Does WordPress follow its own rules?
-
According to “http://en.wordpress.com/abuse/”, revealing of personal information is against the rules.
http://en.wordpress.com/tos/ states that violating the privacy of a third party is against the rules.
So how come someone posting private information about who am I and where I live okay? Why is WordPress doing nothing about this when their own rules say otherwise?
-
-
I have. And it’s not getting me anywhere. So I’m not going to keep quiet on this and I’m not going to stop until this problem is solved.
-
Well then most likely everyone in the forums will simply ignore you – starting with me – because we can’t do anything about it. Have fun chatting with yourself.
-
-
…I love how people will come into a forum posting just to tell you they’re ignoring you.
Have you approached the police to make a statement / complaint your stalker?
To find out about WP policy go here http://ma.tt/contact/ and either fill out the form, or use his email address. Matt is the ‘head person in charge’ of WordPress. He’s actually very approachable, and generally responds to emails. I can’t speak for your case, but he’s always responded within a day to the emails I’ve sent him.
But you have to understand that might be your only, and last, recourse. This seems to be a WP policy which is enforced more on an in-the-moment “feeling” than on concrete parameters:
A few weeks ago one of the “Key Masters”, tellyworth, told you taking a comment containing private information down was against WP policy, and anti-free speech. Then TSP — a volunteer — told you the same thing. But WordPress did take the same comments down last year, at your request.
Since then you’ve sent requests to support, which haven’t been answered. So WordPress following procedure last year might not necessarily mean whoever is in charge of that department now will do the same thing.
If Matt can’t, or won’t, help I don’t see how you can go much further with this. Good luck with this, I hope it works out.
-
I’ll try contacting Matt and see where that goes.
The thing is with the stalker is I haven’t heard from him in a while. He went to a bunch of different sites, posting my personal information. Every single site deleted them on the day he posted them and permanently banned his IP for good measure. (Except for WordPress, of course.) So I don’t know what the police can do unless something bad happens and then it will be too late.
The post in question is from a while ago, but it’s still a high hit on Google. As it is, anyone can look up my username and find out who I really am and where I really live. Using the information gathered, they can easily find out my exact location and, god forbid, come to my house (as I have a fairly distinctive and uncommon name, nothing like Bob Smith).
And the thing is, I’m not a public figure, so I don’t see how freedom of speech applies to stalking private people and exposing their personal information on the internet. I don’t want my private information to be displayed in a public place like this. It’d be one thing if he said “Sandor00 sucks”, that I could care less about. But putting me and my family at risk is another matter entirely.
-
-
Perhaps you could print the TOS and show it to your lawyer and ask him advise on the matter or maybe his involvement?
In any case, good luck and hope it works out.
-
As for the “impolite” response, it’s because of these:
https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/someone-posted-personal-details-about-me-in-the-comments-section-of-a-blog?replies=4 (Nov 22, 2008!)
-
Why should we have to hire lawyers? Personal information is personal information. And from the first link posted above me, this has been going on for a year.
Weeks ago a blog was suspended here I believe for posting someone’s personal information and how she scammed them through eBay or whatever it was. But someone else weeks later was told to go to the police if they want anything done about their personal information being posted. We don’t know what the story is behind the scenes and what real danger lies and it’s best to just delete the comments or the entire blog if the blogger persists.
Are you telling me I would have to hire a lawyer and go to the police if my name and address gets posted on a WordPress.com blog if I wanted it removed??
-
panag, the first link you pasted is actually Mark (WordPress support) telling sandor00 they could solve the problem the first time sandor00 asked. And the offending comments were removed by WP Support.
The next link, to be honest, is sandor00 getting “impolite” responses from a few volunteers, and even a “key master” who didn’t understand sandor00’s problem was actually covered by the WP TOS. They all told her that posting personal/private information in comments was allowed on WP blogs when, according to the WP TOS, it clearly isn’t.
The problem is exactly the same as the one sandor00 had last year, which WP fixed. So I, for one, don’t see a problem with sandor00 pushing the issue. Especially since WP support hasn’t gotten in touch with them.
-
I know who you are and your name. location and date of birth were posted in the comments of a blog.
I asked the blog owner to remove your date of birth – they did.
You want your name AND location (which is a city, not an actual address) removed from the comments.
If I google your name I find it is listed in one of the biggest websites in the world – a site where you play a prominent role, the site which has lead to this, the site where you control some information and I can also easily find your location. So this blog is not publishing anything that cannot otherwise be found.
The blog is not breaching your privacy, the owner will not be asked to change their blog.
-
pornstarbabylon
Are you telling me I would have to hire a lawyer and go to the police if my name and address gets posted on a WordPress.com blog if I wanted it removed??
I believe yes. If you read section 2 and 5 in the TOS http://en.wordpress.com/tos/, it is the blog operator, not wordpress.com who is responsible for the blog content. And that’s how I think it should be.That said, the Abuse terms http://en.wordpress.com/abuse/ state that blogs will be suspended for revealing “personal information” unless it has to be “personal threats AND personal information”. So I can see the ambiguity here, and I can see why sandor00 may be confused.
And there’s also Freedom of Speech http://en.wordpress.com/freedom-of-speech/ which gives a different message again, stating that offensive is OK as long as you don’t violate the TOS.
sandor00
Since only you and none of us knows the specifics of this case it is impossible for us to discuss this matter with you.feartheseeds
The problem is exactly the same as the one sandor00 had last year That’s what sandor says, but we don’t know that for sure without seeing the alleged offense. I’m sure wordpress.com staff is onto this matter, and if they don’t respond it is because there is no reason to respond. -
Ooops, posted the above before Mark jumped in here for clarification…should have “refreshed” first :)
-
@feartheseeds: Yes I understand all that, and I don’t disagree with what you’re saying (neither am I an expert on legal issues). Problem is, sandor00 keeps pushing the issue in the wrong place. “Volunteers here in the forums can do absolutely nothing about this” (thesacredpath, here – hence his reaction in this new thread). And staff have already responded (repeatedly); its just that the responses happen not to be to sandor’s liking (so the only thing left is pressing the matter via other venues, as has also been already suggested – hence tsp’s reaction again).
-
-
“If I google your name I find it is listed in one of the biggest websites in the world – a site where you play a prominent role, the site which has lead to this, the site where you control some information and I can also easily find your location. So this blog is not publishing anything that cannot otherwise be found.”
Except every other instance of my real name in correlation with my username I have since removed and changed. When Google runs their next webcrawl, this will be the ONLY page where my real name and location can be found in such a manner.
You and Sheri have removed the same exact comments in the past twice. Can you please explain why you can’t remove the same exact thing? Have the rules changed in that regard?
-
feartheseeds, this is the same person we’ve been speaking to for several months, in many threads. There isn’t any additional information we can give, including “talk to staff” and “call the police.”
-
Or the moderators could just simply delete comments from a personal stalker that were deleted twice in the past. Every other site where he followed me to deleted his post the day he made them. I don’t see why wordpress is so bent on protecting the freedom of speech of someone who in the past threatened to kill me.
And for the record, the city in question that I live in is a small city and I’m one of the few people with the last name who lives there. So someone could easily use the information gathered in the blog to find out exactly where I live. It’s not like I’m Bob Smith from New York.
- The topic ‘Does WordPress follow its own rules?’ is closed to new replies.
WordPress.com Forums 