Termination of User Contracts
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Termination of User Contracts
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SETI Forums Send message Joined: 10 Mar 08 Posts: 113 Credit: 0 RAC: 0 |
I know that you will want a thread for discussion of this act. I have opened one for you on the Politics Board entitled “Termination of User Contractsâ€Â. Since contract termination was a staff decision and not a Forum Moderator decision, I have decided to allow open discussion of this action. When posting on this thread, please be respectful in stating your opinions. Please do not discuss the specific “guilt†or “innocence†of any particular people publicly. Please know that members of The 30 SETIzens were victims of privacy violations too, as it was a disgruntled member of this club who made public all the evidence that led to contract terminations. ID: 790989 ·  |
bobby  Send message Joined: 22 Mar 02 Posts: 2866 Credit: 17,789,109 RAC: 3 
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I know that you will want a thread for discussion of this act. I have opened one for you on the Politics Board entitled “Termination of User Contractsâ€Â. Since contract termination was a staff decision and not a Forum Moderator decision, I have decided to allow open discussion of this action. When posting on this thread, please be respectful in stating your opinions. Please do not discuss the specific “guilt†or “innocence†of any particular people publicly. Please know that members of The 30 SETIzens were victims of privacy violations too, as it was a disgruntled member of this club who made public all the evidence that led to contract terminations. Will those Crunchers where it is known that their privacy has been violated, be sent warnings to this effect? I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that ... 
ID: 790992 · |
 Fuzzy Hollynoodles  Send message Joined: 3 Apr 99 Posts: 9659 Credit: 251,998 RAC: 0 |
I know that you will want a thread for discussion of this act. I have opened one for you on the Politics Board entitled “Termination of User Contractsâ€Â. Since contract termination was a staff decision and not a Forum Moderator decision, I have decided to allow open discussion of this action. When posting on this thread, please be respectful in stating your opinions. Please do not discuss the specific “guilt†or “innocence†of any particular people publicly. Please know that members of The 30 SETIzens were victims of privacy violations too, as it was a disgruntled member of this club who made public all the evidence that led to contract terminations. I know that my privacy has been violated many times by this group and I haven't received any specific announcements in this regard. And I'd like to see a list of which accounts that have been terminated. Thank you. "I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me 
ID: 790996 · |
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BeefDog Send message Joined: 9 Feb 00 Posts: 91 Credit: 146,476 RAC: 0 
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Our forum will be less interesting, less culturally rich, less diverse and frankly less fun because we have lost a host of people who helped to make our message boards worth reading. That definitely needs to be rephrased! It makes the rest of us sound like boring, useless "idiots"!! I've been running and moderating forums for about 8 years now and this what happens is no single occurance. People become friends over the net and forget that they still have to respect peoples privacy etc. Unfortunately it happens that people forget. And regarding your comment as quoted above, everyone can be replaced.... Might sound hard for some people but that's life on the net. http://www.therageclub.com 
ID: 790999 · |
Rush  Send message Joined: 3 Apr 99 Posts: 3131 Credit: 302,569 RAC: 0 
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It is with sincere sadness that I announce to you that a number of Seti@home User Contracts were permanently terminated this morning. This was a very difficult decision to make and I want to explain to you the circumstances that lead to our community having to lose so many of its most popular members. You should probably note the user names of those for whom the bell tolls--to prevent unfounded speculation. I cannot even begin to tell you how devastated I was to learn of these egregious privacy violations and thefts. Yet that information that it was happening was readily available and a direct source of annoyance to many, and as I said more than once, utterly destroyed the credibility of the modteam-du-jour (MDJ). The decision to terminate certain User Contracts was not taken lightly or made easily. The evidence of these privacy violations was revealed about a month ago. Seti@home staff members reviewed and discussed the evidence at great length. No Volunteer Forum Moderators, past or present, had a vote in the termination of any contracts. Only permanent, paid staff members of Seti@home made decisions about which User Contracts were to be permanently terminated. Please do not direct your anger at any Forum Moderators, past or present. They were deliberately kept out of the voting process, in the interest of fairness to all involved. Ah, the voting process. That worked really well in maintaining homogeneity among the MDJ instead of introducing different points of view on that list. That served simply to perpetuate abuses instead of mitigating them. It saddens me to have had to permanently ban so many clever, intelligent, interesting and extremely popular members of our community. I know some Crunchers will quit this project out of anger over this decision. Our forum will be less interesting, less culturally rich, less diverse and frankly less fun because we have lost a host of people who helped to make our message boards worth reading. That's an interesting way of putting it, given that often many of the MDJ actions consisted of nothing more than personal feelings, directly and explicitly guaranteeing that the forum IS less interesting, is less rich, is less diverse (though that one is a bit weak anyway), and definitely less fun--they made it a point to deliberately remove messages that made the boards worth reading. Similarly, they ignore messages to the modlist, as does the anonymod-du-jour. That isn't helping anything either. 'Nuff said. Thank you for the apology. Cordially, Rush elrushbo2@theobviousgmail.com Remove the obvious... 
