Ticking Time Bomb

It's weird, he started out as a complete troll (it was funny for one thread) but he's starting to make more serious posts now.

(edit) I'm going to have to change my mind on this post wrt to the more serious posts...wasn't reading carefully enough

 
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Remember "be nice"

This is a perfect example of stupid drunk guy in the bar. He's a moron, can't control himself, and is slobbering all over you as you escort him to the door. But he is a customer, has spent "money" (time) here, we need to show all respect to him and be above his post. People will always appreciate this.

In this mod forum, I don't give a sh#t what we write about people. We all need to blow off steam. But in the public threads we will be as professional as possible. That's what makes us different than the other boards. It's not the product, there are a half dozen message boards out there, they don't need to come here.

This is an example of what we can do differently. This is not a knock on Mike, he's probably our most dedicated mod over the past few years. Don't know what we would do without him. Instead of "I dont know what your point is but this is ridiculous," maybe something along these lines (always use there screen nane","Hello Bill Callahan, We're not quite sure this thread fits in the main Husker Football forum. We use this forum for more functional and tangable discussions. We are going to go ahead and close this thread. If you have any questions, please feel free to pm me and we would be happy to discuss this more. Thank you for being a member of Huskerboard.com."

Sure it takes longer to write, but the lasting value of the post will stick with many more members, thus hopefully in the future the fewer times we will have to do this > the more compliments we (mods) get > then the more members that will sign up.

Thanks guys for al you do.

 
Eric no disrespect but since I locked that and posted that.. His posts and demeanor have changed. Everyone is different IMO. The same approach with everyone will not muster the same result.

 
I have a real problem with his schtick as "Bill Callahan." This isn't some random name, it's a real person. Posting under that name with that photo as his avatar concerns me.

Allowing a guy to post under that name/pic could lead to as much trouble as posting content from paid sites. We prevent that, why don't we prevent some guy from Omaha posting as Bill Callahan?

 
knapplc said:
I have a real problem with his schtick as "Bill Callahan." This isn't some random name, it's a real person. Posting under that name with that photo as his avatar concerns me.

Allowing a guy to post under that name/pic could lead to as much trouble as posting content from paid sites. We prevent that, why don't we prevent some guy from Omaha posting as Bill Callahan?
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I have no problem with that. This is a seperate from what my original intent was, but that's okay. Tell what you feel the boundaries are? What if someone were to create a profile under Abraham Lincoln. Do we allow that? Talk to me about the paramaters and we can certainly put something in the board rules.

Knapplc, is there any laws being broken or is it more of a moral issue? I'm asking because I don't know.

 
My area of expertise is in discrimination law, so it's not directly applicable here. I'm not an attorney, but I would be concerned about libel or slander issues coming up. I would imagine it's very different with an historic figure compared to a living person, and there's the whole "satire" thing to consider as well, but in layman's opinion it's not worth the risk.

My concern is mostly legal and not moral. Further, it wouldn't be too hard to ask the guy to change his name, citing legal concerns like we do with the posting of copyrighted material. While we don't know we'll get in hot water over it, is it worth the risk? Having him change his name doesn't prevent him from posting, it just defuses a possible legal issue. He keeps his membership and we keep our noses clean.

 
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knapplc said:
My area of expertise is in discrimination law, so it's not directly applicable here. I'm not an attorney, but I would be concerned about libel or slander issues coming up. I would imagine it's very different with an historic figure compared to a living person, and there's the whole "satire" thing to consider as well, but in layman's opinion it's not worth the risk.

My concern is mostly legal and not moral. Further, it wouldn't be too hard to ask the guy to change his name, citing legal concerns like we do with the posting of copyrighted material. While we don't know we'll get in hot water over it, is it worth the risk? Having him change his name doesn't prevent him from posting, it just defuses a possible legal issue. He keeps his membership and we keep our noses clean.
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Interesting....in a good way:) Folks, I'd like to hear from the rest of you, what are your opinions on this?

 
I don't think we have a legal issue - at least at this time. I posted the definition of defamation some time back in THIS POST. Callahan is certainly a public figure, and would have to prove malice by both the poster and the Board, as well as damage to his reputation or standing. Since it's clearly intended as humor (debatable as that may be), it can't really be taken as something with maclicious intent to harm. However, it is something we need to keep an eye on; if this guy starts asserting he actually is Callahan or starts posts in which he starts making claims of criminal acts or similar by Callahan then we need to Junkyard those posts and change his screen name and avatar.

 
I can see how his actions can be construed as satire, but he's dancing on the edge. He's saying "me" and "I" and representing himself, even with his stated birthday, as Callahan.

I definitely agree that he bears watching, and that very closely. The problem is that we all have lives, and we're all away from the board at certain times. I have a wife and little girl that I don't spend enough time with as it is, as do most of the Mods/Admins. What concerns me are those hours at a stretch where none of us are watching the board and someone pulls some shenanigans that many eyeballs see.

The other thing that concerns me about this guy, completely separate from a legal issue, is the implied tolerance of shenanigans that his continued use of that screen name gives. Nobody thinks this guy is Bill Callahan; everyone knows he's screwing around. What I'm concerned about is the whole, "You let him get away with __________, why can't I?"

Part of me says nip that problem in the bud now. Part of me says don't be so draconian. At the moment I'm leaning toward nipping.

 
Just went and read Frank's explanation in his link. I remember that Nebraska fan idiot who started that rumor, and all the mess it involved. Clearly we're not in that realm with this Bill Callahan guy... yet.

First thing - I doubt seriously the real Bill Callahan would ever concern himself with this board. Having said that, here's the part that really caught my eye in Frank's explanation:

AR Husker Fan said:
Were they damaged? No way for me to tell - but I should think it wouldn't be hard to find people who read that post, believed it to be true, and then had "decreased respect, regard, or confidence" in the players, or had "disparaging, hostile, or disagreeable opinions or feelings against" the players.
Long story short (bet ya wished you'd jumped to the end of this post, huh?), I think the players have an excellent case. The fact that the poster used a news outlet's template is indicative of a desire to actually convince readers of the "legitimacy" of the posting.
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W.C. Fields told us about those suckers. They're born every minute. We're not worried about the sharp users here - they'll take care of themselves. We're worried about the gulls who'll buy into rumors and whatnot, and take stuff more seriously than they should. That Carl Pelini cuckolding rumor is a good example. True or untrue, it can be damaging to Carl, and specifically his reputation. Same thing could be said for a guy purporting to be Bill Callahan. It's not up to us to determine if it's damaging - the allegation of damage comes from the wronged party, and who's to say Bill Callahan isn't sensitive about his time at Nebraska?

That's why I'm advocating a cautious tack with this guy.

 
We'll we all seem to be on the same page. Lets see if the other mods want to chime in.

You guys brought many things I didn't think about...thank you

 
I think we're trying to make this more difficult than it needs to be. I understand the point behind it, but I feel we are reading into it a little too much. I agree the guy is trouble and eventually his demeanor and moronic intent will come through and we'll eventually ban him. I don't think we have a legal issue here and I think we are trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill. JMO

 
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