All those locked posts

[Teamedup]

I have just looked through the board and for all I am not sorry that these posts are having something done about them, the discussions on them were light enough surely for them not to have been locked until a word had been had with the original posters.

[zeb]

I agree TU.

I was finding the advise really useful for getting a 0% mortgage or a grant to do up my gite and claiming RMI while I'm waiting for the paying guests to arrive. It was all getting really interesting, then a mod came along and locked it. Why?

I thought the forum was for asking questions, but obviously the poster asked one too many! I really don't give a d**m whether the guy's writing a book or is just plain curious, some of the posts led to good advice until Quillan's Big Brother tactic (led on by M** no doubt)!

Sorry, I have an iMac, so can't do smileys!

[Patmobile]

I'm surprised this post hasn't been locked!

Patrick

[JohnM]

I'm no Hercule Parrott but I tend to think that the writing style was too familiar for the mods to "not investigate". Locking while investigating, seems the fairest way to do it. There will only be trouble if the original questions have to be deleted as the answers will then go because they will make no sense!!!!

 

[Miki]

I saw them a while ago and for the liife of me, I cannot understand why

they were locked ? I suspect several of us sussed this person out ages

ago, he/she was going a round the forums like a demented inquisitor

asking the most widely varied questions and none making any sense in

comparison  to another.

Sure, the questioner has become a pain in the backside with his

continual questions, none of which appear applicable, solely to

them.  I guess many folks realised the person was after answers

for some kind of gain for themselves but to lock it seems rather

bizarre to be honest. Is it a case that the Mod (or Mods) didn't want

the person to profit from members replies ?  Incidentally nearly

all or most of the info they wanted can be found on a few French

forums.

So why exactly were they locked ? And why indeed were the threads not

left open, whilst questioning the offender ? Nothing seems to add up

lately.

 

[Hoddy]

I’m really disappointed with the response of some posters to the action taken by the moderators, who are still working on the problem, on this occasion.

We had received a number of complaints about the person who had made these posts and there was a danger that people would stop replying because they thought that advice they were giving freely was subsequently being sold.

One of the reasons this forum exists is to offer advice to people interested in France. If ordinary posters stop responding it hits at the very heart of the forum. I take it that you wouldn’t want that.

Hoddy

[Nelson]

Maybe some-one could tell me which of the T&C`s prevents members from asking questions, If people think they are being used then they will not respond. As for myself I have some of the questions and the answers useful.

regards colin.

[Hoddy]

You're quite right, Nelson. Asking questions is not against the T & C's.

Please look at

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/666892/ShowPost.aspx

for a fuller explanation.

Hoddy

[Quillan]

To answer a few questions.

There have quite a few complaints both via the Report button and from within posts which the moderators have responded to.

We decided to lock the threads to stop the supply of free information to a person that it would appear from our investigations outside of this forum could be selling the answers for profit. We believe that this is in a way stealing from our members who give their answers in good faith believing that they are helping a genuine person.

We have asked the member concerned to respond to questions we have made of them and to explain themselves. Because of the lack of any response we have introduced several procedures which we hope may persuade the person to reply. We have not locked all the threads but have simply locked those that have come up in a search and have applied the locks in sequence (first come first served) and to a numeric total decided amongst the moderators.

Once the matter has been resolved we will post again to inform the membership and remove the locks. We anticipate this to be within the next seven days maximum.

We do sympathise with the people who were following some of the threads unaware of what was happening. They might consider opening their own thread on the topic in which they had an interest as this will then mean that the author of the other threads will not receive an alert when answers are posted.

Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

[Russethouse]

Nelson, If you were a forum member who had  gone to some trouble to give a detailed reply to a question and then suspected that  the information was being used for commercial gain (and this had not been stated before hand) you may feel differently.

The matter was bought to the attention of the moderators by other forum members so obviously not everyone feels the same.

The problem is being investigated and until the time the matter is resolved the threads remain locked.

[Quillan]

[quote user="Patmobile"]I'm surprised this post hasn't been locked!

Patrick
[/quote]

I am sorry I don't understand, could you expand your comment a bit please.

[Nelson]

Hoddy.

I have now read the post that you directed me to , I may be reading it wrong (I have had a bad day ) but it seems to say that in fucture questions will not be permitted, where will this leave the forum I thought it was about someone asking a question and every-one learning from the answers.

regards colin

[Poppy]

Yes, but how would members feel if a question was posed with a ps please reply I am making a fortune supplying answers?

[Viv]

I think the mods were right to take action, I think this person was taking us all for fools, clearly they knew a lot more about France than they were giving us all credit for. Did they ever reply to PM's etc? - it seems not.

If they had come back with a 'thank you and here's my view about this....' they would have sounded a bit more credible but it just seemed as though they were doing some kind of warped experiment . I for one am glad that the mods took this action.

[Nelson]

I am against censorship of any kind

 I know  nothing of the private messages because that is what they are private.

I think that the only people made fools of are those that allow it to happen as I have said before if you think you are being used then you do not reply.

regards colin

[Tresco]

Nelson, it seems this poster has not only joined up under different names, but that s/he isn't being honest about the motives behind the frequent (and often multiple/complex) questions asked. Clearly anyone can tell any amount of lies they want to, and I don't think lying is against the forum rules, but my impression is most people are pretty open and honest about their motives etc.

