Believe me, I've suggested this to RB many times via email and over the phone. RB's basic response has been they feel it will adversely effect the number of hits they receive. Since their rates they charged for advertising are based on the volume of traffic they can tell advertisers they receive, RB will not do anything that in their opinion adversely effects that volume ("hits" and thus directly their bottom line, even if not modifying their system means their system can be utilized for libel, harassment and fraud. With the fraud being both perpetrated by "hypers"
and "bashers".
Below are just a couple of many many emails to RB on this topic.
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12/17/00
Dear Shay,
Below are some very objectionable post many by ReaI_ David (not Real_David) and others.
Using a capital "i" to simulate an lower case "l" to allowed Rea(i)_David to impersonate Real_David. Until recently this "cloning" use to be identifiable when doing a TOS
since the "username of poster" indicated the capital "i" clearly due to the font. Now this changed and the same mistakable font I for l is not recogizable even in the TOS as I had observed before with a "clone" of JRSwaiIs for JRSwails.
What occurred? How did your system become even more negligent? Are RB employees
fxxking around here too? Please excuse my "french", but I don't understand how the font in the TOS could change as well.. Regardless simply modifying your fonts throughout your system would mitigate this problem but apparantly Raging Bull can't even do that to minimize the rampant abuse that isn't quickly remediated, since these post have now been out there for nearly 12 hours and counting. Again your system is grossly negligent and allows for TOS transgressors to quickly re-sign up with another free email account and again make the TOS meaningless, especially since such offending posts like those below are NOT removed expeditiously and since the offenders are easily re-admitted to your service to continue to make such offensive posts that I have repeatedly and repeatedly made yourself and Raging Bull aware of on quite literally hundreds of occassions.
Considering that simply modifying your system to charge a token fee of even 10 cents payable by credit card would give you verifiable data as to who the abusers are and also preclude their further participation after they used their three strikes (for example), Raging Bull's unwillingness to do something as simple as CC registration, in light of how many times Raging Bull has been made aware of such rampant abuse of their meaningless TOS, makes Raging Bull extremely and grossly negligent.while rendering their indemnifying clauses meaningless as well. Hitherto, Raging Bull's only apparent lasting response to such abuse has been total disregard.
The only reason RB doesn't make these simple changes is because RB is afraid it will reduce traffic to the sight....ie for financial reasons. Well, that is obvious, and RB employees should all be ashamed especially if there are some who are facillitating this nonsense.
Sincerely,
[Real Name]
xxx-xxx-xxxxx
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12/18/00
Dear Shay,
Like I've written before without a simple registration verification check system, those who flagrantly abuse your "terms of Service" quickly get back on to harrass people, who don't abuse your system, simply by using another free email account.
If you simply charged 25 cents payable per credit card to get verifiable info, you could establish a "three strike" or similar system that would eliminate the rampant mockery of your TOS. By not implementing such a system, you have so many TOS violations that you rarely and effectively stop the rampant abuse and therefore are grossly negligent. Timeliness at this point would be to not allow for such continuing posts.
After my last recent email to you, two extremely abusive posters who were being imposters of others were quickly replaced by new abusive aliases. Two of those aliases were ztecctOO2 and ztecctO02. Despite my use of your TOS reporting feature, ztecctOO2 continued to post for over a half an day, and as soon as this imposter was removed another ztecctO02 was created and as of this writing is still posting despite my reporting each and everyone one of this person's posts via your TOS reporting function. (see ztecctOO2 and ztecttO02 attachements for records of these harrassing posts that are trying to mock me via these impersonations). Again, once this person has posted, he has already committed he intended impact as thus has already created damage.
Now when this person is removed, how quickly will there be another incarnation say ztecct0O2 or zttect002 or some other permutation?
Now I've agreed to abide by your rules and have reformed to play within those rules going so far as to apologize to others I've offended, yet you have a system that simply can't be enforced despite your company's pretenses and makes me the subject of continuous harassment simply by participating.
Your company thus is not only negligent, but enables such abuse. Raging Bull could itself go after those that abuse your system, but your company doesn't even make the slightest modifications to mitigate rampant and widespread abuse. Raging Bull offers no remedies. The ignore button is meaningless for newly created and constantly changing aliases, and your dollar sign credibility system is equally a farce, since people who create multiple aliases book marked themselves so as to give themselves "credibility".
My only real option is to not participate, but why should I be the one who has to make this decision due to your neglect for enforcing the terms that were part of are "agreement".
