Rules for reporting posts - please advise

My guess is that everything changed yesterday after that massive flameout on the alternative meds board.  All reference to that posting has been obliterated including anything that would have come up in a search.  In other words, anyone that participated in the flameout will not see a reference or link to the post when they do a search on their user name (or any other username that participated in the flameout).

oh crap! I missed the flame out????

o2bhealthy - from what i saw, it had a lot of confusing ranting - you will do fine with having missed it - i got lost reading it.

nurse-ann, it didn't change yesterday -- the "edited by" to show reported a post was very short-lived, and disappeared about 2 weeks after it was initiated.

I would like to see a spelling-out of the rules -- they say, "no hateful or abusive language."  I think that covers a lot of territory, but I think when a poster calls another out by name and says "I call bull$h!+" on that person's own, completely ordinary, description of their own experience -- that's abusive in my book.

Just checking to see if Athena has received a reply from the mods. Nope - guess it really is a secret.

You can find the whole thing by using advanced search at Google and putting "Abusive posts" and page 1 as search terms and using http:// community.breastcancer.org site in the field for site to search.  Then do the same search and change page 1 to page 2, then 3, then 4.

Edited to add that you have to click on the Cached link, not the regular. 

Athena, you asked, in your OP, a question that we are all wondering about.

I'm really, really disappointed that you still have not had an answer.  As Alpal says, I guess it really is a secret.....

Yes I agree. Very strange.

I am glad that reported posts will be reviewed for rules violations. That should curtail the bullying by deletion that IMO went on at BCO. This is a valuable resource for me and I know it is for others.

I think it is helpful to remember that each one of us is, was or may be in the future angry about being diagnosed with breast cancer and we need to cut each other some slack.

If someone comes across as gruff when they disagree with you maybe they are just having a bad day and if someone always gets on your nerves, you don't need to get in a back and forth with them. Just put them on Ignore.

Now back down off the soap box. Thank you moderators for explaining the new rules..

Thanks, Moderators, for trying to keep up with this!  I personally think the post reporting function here has way too much potential for abuse.  Other than blatant spam posts, I honestly think most posts should remain as is.  Sure, we all get crabby from time to time or dare to disagree with something, but those posts are as much a part of our discussions as the "good" posts.  Anyone can do a search on my user name and see what I'm all about, and I'm good with that.  It's confusing, I think, to do a search on someone and find just a bunch of deleted posts rather than, for example, searching for someone and finding that all of their posts are inflammatory and accusatory.  Except for rare instances, I think posts should be left intact; they speak volumes.

I would like to have some clarification from the mods, however, about whether it's against the rules of BCO to have multiple user names.  For the record, despite accusations, I only have one - thenewme - and can't see any reason to have or use more than one, unless akin to inventing imaginary friends to agree with me or bolster my internet presence.  Bah. 

Thank you, Judith.

lot of people seem to have alternate names.  it cracks me up sometimes when someone with 28 posts and no profile expresses strong opinions. ..

like who do they think they are kidding?

If you're looking for a "rash of deletions" go check out the thread "Update".  That was a sorry spectacle to watch!  I was most amused by the people claiming that they were going to block the posters responses and then came back on later to report them.

 P.S. that was not a Friday or a full moon.

AnnNYC:

That may be correct but it's also correct that people on these boards run in packs.  I watch these flame outs frequently and they are very predicable.  The crap doesn't begin to hit the fan until certain people show up.  However, you always know the end is near when they whip out the word "troll" and everyone piles on.  Just the use of the work troll seems to really bring out the alpha females - I don't know what it is!

I reported two of the posts on the "Update" thread.  There were many others written by that same person that I found offensive, but those did not contain obvious violations of the "Community Rules of Conduct" as I understand them. The two posts I did report both contained words and/or phrases that I considered defamatory.  I copied and saved the relevant phrases, in case someone needs to see them.

Two of the BCO "Rules of Conduct" specifically prohibit defamatory language: 

"2. You agree not to defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise violate the legal rights of others.
….
"5. You agree not to submit content that contains material that is inappropriate, unlawful, threatening, abusive, hateful, profane, defamatory, infringing, obscene, pornographic, or indecent."

It could be argued that some of the posts in the "Update" thread were "abusive" and/or "hateful".  It also appeared to me that the unrelenting rebuttals by the offending member constituted harassment of the O.P.  But, the rule that was most clearly violated (IMHO) was the one against defaming others.  Here's a useful definition of the word "defame" from http://www.yourdictionary.com/defame :

"de·fame (dē fām′, di-)  transitive verb defamed -·famed′, defaming -·fam′·ing
   1. to attack or injure the reputation or honor of by false and malicious statements; malign, slander, or libel"

In retrospect, the two posts I reported on the "Update" thread weren't as egregious as comments posted yesterday and today by another BCO member on a couple of other threads.  It's Friday, though, so misbehavior is not surprising.

otter