Disciplinary Actions

[jriva]

.

 

Strokenet has a set of guidelines which can be thought of as

[smallory]

I endorse Jean 100%. Our mission is to provide online stroke support to adult stroke survivors and stroke caregivers. This is a serious message board and with mostly serious discussions. People who just come here to play do not belong here! We support the privacy of our members and will not allow this website to lose sight of our mission.

 

The message that Jean is trying to get across is that these issues that she presented were interfering with the way that we need to conduct ourselves, as members, and that banishment of certain members became necessary in order for us to conduct business.

 

Our guidelines are there for a purpose and were written specifically to make our message board function, as intended. We are here to help provide the best service to our members that we can!

[arogers]

:Clap-Hands: I want to take a moment to applaud the management for providing a site where we can be well assured its mission will be maintained.

 

Several months ago, during one of my infrequent visits to a chat room I was asked to move to another room by someone. Almost immediately upon entering I was asked to "give some advice" to someone who no longer felt "sexy". Of course it was a man requesting information from a woman....I wasn't born yesterday and felt uncomfortable with the questions I was being asked. I didn't report the person, I just left the chat room and I don't know whether I've been back. In retrospect, I should have reported the individual. However, it is encouraging to know that persons have been barred from the site whose primary purpose is to cause unrest in one way or another.

 

Thank you so much for the time you spend in preserving the integrity of this site. I can't tell you how many times I've recommended it to professionals who work with stroke survivors and caregivers, feeling confident I won't have to be embarrassed I've done so.

 

Warmly,

[MargaretMary]

Thank you Jean and Steve, and all the staff that make this site such a wonderful place to be. It is one of the few places on the internet where I do feel safe.

 

Margaret

[fking]

I agree with management and Margaret, I feel safe and secure. Now if I could stop running the stop signs :scooter: and keep :cops: from chasing and shooting at me, I'll really be secure.

[smallory]

 

 

Ann,

 

Thanks for feedback! It's important to the management here that our members realize that we are not looking for people that we can discipline just for the fun of it. We take the mission of our organization seriously. We have rules, guidelines and policies because we don't want to make arbitrary decisions about anything. There seems to be so few places on the Internet where the members of a site come first and for good reason. We really do not want anyone to feel like they have Big Brother waiting for someone to mess up. We are just trying to be responsible and make sure that everyone is aware that rules are enforced with good reason and we are glad that most of our members appreciate this.

[hera]

First, thank you to Jean for posting this topic - and to Steve for his endorsement. :Clap-Hands:

 

I clicked on the Announcements, and was really shocked at what I read. I am hardly naive, eiither: I have been a published adult erotica author online for over six years, and writing even longer. Although I seldom visit former "adult chats" where I used to be well-known for my stories, I would expect to find the kind of explicit discussions between consenting adults that those sites are geared to.

 

I certainly never dreamed it would be an issue at Strokenet, so I am appalled that anyone would use this forum for such an inappropriate behavior, activity or chat.

 

This is different from stroke-related relationship issues regarding sex between partners. Those questions, concerns and anxieties are valid. That is not violating ethics, but providing true support.

 

I appreciate very much that this website is not JUST a website, but an online support group. I am thankful that Steve Mallory developed this organization, and continues to find incredible volunteers to help him keep this coordinated, operating and maintained. :cheer:

 

I would not have survived nearly so well, alone in my house, these past 16 months, without Strokenet, my only support group - my online Stroke Support family. Even though I don't go to chats, the message board has helped me so much... and I hope I have helped others. I come here when I am depressed, worried, anxious - and when I want to celebrate, or just lend my blessings to someone else.

 

It is sad that human behavior would cause havoc in the most unlikely places. Thanks again for keeping order, and for all the work everyone does at Strokenet, behind the scenes - for the rest of us.

 

Blessings,

 

Hera

[jriva]

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Hera,

 

Thanks for articulating so clearly the differences between on-line SUPPORT sites, such as this one, and other sites that have different mission statements and serve their members as expected of them. There is a time and a place for everything.

 

Jean

[alpinejunkie]

Jean you are so right. I have no idea about what has been going on but I want Stroke Net to know that I appreciate what you all do to protect me and the other members from inappropriate stuff.

