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Important MSE Site User Terms Changes
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MSE_Martin
Posts: 8,272 Money Saving Expert
Dear MoneySavers,
Today we've made some changes to the terms and conditions and the privacy statement. I thought it important to run through the changes.
We have added this section to the bit about where we use cookies, “On our main site to track the pages and articles visited. We use this information to see which items are (or are not) of greatest interest to MoneySavers.”
This is because we now use the Google Analytics tool for collecting stats about which articles are most read and what people do, to aid us with the redesign of the site. Don't worry this doesn't mean we know what individuals are doing, it just means we can see patterns of use.
All forum users already have an MSE cookie as it goes on your computer when you log in (that's already in the privacy policy).
The substantive changes are the following
A. In the "You may not use the chat forums or any of our comms systems for any illegal purpose and in particular you will not:" section, the following has been added
9.2.6 disguise the IP address of the connection used to post any message;
B. Then the following new section
9.6 If you disagree with a decision of a Forum Team member, you should email your appeal to [EMAIL="webmaster@moneysavingexpert.com"]webmaster@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL]. You must not use the Chat Forum to argue any decision of our Forum Team.
9.7 Any decision we make to remove or request the removal of any communication or to terminate or suspend the posting privileges of any user of the Chat Forums shall be final and binding. The termination or suspension of posting privileges shall apply to any and all user accounts that may have been used by that person, whether or not opened by that person.
9.8 If you are notified that your posting privileges have been suspended or terminated, you will not attempt to reregister as a user of the Chat Forum or make any posts on it in any guise whatsoever.
9.9 When former users whose posting privileges have been removed do reregister or otherwise disrupt the Chat Forum, this spoils the Chat Forum and can cause severe distress or disturbance to other users. Dealing with the unwanted posts of former users distracts us from the core purpose of the site and ties up management and technician time. Therefore in such circumstances we reserve the right to:
9.9.1 Report offenders to their ISP
9.9.2 Charge offenders for the administrative costs of identifying and removing their posts at the rate of £40 per hour necessarily spent plus any external costs that we incur.
9.9.3 Take legal action to recover these costs.
9.9.4 Report offenders to the authorities if their actions appear to amount to a breach of the Computer Misuse Act 1990 or any other relevant criminal legislation.
These sanctions are a last resort measure, as the terms and conditions state, they ONLY apply to posters who have specifically and individually had their permission to post on the site removed (ie been banned from posting) after previous incidents.
This has happened very infrequently (way less than 0.1% of users), but is generally caused by one or more of the following: abusive, malicious, libellous or racist posts, spamming, consistently breaking forum rules, repetitive squabbling, faction fighting or disrupting the flow of the forum or breaking the forum rules, or simply consistently causing too much time to be spent by the Forum Team to deal with issues that arise.
Why is it being done?
It's a last resort measure to try and dissuade these individuals from coming to the site and making life unpleasant for the thousands of people who are here to save money. It is my hope I will never have to use the above sanctions.
For example a recent poster who having already had the priviledge to post removed, then came on in another guise and put many hardcore homosexual pornographic pictures over the site; which took a long time to delete and caused upset on this family site (many people view the forums with their children). I cannot standby and allow this to happen.
The aim is to stop ALREADY barred users continuing to repeatedly return to disrupt the forum and aggravate other users, using different aliases. Unfortunately in practice it is difficult to stop some high tech users from doing this, and therefore, while it saddens me, to protect all the rest of the other members I feel it is necessary to incorporate the above into the terms and will seek legal recourse to stop these members ruining this Forum for others if I have to.
At the same time as incorporating these new measures, we have also blocked the first nine accounts of people who we have been monitoring and believe are PPR’d users now returned in different guises (though the accounts won't say PPR on them, simply access will be shut off). And we hope they will fully understand the serious impact of attempting to repost on the forums in future.
Martin
Today we've made some changes to the terms and conditions and the privacy statement. I thought it important to run through the changes.
We have added this section to the bit about where we use cookies, “On our main site to track the pages and articles visited. We use this information to see which items are (or are not) of greatest interest to MoneySavers.”
This is because we now use the Google Analytics tool for collecting stats about which articles are most read and what people do, to aid us with the redesign of the site. Don't worry this doesn't mean we know what individuals are doing, it just means we can see patterns of use.
All forum users already have an MSE cookie as it goes on your computer when you log in (that's already in the privacy policy).
The substantive changes are the following
A. In the "You may not use the chat forums or any of our comms systems for any illegal purpose and in particular you will not:" section, the following has been added
9.2.6 disguise the IP address of the connection used to post any message;
B. Then the following new section
9.6 If you disagree with a decision of a Forum Team member, you should email your appeal to [EMAIL="webmaster@moneysavingexpert.com"]webmaster@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL]. You must not use the Chat Forum to argue any decision of our Forum Team.
9.7 Any decision we make to remove or request the removal of any communication or to terminate or suspend the posting privileges of any user of the Chat Forums shall be final and binding. The termination or suspension of posting privileges shall apply to any and all user accounts that may have been used by that person, whether or not opened by that person.
9.8 If you are notified that your posting privileges have been suspended or terminated, you will not attempt to reregister as a user of the Chat Forum or make any posts on it in any guise whatsoever.
9.9 When former users whose posting privileges have been removed do reregister or otherwise disrupt the Chat Forum, this spoils the Chat Forum and can cause severe distress or disturbance to other users. Dealing with the unwanted posts of former users distracts us from the core purpose of the site and ties up management and technician time. Therefore in such circumstances we reserve the right to:
9.9.1 Report offenders to their ISP
9.9.2 Charge offenders for the administrative costs of identifying and removing their posts at the rate of £40 per hour necessarily spent plus any external costs that we incur.
