Banned a Forum Member: Now Threatened with Legal Action

[Joseph Witchard]

I use a free message board service. I have had to ban some members because they have been causing trouble, and my members also wanted them banned because:

They started something on my board that got into an argument. It ended on my board, but it went to Facebook and IM, and some really hurtful things from them were said about my members. While things had quieted down some, one of the violators started things up again, and my members got upset again, being reminded of the awful situation of previous months. Therefore, I have banned some of them, am probably about to ban the third and final one (which hurts, because she considered me a friend at one point). I didn't really have a choice; I had more member threatening to leave if those members didn't; I would have been losing more members than I would have kept if I had kept stayed with the ones who caused the trouble in first place.

As the owner of the board, don't I have the right to ban people as I see fit?

[rhsunderground]

Yes.

[Joseph Witchard]

Okay.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by rhsunderground

Yes.

But if your members are in turn members of a free society they have a right to sue you for everything you got. Let's hope you had an AUP that permits you to ban at will and let's hope you have the better lawyer.

Chances are slim, however, that these blowhards are going to go through the trouble and expense.

[Shorts]

No matter what at the end of the day your server is your private property so you have any and all right to deny entry onto your property.

It is like barring someone from entering your home. If they try and bypass the ban, they are then trespassing.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Shorts

It is like barring someone from entering your home. If they try and bypass the ban, they are then trespassing.

Not always and the better example would be banning somebody from using your store. There is a difference between a private residence and a public accomodation and different rules apply.

[Joseph Witchard]

Well, so far I haven't heard from any lawyers, so I'm hoping it was a bluff. My website isn't something that's hugely popular or offering some amazing service; it's a Hogwarts/Harry Potter RPG. I find it hard to believe that some people would go to the trouble of suing a fan site, no matter how unfairly they think they were treated.

[Mayday]

If you didn't charge a fee that your disgruntled former members feel they may have been bilked out of, I can't see how any attempt at litigation against you would even have any merit. (About the most they could hope for is an appearance on Judge Joe Brown or Judge Judy. )

And if it's a totally free website that you own and run, I'd say you have right to manage your message board and "members" as you see fit. They're visitng your "house" after all.

Regardless, hopefully you had a code of conduct for your forums outlining that such behavior as you described will not be tolerated. If not, I would recommend you check out such codes on other boards/online games/etc. for ideas of how to write one up, as that alone could prevent such headaches in the future.

[Volly]

I belong to the AutoIt forum. As one of the MVPs there we came up with a different solution that may be helpful. What we did was make a user who is banned only be able to browse the site in read only mode. Some of our admin folks had to build "gates" in Python to look for proxy server IP addresses to keep folks from simply making new accounts and coming back in again. So far it has been quite effective.
Even though someone claims they will sue to gain access, my thinking is you have to look at it like this:
Seeing how Joseph is the owner of the board, and if it is on HIS dime, then it is not a public place. It is a private place. In other words, it is his sandbox and he lets us play in it. He reserves the right to punt someone anytime for any reason he chooses. Seeing how we have to agree to a TOS when one joins, this would cover any legal question that could arise.
This is just my 2 cents and my opinion may not reflect the staff of this forum. I know I'm new, so if I speak out of turn, please let me know. Thanks.

-V

[JPnyc]

Doesn't matter if it reflects our opinion or not, you're allowed to post your own opinion here. I also happen to agree with it.

[spiresgate]

If there is relatively small traffic, can't the owner just moderate (or eliminate) stuff he thinks shouldn't be on the board?

[Charles]

Anyone can can do anything they want. Moderators can ban. The banned can sue. And the judge can decide the case however it pleases the judge.

[\\.\]

Originally Posted by Shorts

No matter what at the end of the day your server is your private property so you have any and all right to deny entry onto your property.



It is like barring someone from entering your home. If they try and bypass the ban, they are then trespassing.

Actually your wrong on that.

I have been in that situation of being banned and I got that forum shut down. This was based on my Ex partner who was banned from a web forum.

She sought legal advice and found that this fall under several legal areas and one is "Discrimination" and this translates to NO admins or Moderators are legally allowed to do this.

The same goes for editing posts and deleting threads, it is illegal for the admin / owner to do such things and despite the AUP and EULA or user agreement guff you agree to when you sign up for these web boards, it is paper thin and has no leagal stance in law.

The board that banned my ex was very very very quick to reinstate her account when they were threatened with legal action and the offenders that were ganging up on her were given a warning that the admin will take legal action to protect itself. The board owners though that they were operating within the law, they were not and these people were in a "Major" record labels website, so they were not little guys like most web forums they were a major label of a larger corporation.

Even if the person posts distasteful stuff (kiddie stuff for example), the legal side of things mean that the owners have to inform the police of this so that they can look in to the incident, deleting the thread is destroying evidence and that opens the owner up to prosecution and abetting and anything else that they can throw at you.

The problem is that people think that they are allowed to do such things and they frankly are not.

So your banned board member in this case is justified in defending themselves.

[svidgen]

Presuming you are American ...

The courts have rarely treated content-based regulation of the press with any sympathy. In Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo, 418 U.S. 241 (1974), the Court unanimously struck down a state law requiring newspapers criticizing political candidates to publish their responses. The state claimed that the law had been passed to ensure press responsibility. Finding that only freedom, and not press responsibility, is mandated by the First Amendment, the Supreme Court ruled that the government may not force newspapers to publish that which they do not desire to publish. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_A...s_Constitution

Furthermore, as a business entity (regardless of whether you are a "sole proprietor or hobbyist), you have the right to refuse service. You can ban anyone you please from your forum or site for any non-discriminatory reason you like. And if they pull freedom of speech on you, you can remind them that you and your business are not required to be the vehicle for their speech, per Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo.

I mean, I'm not a lawyer, but both the "right to refuse service" and the outcome of the above court case are pretty clear-cut.

[svidgen]

The board that banned my ex was very very very quick to reinstate her account when they were threatened with legal action

Site must've had some pretty bad lawyers (or no lawyers) on call. Or, possibly that fact that they couldn't afford to even -go- to court swayed them.

All major sites, Google, for example, ban people on a regular basis for infringing on their AUP. And I'm pretty sure we'd hear about someone winning a discrimination case against Google for something like this ...