is at risk?

It is very real. Because this Forum is attached to the ABPA name and website, it is part of our intellectual property. Therefore we are legally liable for its content. Specifically, that involves the contributors, the site moderators and the ABPA committee as a whole and as individuals. By extension, all ABPA members are affected. A single defamation case would be financially devastating, so we have done what we can to reduce the risk by limiting the ability to post on the site to ABPA members only.

4. What guarantee is there that an ABPA member will not post offending material?

There is no guarantee. However, current financial ABPA members with up-to-date contact details have less chance of hiding in anonymity, and can be directly approached and asked to desist if they post material requiring moderation.

5. Were the non-members deleted from the Forum without notice?

Absolutely not! An immense amount of work was involved. Our technical advisor David Kitchen extracted a data dump of all Forum users, which treasurer Shelley Hansen converted to an Excel spreadsheet and merged with a copy of the current ABPA member list. Shelley spent the next two weeks working virtually full-time on the project. Every Forum user who could not be identified as a financial ABPA member was emailed individually, and the situation was outlined to them. A month was given to take up our offer of ABPA membership. Those who had “defunct” email addresses were sent private messages via the Forum. Any who did not respond but who had visited the Forum in the last 12 months were sent follow-up emails. Of these, the few regular contributors were contacted a third time and given an additional month to respond. Only then was action taken to curtail Forum access.

6. What incentive did non-members have to join ABPA?


The invitation to join ABPA was a warm and genuine one. Forum users were given a special once-only offer of 6 months free membership for the remainder of this membership year, if they joined ABPA at the 2017 rate – thus extending their financial membership through to December 2017. Some accepted. Some declined.

7. Why were ABPA members not told in advance about the impending changes?

The Forum access of ABPA members was not affected. Approximately two weeks prior to implementation of the changes, the Forum moderators were advised by private message. None of them expressed any concerns at that time. Subsequently, various public posts on the Forum outlined the situation for the information of all.

8. Is it unfair to restrict Forum contributions to ABPA members?

If you consider it “unfair”, ask this question instead: Is it reasonable to expose ABPA members, Forum moderators and the Executive, to the possible legal risk involved in allowing unrestricted access to posting on this site? Non-members can still view those parts of the Forum that were previously available to them, but only ABPA members enjoy the benefits of full access.

9. Does financial membership guarantee Forum access?

This Forum operates under stated rules and guidelines. Registered Forum user access involves agreement to abide by those rules. Failure to do so will result in a warning, and removal of offending material. Repeated violations will result in the revoking of that user’s Forum access, regardless of ABPA membership status.

10. What are the rules governing the use of this Forum?

The rules and guidelines are permanently displayed on the “Forum” page of the main ABPA website. For your convenience, they are reproduced here:

All users MUST comply with the Registration Agreement Terms of the Australian Bush Poets Association Forum.
The purpose of the ABPA Forum is to encourage constructive and informative discussion about poetry and closely related subjects in a spirit of mutual respect and tolerance.

The ABPA Forum runs under the auspices of the ABPA. The ABPA owns and is legally responsible and liable for all information and contributors’ comments. Individual contributors are likewise responsible and legally liable for posts. Therefore the ABPA reserves the right to monitor and administer the Forum in such a way that protects all users as well as ABPA officials and members. Posts will be removed if deemed to be offensive, inflammatory or in any way derogatory to the ABPA, the ABPA Committee or individuals. It is expected that this position be respected by all, for the benefit of all.

Use of the ABPA Forum assumes acceptance of the above position.

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David Campbell
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Re: FAQs re RECENT CHANGES TO THIS ABPA FORUM

Post by David Campbell » Wed Sep 21, 2016 11:39 am

Thanks Shelley, that’s very informative. I’ve been browsing through some of the reports of defamation cases and it’s very clear that any organisation with exposure to online comments has every reason to be worried and take whatever precautions it can to limit risk, especially where anonymous comments under an alias are concerned. Some publications have tackled the problem by disabling comments altogether, while others have switched to Facebook comments, thus requiring people to provide their real names and a photo.

Long experience with public commentary, particularly through my newspaper articles, has taught me that there are those who appear to take a perverse pleasure in being abusive, with little or no regard for consequences. You’d like to think that people could be trusted to be fair and reasonable in what they wrote, but that seems to be a forlorn hope in some cases. Sad, really. I reckon that administering a website that accepted anonymous comments would be a recipe for quite a few sleepless nights. You never know who’s out there.

David

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