9.9.3 Take legal action to recover these costs.
9.9.4 Report offenders to the authorities if their actions appear to amount to a breach of the Computer Misuse Act 1990 or any other relevant criminal legislation.
The aim is to stop ALREADY barred posters from returning to disturb or maliciously attack others
These sanctions are a last resort measure, as the terms and conditions state, they ONLY apply to posters who have specifically and individually had their permission to post on the site removed (ie been banned from posting) after previous incidents.
This has happened very infrequently (way less than 0.1% of users), but is generally caused by one or more of the following: abusive, malicious, libellous or racist posts, spamming, consistently breaking forum rules, repetitive squabbling, faction fighting or disrupting the flow of the forum or breaking the forum rules, or simply consistently causing too much time to be spent by the Forum Team to deal with issues that arise.
Why is it being done?
It's a last resort measure to try and dissuade these individuals from coming to the site and making life unpleasant for the thousands of people who are here to save money. It is my hope I will never have to use the above sanctions.
For example a recent poster who having already had the priviledge to post removed, then came on in another guise and put many hardcore homosexual pornographic pictures over the site; which took a long time to delete and caused upset on this family site (many people view the forums with their children). I cannot standby and allow this to happen.
The aim is to stop ALREADY barred users continuing to repeatedly return to disrupt the forum and aggravate other users, using different aliases. Unfortunately in practice it is difficult to stop some high tech users from doing this, and therefore, while it saddens me, to protect all the rest of the other members I feel it is necessary to incorporate the above into the terms and will seek legal recourse to stop these members ruining this Forum for others if I have to.
At the same time as incorporating these new measures, we have also blocked the first nine accounts of people who we have been monitoring and believe are PPR’d users now returned in different guises (though the accounts won't say PPR on them, simply access will be shut off). And we hope they will fully understand the serious impact of attempting to repost on the forums in future.
Martin
Martin Lewis, Money Saving Expert.
Please note, answers don't constitute financial advice, it is based on generalised journalistic research. Always ensure any decision is made with regards to your own individual circumstance.
Please note, answers don't constitute financial advice, it is based on generalised journalistic research. Always ensure any decision is made with regards to your own individual circumstance.
Don't miss out on urgent MoneySaving, get my weekly e-mail at www.moneysavingexpert.com/tips.
Debt-Free Wannabee Official Nerd Club: (Honorary) Members number 000
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Comments
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Is there anywhere for users to report people they think are AE's or is it just a matter for the abuse team and others to investigate?0
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If you've blocked access to this site, how will they know that posting will cost 40 quid per hour?
Just interested
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bikerqueen wrote:If you've blocked access to this site, how will they know that posting will cost 40 quid per hour?
Just interested
Hi bikerqueen
They would still be able to read this thread as a guest.
Follow @MSE_Forum on twitter
Join the MSE Forum
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Report inappropriate posts: click the report button
Point out a rate/product change
Flag up a news story: news@moneysavingexpert.com0 -
Is there anywhere to report AEs?
The answer is, as always, if you see an abuse please report it to [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL]. However what I don't want is to encourage a witch hunt.
We're often aware of some AEs and monitor the situation until we feel there's sufficient evidence that they are a former PPR'd member back to cause trouble.
So I dont want to encourage constant reports of 'i think X is Y'. If any user is causing problems then please report them whether you think they're an AE or not.
Martin
And just to reiterate. No one. No matter what they do is ever blocked from reading the site or saving money. That's one of my binding principles. Its why guests can access this forum and the site. My aim is to make this site helpful to all consumers. Sadly some abuse the hospitality and therefore the priviledge of posting needs withdrawing, but all the MoneySaving areas are still open for all to read.
MartinMartin Lewis, Money Saving Expert.
Please note, answers don't constitute financial advice, it is based on generalised journalistic research. Always ensure any decision is made with regards to your own individual circumstance.Don't miss out on urgent MoneySaving, get my weekly e-mail at www.moneysavingexpert.com/tips.Debt-Free Wannabee Official Nerd Club: (Honorary) Members number 0000 -
What does PPR stand for?
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Posting Privledges (cant spell the word) Removed0
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If it's any consolation, I believe that for the size of membership, the forums are remarkably trouble free. The new rules seem fair enough. I hope they act as a deterrent, rather than having to be implemented which I presume is the aim as it will hopefully reduce team workload.There's love in this world for everyone. Every rascal and son of a gun.
It's for the many and not the few. Be sure it's out there looking for you.
In every town, in every state. In every house and every gate.
Wth every precious smile you make. And every act of kindness.
Micheal Marra, 1952 - 20120 -
I've implemented google analytics for an international organisation and they are making best use of the results I've pulled out for them.
Check out the google analytics book on amazon (isbn: 0470053852) which may be of use to you. Let me know if I can help at all.
There's a lot of results in there, the trick is finding the ones important to MSE. I'm now implementing analytics for their online newsletters.0 -
Excellent I know about 4 people who have just plopped their pants
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Fifer wrote:If it's any consolation, I believe that for the size of membership, the forums are remarkably trouble free. The new rules seem fair enough. I hope they act as a deterrent, rather than having to be implemented which I presume is the aim as it will hopefully reduce team workload.
Fifer the captain said the other day Abuse get about 1000 emails per day! !!!!!! is that all about?0
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