 

Some people look at the internet and say it should be completely unrestricted and uncensored. That is a debate for another place. Every online community has the right, and in many cases the duty, to take positions like Stroke Net.

 

This community has been an incredible part of my survival from my strokes. When I communicate with members via blogs, forums or whatever, I don't visualize those people as text on a computer screen. I visualize them as real people in real homes who are here as much to help as be helped. For me being a part of Stroke Net is almost like people are inviting me into their homes. At the very least they are inviting me to share a part of their lives. That is why I feel like I should treat every person here with the respect and dignity I would if they had invited me into their actual home or they were in mine.

 

Keep up the great work people.

[Guest lwisman]

An interesting article was just brought to my attention today. It was in the Sunday New York Times Magazine on April 23. It is an article about Goggle in China. The long and short of it is that there is a very different cultural situation than we have the the US. The banning of websites includes not only those with Tianammen (sp) Square mentioned, but also sites such as pornography sites. The article says that most people in China do not see the government ban as an imposition. That is fact there are many banned sites that have nothing to do with democracy, etc. It is quite a long article has has a number of interesting points.

[tom71]

I too can say I appreciate you guys for keeping the integrity of this site, but I can say I miss some of those people who are no longer here, for the most part I believe those were good people, whom made a poor decision.

God Bless,

Tom

[alpinejunkie]

Lin,

 

I have not seen the article in the Times but this has been on ongoing debate for a while. A lot of people don't feel that Google whose corporate saying is "do no harm" or something like that should be working with one of the most oppresive governments in the world.

 

Also there is a lot of concern about access to data. As everyone knows by now Google analyzes, catalogs and stores everything that goes through its system, EVERYTHING. That is how they come up with the targeted ads when you use the search engine or gmail.

 

Anyway there is concern that the Chinese government could get access to those Google servers that contain lots of information about lots of people around the world. It would not be the first time they have imprisoned somebody because of personal views expressed on the internet.

 

I've worked in the Internet industry since 1993. I've spent that time developing a lot of sites just like Stroke Net. It will be interesting to see how the Internet, which in America is protected by freedon of speech fits into a culture where there is no such thing.

[Guest lwisman]

The extensive article in NY Times was out to try to understand why Google complied with the Chinese government. They sent someone to Beijing to interview the CEO (amongst others). The CEO is Chinese and has also worked for Microsoft and Yahoo (I believe the second company was Yahoo). He also worked in California for a while. His take on the situation was very different from what is in most articles.

 

He says most Chinese are not interested in what is filtered out. He is interested in getting all Chinese, including those in small villages, tied into the globe. Talked about how someone in a small village could go online for classes at US universities to better themselves. Also a story of a woman who started selling odds and ends on Ebay and now buying and selling on Ebay is her full time job, she can make more money.

 

I hope they do a followup article in a year or two. Will be interesting to see how the market has grown.

 

Anyway, it was an interesting article. I looked online and it is, unfortunately, not available.

[jriva]

.

 

Lin and Alpine,

 

I don't want to have this thread hi-jacked by a 'freedom of speech' discussion but since you brought it up, I'll add that this is always one of the defenses that people bring up when a case of abusing this site's guidelines is being investigated. The way I view it is that people like Steve have the right to build whatever kind of website that they envision with whatever value system they wish to instill. Everyone else has the same right to do the same and the internet is living proof that people are enjoying that freedom.

 

To get back to the topic of this thread---disciplinary actions and maybe missing banned members as Tom mentioned---we've had members here who had been given as many as twelve official warnings before being banned permanently. In most cases, staff has bent over backwards to give members second, third, forth and up chances to learn and abide by our guidelines. This is not a freedom of speech issue. It's about people like Steve having the right to keep basic standards on a site they developed for a specific purpose. Everyone when they register signs a form agreeing to abide by our site rules. Very few people even read them until they've broken one or two and staff members receive complaints that we, then, have to investigate.

 

Jean

[tom71]

Jean,

I agree with you, it is not a freedom of speech issue and there does have to be rules for the users of the site to follow,I'm glad to hear their were warnings issued and not just that they screwed up once and were banned.Keep up the great work Steve, Jean and all of the others behind the scene making this site the best support group on the net :Clap-Hands:

God Bless,

Tom