ID: 791002 · |
Eric Korpela   Send message Joined: 3 Apr 99 Posts: 1382 Credit: 54,506,847 RAC: 60
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That's probably a good idea. It will take a while to accumulate. Essentially it includes anyone who sent an email to the forum moderators or pressed the red-x during July and August of last year. Eric @SETIEric@qoto.org (Mastodon) 
ID: 791004 · |
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Fuzzy Hollynoodles Send message Joined: 3 Apr 99 Posts: 9659 Credit: 251,998 RAC: 0 |
That period can be expanded with a few more months. I have seen comments made by myself to the modlist being quoted and commented on by several of these people for a longer period than July and August last year. Say till November at least! And yes, a personal message and apology to all us who have had our privacy violated by these people will be in order! "I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me
ID: 791012 · |
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Fuzzy Hollynoodles Send message Joined: 3 Apr 99 Posts: 9659 Credit: 251,998 RAC: 0 |
It saddens me to have had to permanently ban so many clever, intelligent, interesting and extremely popular members of our community. I know some Crunchers will quit this project out of anger over this decision. Our forum will be less interesting, less culturally rich, less diverse and frankly less fun because we have lost a host of people who helped to make our message boards worth reading. This forum has been interesting, culturally rich, diverse, and very funny before these people started to post, I really don't see why it should be "less interesting, less culturally rich, less diverse and frankly less fun" just because they are not here to post. In fact several of these people have driven people away who really could make this forum very interesting, more cultural rich, more diverse, and more fun and could have helped to make this message board much more worth reading! "I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me
ID: 791013 · |
kittyman     Send message Joined: 9 Jul 00 Posts: 51468 Credit: 1,018,363,574 RAC: 1,004
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The kitties are sad that many who have been their friends have had to leave. "Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster 
ID: 791024 · |
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SETI Forums Send message Joined: 10 Mar 08 Posts: 113 Credit: 0 RAC: 0 |
Our forum will be less interesting, less culturally rich, less diverse and frankly less fun because we have lost a host of people who helped to make our message boards worth reading. I most certainly did not mean to imply that posters who do not commit privacy violations are less interesting, less culturally rich, less diverse or less fun. I did not mean to imply that posters who do not commit privacy violations contribute less substantially to the discussions that occur on this board. I apologize to anyone who has interpreted my words this way. ID: 791025 · |
Geek@Play  Send message Joined: 31 Jul 01 Posts: 2467 Credit: 86,146,931 RAC: 0
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I am also sad that many have lost their privilege to crunch for Seti. What irks me most is that apparently the "right to privacy" is being upheld for those that are guilty of revoking that very same right from their fellow Crunchers. Does not seem right to me. Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....Boinc.... ID: 791030 · |
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Brian Silvers Send message Joined: 11 Jun 99 Posts: 1681 Credit: 492,052 RAC: 0
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Anyone care to give a friendly pointer as to who in the world might've been involved in this team? I generally don't follow who is in what team, although I can rattle off a few more familiar people's team affiliation...like I know that Fuzzy is with BOINC Synergy and Mark is with SETI.USA, but without looking, I had no idea that Rush was part of a team called "Objectivists"... Edit: Hrmmm... "Private Club" is not the same as a team in this context? I'm cornfuzzled... :shrug: Anyway, this is yet another reason why I don't participate in teams. No chance of any guilt by association, except the guilt of the association of being here with all the rest of you anyway... ;-) 
ID: 791046 · |
OzzFan  Send message Joined: 9 Apr 02 Posts: 15691 Credit: 84,761,841 RAC: 28
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Anyone care to give a friendly pointer as to who in the world might've been involved in this team? I generally don't follow who is in what team, although I can rattle off a few more familiar people's team affiliation...like I know that Fuzzy is with BOINC Synergy and Mark is with SETI.USA, but without looking, I had no idea that Rush was part of a team called "Objectivists"... Brian, Please make sure you read the SETI Forums post, Sad News, to get the full story. Here is a quote explaining this had nothing to do with teams, and there is no guilt by association: Some of you may be wondering why some known members of The 30 SETIzens did not have their User Contracts terminated. That is because, as I stated above, membership in a private club is not grounds for contract termination. Contract termination occurred ONLY in cases where there was staff consensus that an individual directly VIEWED and/or USED trafficked information. We DO NOT believe in guilt by association. Presence of an incriminating message thread on a forum does not imply that everyone with access to that forum was aware of the contents of that thread. ID: 791057 · |
