NationStates Jolt Archive

Several (well, at the time of writing, 10) members have copypasted the same list of people for a thread nominating people in NSGeneral. Normally this would be no problem, they're trying to fix the vote. I find issue with them posting the full names of two other forum goers. I can state with nigh absolute certainty that they did not ask for permission in posting the names of the players behind Govindia and Central Prestonia. (first and last)

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14681725&postcount=61
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14681769&postcount=62
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14681772&postcount=63
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14681774&postcount=64
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14682098&postcount=69
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14682131&postcount=70
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14682233&postcount=71
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14682325&postcount=74
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14691414&postcount=229
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14691584&postcount=266

In case of edits, what was posted (minus the names in question):
Grand Prix : Jaredcohenia
Silver Medal: Jaredcohenia
Bronze Medal: Jaredcohenia
Golden Trophy: Jaredcohenia
Silver Trophy: Franberry
Bronze Trophy: Olmedreca
Award for Humor: Automagfreek
Award for Sarcasm: Jaredcohenia
Award for Insanity: Izistan
Award for Best Newcomer: Shansekia
Most Effective Moderation: Franberry
Lifetime Achievement Award: Hogsweat (Unjustly deleted)
Zooke Memorial Award: Jaredcohenia
Skapenroe Award for Best Communist: Praetonia
Seripindal Award for Best Capitalist: The Gupta Dynasty
Best WTF moment: Govindia
Best Avatar: Jaredcohenia
Best Signature : Praetonia
Best Looking: Central Prestonia



As I am fairly certain that Central Prestonia would prefer to not have his full name tossed all about in the internet for the entertainment of the original posters, and having not heard otherwise specifically from him, could a moderator remove those names? It's rather impolite in my opinion for them to post such information on a public forum without permission.

Thanks a bunch.


EDIT:
One other thing I'd like to document:
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14691571&postcount=262
I requested for this to be changed here.

We obtained that extremely sensitive information through a grueling espionage operation.

Gosh imagine if they had made it easy for us and published that information freely on the web for anyone to see.

Did you obtain the expressed consent of the two users in question to post that information here?

The posts concerned will be deleted as soon as I can work my way through them. This will have the side-effect of your votes not being counted -- pity, that.

I will discuss with the other moderators what penalty should apply to players who publish another player's name without permission. My personal opinion is that we should draw our inspiration from Torquemada.

I can say that I've told one player repeatedly not to use my full name in his RPing or posts, having been taught a rather harsh lesson about internet privacy a few months back.

Doomingsland, Franberry, Hryvatia, Jaredcohenia, Kargucagstan, Northford, Olmedreca, Praetonia, Questers, Shansekia: forumbanned for three days for flamebaiting.

This, for once, takes no account of your various post histories. Each of you made an individual decision to copy and paste a list containing personal information. In fairness, the penalty for doing so should be the same for each of you.

To post a person's personal information without their permission is at best flamebait because anyone who has any idea of how harmful that can be could be expected to react with outrage to seeing any of their details posted.

At worst, it's malicious. Giving any of a person's real-life details online can put at risk their job, their finances and even their personal life. If posters choose to give this information on this board because they trust other players not to misuse it, that's their decision. But they must make it, not anyone else.

It was freely available on the net? Don't bother with that excuse unless you can link to a post on NS from the player(s) you've named saying specifically that (your nation name) has permission to post their name (or other details) on NS.

Don't bother with the argument that it's not expressly forbidden to post personal information, either; we don't expressly require players to act like reasonable people, but you can still expect mod action if you don't.

Players generally should note that, though in this instance the players concerned have not lost their nations, that is no guarantee of future leniency.

Wow. Just wow.

I'll admit Praetonia, Questers and Doomingsland in particular are three posters I consider friends. Northford might have been a fourth if I hadn't left the game. Having said that, there's no excuse for posting what they did.

I'm on another message board where "outing" someone by posting their RL names, locations, etc. is considered a high crime for much the same reasons that Ardchoille's issued these three-day forum bans. Perhaps Prestonia shouldn't have posted his details in a place where a NS player could have access to them, but in the end, custody of one's identity should remain with the player, not with his or her "friends."

I probably wouldn't care if my personal details were revealed thusly. But I'm less than three months from my 36th birthday. By now, anything that could have happened vis a vis my online persona might very well have already happened. However, I agree with the ruling.

This boils down to explicit consent versus implicit consent. Unless a player has explicitly given you permission to post his or her personal details, consider an implicit prohibition against doing so to be in effect. I think Franberry's comment in this thread is particularly galling, but that's my own opinion as a poster.

What a sorry state of affairs.

As the legal representative for those unjustly banned I would like to point out that my clients only used a name the poster in question already stated in an IC post.
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12936042&postcount=3

However in the future my clients will produce a legal document with the express written permission to use a poster's real life name, whether they post it for all to see or not.

Good day

"Unjustly deleted" and "unjustly banned" are, apparently, a highly subjective event for some, and an amazingly objective matter for most.

Amazingly, those that act badly and get punished think they've been done wrong, and those who view their shenanigans from the outside often have a very different view.

I think there should be a highly funded government research project to determine why this is.

I should note that the post given as defense still does not declare explicit permission to use that name elsewhere on the forums, while we have a post from the person in question right here specifically saying he has told people not to. While I would encourage players not to use real names for roleplay characters, and for those that do to change it, personal information belongs to the person regardless of posting it themselves. If they have not given explicit permission to others to share this information, other players will get in trouble for sharing it.

It's just a three day ban. I'm sure they'll survive for a few days without Nationstates.

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