forum hijacked?

[scooterrebel]

A forum I have been a moderator of for years seems to have been moved off of proboards. ScootDawg, this is a 23,000 member forum. I have posted in here before about the owner being absent.

i would have thought that it moving the forum would not be allowed or possible. I am just wondering if there is a way to restore it sothat it can continue here.

[CheatAreZee]

Hi scooterrebel,

Do you have contact with the person that originally created the forum by chance?

[scooterrebel]

I finally got in touch with him by phone. He says he sold it to another person and it was moved.

[VS Admin]

Jan 25, 2013 15:32:06 GMT -8 scooterrebel said:

I finally got in touch with him by phone. He says he sold it to another person and it was moved.

Hello,

Since no official transfer of ownership of the admin account was done, ProBoards does not recognize any other person as the owner of the "admin" account.

Further, the postings on this site are not owned by the forum admin - they have zero right to sell them to a third party. They are owned by the person who posted the message. When a person makes a post on a ProBoards forum, they specifically license ProBoards to use that content on the ProBoards forum.

So the actions taken by the forum admin / this person it was "sold to" has violated our Terms of Service in multiple ways, and has but also potentially breached the copyright of any user that posted on the forum.

Our support staff will work with you to get the Scoot Dawg forum back up and running. We have disabled the "admin" account so that this can not happen again.

[scooterrebel]

My screen name there is medman1952, can it be made the admin?

The moderator powers there are limited and I can not email the membership. I would like to email them to let them know they can still post there.

[VS Admin]

Hi,

Global Moderators now have access to the mass email feature on the ProBoards forum.

We are reviewing our legal options here and will have more answers Monday-ish.

[scooterrebel]

Thanks

[terrilee]

Hello support staff.
1st i am NOT a owner of a PRO B forum
just a member on SCOOTDAWGS,
the site that was hijacked!!!!!!!!!!!!

alot of the members of the original site are concerned that our info was stolen.

e mails pass words to the site etc etc etc

Now i realize that is probably a big prob for you all.
BUT i do hope that you are thinking alot about the members.

we built SCOOTDAWG, and all our posts etc were stolen?


Also since you disabled the ADMIN controls, bad members are insulting other people , infighting etc.

we all hope you can turn control over to the ONLY MOD that has been there for years, medman1952  , so that he can appoint staff to help get the forum back under control.

thank you very much for reading and , hopefully, understanding the members rights, also.

respectfully

terrilee

[scooterrebel]

This is a big can of worms.

It all started with some confusion and confusion continues.

I understand the position of Proboards and the ownership of the posts. What I am concerned about at this time is who owns the name of the forum. If it continues should it actually be moved to another address with a different name. THe founder of the forum probably has some rights to that name I would think. Can you clear that up with your legal staff Patrick?

[rapidjim]

I have been a member of ScootDawg for many years now and would hate to see it just go away. I would just like to add my two cents worth that Medman ( scooterrebel) would make a great Admin for that site. Many know and respect him.

Jim/Owner
Rapid Repair

[Michael]

Hi Everyone!

I know everyone is anxious about the future of the forum, and I can assure you that VS Admin is working on this issue. He will update this thread when he knows more.

[VS Admin]

Hi,

We have started dealing with this issue, however at this moment I do not have public details.

Patrick

[rapidjim]

Thanks for the update

Jim

[rapidjim]

Jan 25, 2013 16:31:33 GMT -8 VS Admin said:

Jan 25, 2013 15:32:06 GMT -8 scooterrebel said:

I finally got in touch with him by phone. He says he sold it to another person and it was moved.

Hello,

Since no official transfer of ownership of the admin account was done, ProBoards does not recognize any other person as the owner of the "admin" account.

Further, the postings on this site are not owned by the forum admin - they have zero right to sell them to a third party. They are owned by the person who posted the message. When a person makes a post on a ProBoards forum, they specifically license ProBoards to use that content on the ProBoards forum.

So the actions taken by the forum admin / this person it was "sold to" has violated our Terms of Service in multiple ways, and has but also potentially breached the copyright of any user that posted on the forum.

Our support staff will work with you to get the Scoot Dawg forum back up and running. We have disabled the "admin" account so that this can not happen again.


 "So the actions taken by the forum admin / this person it was "sold to" has violated our Terms of Service in multiple ways, and has but also potentially breached the copyright of any user that posted on the forum."

Does this mean there could be a possible "Class Action Lawsuit" against the aledged buyer/person that copied all the posts to the new site?

Jim

[scooterrebel]

I really hope there are no lawsuits by anybody