Forum Slander

[SeanL]

i was a member of a forum for about a year then was subsequently baned about 6 months ago, i am not questioning the ban because perhaps it was warrented but the staff of the particular forum over that time have consistantly posted some very nasty things to the general view of the site moist recently labelling me as a paedophile and a sociopath, not only that it was posted that i was a memebr of the site secretly after i was banned and accumulated 200 or so posts, now all this my seem childish from another viewpoint and i assure you it is, but seeing as though i cannot post on the forum they have free range to slander me without reprisal, i co run a sporting forum that has alot of young teenage members (im 22) and alot of this has seeped through to memebers of the site now and im not quite sure what to do, the staff of the other forum are majoritivley in thier 40's and have great persausion techniques, everything i have told you i have proof over as well as several hack attempts on my site by staff from there, so what should i do? can i do anything at all? its really getting beyond the joke for me

 

[Michael Wechsler]

i was a member of a forum for about a year then was subsequently baned about 6 months ago, i am not questioning the ban because perhaps it was warrented but the staff of the particular forum over that time have consistantly posted some very nasty things to the general view of the site moist recently labelling me as a paedophile and a sociopath, not only that it was posted that i was a memebr of the site secretly after i was banned and accumulated 200 or so posts, now all this my seem childish from another viewpoint and i assure you it is, but seeing as though i cannot post on the forum they have free range to slander me without reprisal, i co run a sporting forum that has alot of young teenage members (im 22) and alot of this has seeped through to memebers of the site now and im not quite sure what to do, the staff of the other forum are majoritivley in thier 40's and have great persausion techniques, everything i have told you i have proof over as well as several hack attempts on my site by staff from there, so what should i do? can i do anything at all? its really getting beyond the joke for me

This is a very difficult situation - the challenge is that stopping something like this requires a civil action. But moreso, decide whether this is a fight you really want to take up. Why? Well, you may have been banned for cause. Do you want to continue this fight? Will it eventually die down and the thread disappearing into oblivion? Maybe the best route to go.

Now let's talk about hacking attempts -- how do you know it is from them? I'm not sure that there is a painless legal method to hang your hat on here. However, you could try to send a letter to their host and let them know that you will include them in an action as contributors to the willful defamation that is going on in the forum. Not that this will make a great difference in the grand scheme of things, but hosts dislike to have activities that run rampant along their network. If it's truly out of control they will alert the owner of the forum that their activities violate the terms of service (and they probably do.) Decide whether this is really a measure you want to take before you do -- I strongly disencourage it unless the situation clearly calls for such measures.

Good luck with the forum.