You lose a lot of hits and sincere participants by allowing the Raging Bull to become the Raging Zoo
Shame on you.
Sincerely,
[Real Name]
xxx-xxx-xxxxx
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09/16/00
Well Raging BUll S... Team,
Looks like we have an outbreak of Disney characters
on the TIGI thread tonight - 9 new alias that
all book mark one another to get "dollar signs"
which just proves how totally and completely
asinine your "Member Power Rating" system is.
All of these alias listed below have made one
(1) post at the time of my writing this email
and all have three dollar signs.
Boy that sure makes this newest rash of aliases "credible"
I clipped your member mark system
below as well so you can think of a way
to fix this too. Though can't imagine you do much
thinking, since not only is your "tos"
a joke but so is your "member power" or
credibility rating system.
But then who again cares, it's all about
"hits" and "page views", who at raging bull
cares about FRAUD or harassment.
Sorry can't contain the sarcasm,
but y'all should be ashamed of yourselves.
You are part of the problem,
not part of any constructive dialogue
or solution.
Sincerely,
[Real Name}
Xxx-xxx-xxxx
cc. enforcement@sec.gov
===========================
============================
Member Power Ratings:
Member Power Ratings tell you how much credibility
a Raging Bull member has earned in the community.
Member Power Ratings are automatically calculated based
on how the Raging Bull community responds to a
member.Members can receive ratings from zero to
four dollar signs. If you have questions regarding
Member Power
Ratings click here.
What determines a Member Power Rating?
Member Power Ratings are automatically calculated based on how the
Raging Bull community responds to a member. If you receive
Member Marks or Top Posts you will earn more dollar signs
===================================
====================================
9/10/00
Raging Bull Team:
Maybe you could AT LEAST provide a button that
list all the aliases used by a single person.
For example, if you hit the hyperlink for a person's
profile, on that profile would be a list or hyperlink
to a list of other aliases used by that person.
Plus what's up with your "credibility" system of
dollar signs? It is a joke. Some people who have
only posted one or two times have 3 dollar signs
which supposedly infers that they are "credible".
Anyway, my above idea is one I had before but was also
reiterated in one of the two below posts.
Sincerely,
[Real Name]
Xxx-xxx-xxxx
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09/06/00
Shay,
Below is a response to XXXX XXXXxxxxx,
a fired former employee of TIGI, who has
harassed every one on the threads for over a
year and an half since being fired.
His participation has dissuaded others from
participating, resulting in lost hits.
Any rebukes or violations on my part have
been visceral reactions to his constant
lies and harassment (see attachments which
are just a portion of his libelous barrage).
If you did implement a simple $1.00 fee
payable by credit card
to prevent a person from re- signing right back
up after violating your terms and being kicked off,
you'd not discourage participation, but you allow
others to behave in a much more civil manner
w/o being harassed that would allow for
MORE participation.
If someone broke your terms,
you could allow them to sign up under probation
or suspend them for a 1,2 or month period before
re-admittance. If a person continued to violate
terms that person should be banned permanently.
Warnings should be issued if appropriate.
Right now because you have no way or
means to keep people from having multiple aliases
and egregiously violating your terms with
no lasting punity, you in effect really
have no terms and any pretense to having
terms just makes your negligence that
much more manifest IMO
Sincerely,
[Real Name]
Xxx-xxx-xxxx
==================================================
09/06/00
Raging Bull Team,
It is now 3:45 Pm EST. 09/06/00
The below post has not been removed which
is a direct violation of your terms of service
violating both my privacy and also being
personally insulting.
I have chosen to not indicate either my name
or location, and no one else has the right to do so
for me.
Nearly 20 hours have passed, and still no action
has been taken to remove this post in spite of
numerous TOS, email and phone call complaints.
If your terms weren't so easy to repeatedly violate
through the creation of new aliases, then you
wouldn't be so back logged with complaints and could
respond to such egregious violations as this
post below in a much MUCH more timely manner.
Your lack of response is inexcusable
Your lack of response is negligent.
All you have are excuses to preserve your system that
allows for easy creation of new aliases
and further violation of your terms.
The reason you preserve this system that leads to
perpetual harassment and the potential for fraud
is because you need "hits" for your advertisers based
on the volume of participants.
This is a sad excuse to compromise so much integrity
just to maintain your bottom line.
Sincerely,
[Real Name]
Xxx-xxx-xxxx |