Hev  Send message Joined: 4 Jun 05 Posts: 1118 Credit: 598,303 RAC: 0 
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Wasn't the leader of this group a close friend of yours Fuzzy? ID: 791058 · |
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Brian Silvers Send message Joined: 11 Jun 99 Posts: 1681 Credit: 492,052 RAC: 0
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Anyone care to give a friendly pointer as to who in the world might've been involved in this team? I generally don't follow who is in what team, although I can rattle off a few more familiar people's team affiliation...like I know that Fuzzy is with BOINC Synergy and Mark is with SETI.USA, but without looking, I had no idea that Rush was part of a team called "Objectivists"... Yeah, read that... Still haven't the foggiest clue as to who was involved and if I had contact with anyone involved... July / August last year is very fuzzy in my memory due to a fairly substantial depression... ID: 791067 · |
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Hev Send message Joined: 4 Jun 05 Posts: 1118 Credit: 598,303 RAC: 0
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I know that you will want a thread for discussion of this act. I have opened one for you on the Politics Board entitled “Termination of User Contractsâ€Â. Since contract termination was a staff decision and not a Forum Moderator decision, I have decided to allow open discussion of this action. When posting on this thread, please be respectful in stating your opinions. Please do not discuss the specific “guilt†or “innocence†of any particular people publicly. Please know that members of The 30 SETIzens were victims of privacy violations too, as it was a disgruntled member of this club who made public all the evidence that led to contract terminations. I asked a question and my post was deleted, is a double standard operating here? ID: 791069 · |
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OzzFan Send message Joined: 9 Apr 02 Posts: 15691 Credit: 84,761,841 RAC: 28
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Anyone care to give a friendly pointer as to who in the world might've been involved in this team? I generally don't follow who is in what team, although I can rattle off a few more familiar people's team affiliation...like I know that Fuzzy is with BOINC Synergy and Mark is with SETI.USA, but without looking, I had no idea that Rush was part of a team called "Objectivists"... Sorry to hear that Brian. I hope all is going well for you now. I would say that you would know if you were in contact or had any run-ins. If you can't remember, I wouldn't worry about it. ID: 791073 · |
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Brian Silvers Send message Joined: 11 Jun 99 Posts: 1681 Credit: 492,052 RAC: 0
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I did have brief "contact" with one of the individuals in PM(I know how to recognize the affected accounts now), but nothing of any great personal detail, from what I remember. As for one other person, I had already classified them as nutty... :-x However, there are lots of things that I don't remember. IMO, that should worry me, but....eh, what was I saying? ;-)
ID: 791115 · |
Knightmare  Send message Joined: 16 Aug 04 Posts: 7472 Credit: 94,252 RAC: 0
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No " guilt by association " eh? I was deemed guilty for simply having my name show up on the list of users that were a part of " The 30 ". Fortunately, several people let the admins here know that I was truthful when I told them that I had nothing to do with " The 30 ". But don't tell me there was no " guilt by association ". I was not given the benefit of the doubt until myself and others told them I wasn't a part of the issue. Not only that, but I really don't think I will be issued an apology for their impugning my honesty, even though I am still here and, therefore, no longer considered among the guilty. Funny how that works. They can accuse someone of being guilty ( and using some very insulting phrases in doing so ) and yet they don't have to make any admission of being wrong even when it's clearly shown to them that they are. Air Cold, the blade stops; from silent stone, Death is preordained  Calm Chaos Forums : Everyone Welcome ID: 791136 · |
Jeffrey  Send message Joined: 21 Nov 03 Posts: 4793 Credit: 26,029 RAC: 0 |
“Termination of User Contracts†Oh dear... this sounds like it's gonna put a crimp in my hecklings... ;)  It may not be 1984 but George Orwell sure did see the future . . .
ID: 791163 · |
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