Section 25(a) of ProBoards Terms of Service, forum offline

[sacrificiallamb]

Forum URL: tabletop-gaming.boards.net/

Hello, there. So I have a website...used primarily for tabletop roleplaying games, although it has a large non-rpg section as well....that is kept private. I just saw this message:

"In accordance with Section 25(a) of the ProBoards Terms of Service, this forum has been taken offline."

I don't know what I'm supposed to do now. Admittedly, I was placing a lot of stuff into the non-rpg section, and don't know if that's relevant. How do I restore the forum? Should I be paying for no advertisements? What do I do here? Should I be removing the non-rpg section from the site? Hope you can help; thank you.

~Sacrificial Lamb

[Kami]

Aug 2, 2021 20:40:28 GMT -8 sacrificiallamb said:

Forum URL: tabletop-gaming.boards.net/

Hello, there. So I have a website...used primarily for tabletop roleplaying games, although it has a large non-rpg section as well....that is kept private. I just saw this message:

"In accordance with Section 25(a) of the ProBoards Terms of Service, this forum has been taken offline."

I don't know what I'm supposed to do now. Admittedly, I was placing a lot of stuff into the non-rpg section, and don't know if that's relevant. How do I restore the forum? Should I be paying for no advertisements? What do I do here? Should I be removing the non-rpg section from the site? Hope you can help; thank you.

~Sacrificial Lamb

Hey there. We can't really tell you why this was removed; 25a simply states that the forum can be removed from service at PB's discretion. I would reach out to [e-mail] for more details, if possible (note that depending on the nature of the issue, they may or may not be able to disclose).

That said, generally speaking, a 25a deletion is because the ProBoards Terms of Service was violated in some way, and usually over section 18, objectionable content. If you had a forum for TTRPGs, that could have to do with exceeding a PG13 description on any encounters or RP elements (this is the most common issue for RP/RPG forums). Since you don't specify what "a lot of stuff" in the non-RPG section was, I can't really give insight there, but some common non-RPG issues that result in 25a deletions are glorifying illicit activity, buying and selling of questionable items (eg real firearms), illegal file sharing, and the ilk. Another, less common situation is that a message was sent to the username: admin account and the admin doesn't log into that account much and so they missed a message asking for content to be deleted (alternatively, the admin hasn't logged in within the allotted time to fix, and thus the forum was removed as a precaution).

I will also add that whether or not any portion of your forum is "private", PB employees have super user accounts that help them maintain this service which yes, does include seeing 'private' content — this isn't a privilege that is used lightly, but I wanted to bring up that if you know you have some questionable content on the forum, PB admins still were able to see it even if you hid it from the view of the general public. That doesn't mean that PB admins were specifically seeking your content out, either, as there are a number of automated tools that may flag content, and of course members are also free to report objectionable content.

I'm sorry I can't give a more definitive answer. Definitely reach out to the abuse team to see what your circumstances are; if you don't get much of a response, I'd review the ProBoards Terms of Service again particularly regarding section 18: objectionable content and see if anything there catches your eye.

Beyond that, we here on the support board proper, including the Support admins, can't assist further as TOS violation details aren't shared with this side of operations.

Sorry :( And good luck!

[sacrificiallamb]

Thank you, Kami. I appreciate you taking the time to answer my question. I'll contact the abuseteam, and find some answers there.

Many regards,
 Sacrificial Lamb