It seems the poster went against the 'spirit' of the forum, to the extent that several people complained, and quite a few were openly mocking the poster in some of the threads, (in a light hearted, but still irked way). Any newcomers would have no idea why this was being done, whereas the people doing it knew exactly why. Only regular visitors would have seen this unfolding, and understood

There are many instances when we could say someone may gain financially from the answers to  questions. I can think of countless examples, but this person seems to have been taking the mick in that respect.

I don't see how the situation could have been left as it was under all these circumstances.

I'm neutral about the locking though.

[Quillan]

[quote user="Nelson"]Hoddy.
I have now read the post that you directed me to , I may be reading it wrong (I have had a bad day ) but it seems to say that in fucture questions will not be permitted, where will this leave the forum I thought it was about someone asking a question and every-one learning from the answers.
regards colin
[/quote]

If I might reply for Hoddy. Archant may change the C of C to possibly include something along the lines of people should not use this forum to ask questions where the answers to such questions are then sold for financial gain in any way. I can't say that it will include this exactly, thats up to Archant, but we do have a 'duty of care' to our members to ensure information they give in good faith is not sold on by a third party.

We are not saying that in normal circumstances and in the normal day to day function of this forum people should not stop posting or ask questions. What we are saying that people should not be allowed to ask a question and sell the answer.

[Viv]

[quote user="Nelson"]I am against censorship of any kind
I think that the only people made fools of are those that allow it to happen [/quote]

Yes, well the Mods are not allowing it to happen any longer ![:D] If people have complained, what are they supposed to do? This poster was clearly p***ing some regular posters off , they complained and the mods took action. 

 

[Nelson]

Quillan.

 May I just ask how/ who will decide if a question is ask for infomation or gain! that is impossible.

regards colin

[Tony F Dordogne]

I think that the Mods have acted properly here.  I thought that this Forum was for ordinary people with a passion/home/maison secondaire in France who are willing to exchange information about their experiences freely.  One of the rules here is no advertising, surely the reverse of that is no pinching information for gain, use other people's experiences but don't use the people.

When threads are dumped without consultation there is usually a small revolution.  So this time they don't dump the thread but just lock it, temporarily, until the poster who obviously uses a number of names on here, gives them an answer.  The answers that were there are still there and available for everybody to see so if you want the information, you can still read it.  If you want more information you can pm the person who seems to have that information so nothing is lost there.

There have been adverse comments made here about 'multiple-personalities', glove puppets, trolls, whatever.  Now the Mods are actually dealing with one/several in an open and obvious way they get criticised for that also.  What is the alternative, no rules so that there can be no censorship, racism back on the Forum next?

Clearly the T&Cs allow for the Mods to moderate and that means they can pull threads, lock them or dump people if they think that their conduct here is not following the T&Cs.  It's not censorship at all, it's moderating and making sure that the rules are followed.

I get mighty peed off if somebody uses my work and publishes it as their own - in my line it's called plagiarism.  The least you do when using a reference is publish the source of the information, doubt if searcher30 or blade will give an acknowledgement to the people giving the information from here, especially if they are selling it as their own research/work.

And what happens if the information is not accurate or correct, who gets the kick if there is any legal comeback? 

 

 

[Russethouse]

Nelson, I think that on the whole forum members expect and deserve a degree of honesty, if the person concerned is acting in the way that is suspected and they had said so, then members would have truly had a choice. This wasn't the case.

If there is some other reason, all they have to do is reply to our enquiries

 

 

 

[Quillan]

[quote user="Nelson"]Quillan.
 May I just ask how/ who will decide if a question is ask for infomation or gain! that is impossible.
regards colin
[/quote]

Not when you find them somewhere else attempting to sell it. Yes it is very difficult that is why we have offered the person concerned the opertunity to respond rather than delete the threads and dump the user. There is a reason in the Code of Conduct that allows us to take this form of action in this particular instance and that is the issue of the possibly of one user having two or three logins. So actually it's nothing to do with censorship this time.

[Poppy]

 Time will tell if the poster in question has anything to hide or everything is above board.

[Miki]

So if the answers after the inquiry are in the affirmative, in other

words the person is kosher, we are told that the thread will be

unlocked and if he isn't, deleted ? And if so, then we are told that if

anyone wants to know the answers, then start another thread !! Seems a

little strange to me !!

Now I don't know about anyone else but the sheer number of complaints I

keep reading about worries me enormously. Why oh why was this one such

a big issue? Some of us nabbed him/her early and made it obvious to the

person that he was taking us for fools. The Mods could have acted from

there, it really didn't require a complaint, just good old common sense

that this person was taking the Michael....and now the thread is locked.

How about this, simple, maybe too simple, who knows.

Once this person  was finally sussed by Admin and Mods, a simple

post placed on any of the threads they were on, just to mention

that  the person's motives were under scrutiny for possibly trying

to make a gain from members who might not have seen why this person was

asking such questions, so please beware of answering at length, as the

person is being questioned, sorted out or whatever.  I would have

thought locking the thread will have cheesed off many others who would

still have liked to have known the answers, whether or not,  it

came form a dubious person.

Nut, hammer a sledge crack  take to and.....................come

to mind. Why make it easy when there are nice difficult and confusing

ways to do something !!

[Nelson]

Quillan

If this is the case and they are indeed trying to sell this infomation then you will not mind telling were this is happening.

I don`t think that any info so publicly available can be worth very much (money wise that is)

regards colin