Here is the entire first message SI Bob wrote to Cobe. With his permission, she asked me to post it. I will post the second message, too.
>>>>>Nearly any information can be found about nearly anyone in the country
if
one is persistent and knowledgeable enough. For purposes of determining
whether or not an invasion of privacy has taken place, we must look at not
only the nature of the private information and the source, but also the
intentions when posting it.
If someone determines that a poster is a company officer and that
information is readily available in the filings of publicly held companies,
then it is not considered a violation of privacy because:
1. The information was available in company filings, which are assumed
to be read by and/or available to everyone who uses the site.
2. The information is relevant to discussions of the company.
One of the major things that was missing in your postings was
relevance. If personal information about someone is posted only for the
purpose of "outing" them, "punishing" them or harassment, it is considered
invasive of their privacy and handled accordingly.
As for his being cruel to another member, it is never appropriate to handle
Terms of Use violations by violating the Terms of Use. The incident should
have been reported to us and left for us to do something about.
I have brought it to the attention of the appropriate people that the free
accounts that should have expired 3 months ago have never really expired
nor have the members been prompted to subscribe. That is our fault; not
yours. Until the programmers get that straightened out, there's no reason
to terminate accounts for that since, as far as I know, there isn't an
option currently available for a free account holder to subscribe to the site.
Invasion of privacy is considered one of the worst offenses that can be
committed on the site, but as a first offense it doesn't warrant account
termination. It used to, but it doesn't anymore.
With that in mind, and the irrelevance of your account's free status, I
have reinstated your account, but have replaced the termination with a
7-day suspension (5 days plus "time served"). A first offense for invasion
of privacy normally carries a 14-day suspension, but I took into account
the fact that you have written nearly 10000 posts on the site with not one
single deletion or suspension in that time. Also, if memory serves, it was
I who gave your account the free status because I was so impressed with the
quality of your posts during your trial membership.
Your participation, like the participation of any one of our members, is
highly valued, and we look forward to your return in 5 days.
Regards,
SI Admin (Bob)<<<<< |
