incelerated
It was all about luck all along..
★★★★★
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2020
- Posts
- 17,017
This was my concern since I joined and reading stuff about people getting arrested/questioned for being incel increased this concern.
The problem is the rules of this forum don't make it easy for the users to stay anonymous and/or get away with what they've said here.
Here are the main issues (copied from the rules section of the forum):
1- "You can post with a proxy or a VPN. We don't allow either during registration to avoid spam, but afterwards you are allowed":
You have to sign up with your real IP. This will easily identify you. By doing this one single thing you are personally identified and everything you ever say here can be linked back to you. It doesn't matter how anonymous you are after sign up, they only need your IP once.
2- "You have a 15 minute window to edit or delete posts. You have a 15 minute window to edit threads. You cannot delete threads.
You can ask a mod to remove content if you really need it gone (but we do not mass delete content).":
You have only a 15 minute window. Everything you say after that is permanent. As if that was not bad enough the rules say that content will not be mass deleted. Mass delete is exactly what someone would want if they were somehow identified by their workplace for example. It doesn't have to be something illegal. People's reputation will be in serious jeopardy if some of the stuff they've said here could be traced back to them.
3- "We do not delete accounts nor mass-delete content. You can change your privacy preferences to make your profile "invisible" to others. You can also PM a mod to get a voluntary ban.":
Same as above. Account deletion is exactly what one would want if they were identified and were under investigation/doxxing by their workplace/peers/etc.
To sum it up these rules mean two things:
1- Every single user here is identified.
2- Every single thing you say here is permanently on public record. Even the fact you joined this forum because accounts won't be deleted either. Not even some back-end log that only the police can access. It's out there for everyone to see and you can't delete it.
The counter argument for the signup-with-ip thing is to prevent spam. It's sounds reasonable. And it's less threatening because at least it's not publicly accessible. Only the admins and the police have access to it. But you could still be doxxed by a mod/admin (no offence to mods and admins I'm just saying this is possible). You could also be harassed by the police as it appears they're trying to make inceldom some form of crime.
So it's in the users' best interest if they could sign up with VPN/TOR. I have no experience in this regard but I think admins should find another way to prevent spam.
Regarding the no-mass-delete policy and the 15min timeout for deleting/editing posts I don't see any reason for it and it's just absurd and a breach of privacy. You should not only let people delete their own stuff but also do mass-deletion and account deletion on demand. It's just a simple database command for you but it'll be practically impossible to do manually even if it was allowed. This is kind of a special forum so it stands to reason for it to have this special feature.
Other than spam the only thing I can think of is that you're under obligations by the FBI (or whomever is in charge of these things) to keep records because this site is on their blacklist. Even if that is the case you could at least keep a record of all posts and accounts in a back-end log and let people delete/mass-delete their content to avoid being identified by the public.
Ideally however you should keep absolutely nothing permanently but I'm not familiar with legal stuff.
I'd like to know other people's opinion about these.
The problem is the rules of this forum don't make it easy for the users to stay anonymous and/or get away with what they've said here.
Here are the main issues (copied from the rules section of the forum):
1- "You can post with a proxy or a VPN. We don't allow either during registration to avoid spam, but afterwards you are allowed":
You have to sign up with your real IP. This will easily identify you. By doing this one single thing you are personally identified and everything you ever say here can be linked back to you. It doesn't matter how anonymous you are after sign up, they only need your IP once.
2- "You have a 15 minute window to edit or delete posts. You have a 15 minute window to edit threads. You cannot delete threads.
You can ask a mod to remove content if you really need it gone (but we do not mass delete content).":
You have only a 15 minute window. Everything you say after that is permanent. As if that was not bad enough the rules say that content will not be mass deleted. Mass delete is exactly what someone would want if they were somehow identified by their workplace for example. It doesn't have to be something illegal. People's reputation will be in serious jeopardy if some of the stuff they've said here could be traced back to them.
3- "We do not delete accounts nor mass-delete content. You can change your privacy preferences to make your profile "invisible" to others. You can also PM a mod to get a voluntary ban.":
Same as above. Account deletion is exactly what one would want if they were identified and were under investigation/doxxing by their workplace/peers/etc.
To sum it up these rules mean two things:
1- Every single user here is identified.
2- Every single thing you say here is permanently on public record. Even the fact you joined this forum because accounts won't be deleted either. Not even some back-end log that only the police can access. It's out there for everyone to see and you can't delete it.
The counter argument for the signup-with-ip thing is to prevent spam. It's sounds reasonable. And it's less threatening because at least it's not publicly accessible. Only the admins and the police have access to it. But you could still be doxxed by a mod/admin (no offence to mods and admins I'm just saying this is possible). You could also be harassed by the police as it appears they're trying to make inceldom some form of crime.
So it's in the users' best interest if they could sign up with VPN/TOR. I have no experience in this regard but I think admins should find another way to prevent spam.
Regarding the no-mass-delete policy and the 15min timeout for deleting/editing posts I don't see any reason for it and it's just absurd and a breach of privacy. You should not only let people delete their own stuff but also do mass-deletion and account deletion on demand. It's just a simple database command for you but it'll be practically impossible to do manually even if it was allowed. This is kind of a special forum so it stands to reason for it to have this special feature.
Other than spam the only thing I can think of is that you're under obligations by the FBI (or whomever is in charge of these things) to keep records because this site is on their blacklist. Even if that is the case you could at least keep a record of all posts and accounts in a back-end log and let people delete/mass-delete their content to avoid being identified by the public.
Ideally however you should keep absolutely nothing permanently but I'm not familiar with legal stuff.
I'd like to know other people's opinion about these.