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New Boards.ie Terms of Use and Privacy Policy - your feedback welcome

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  • 16-12-2009 3:09pm
    #1
    Darragh
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,241 ✭✭✭


    Hi folks

    We are updating our Terms of Use and our site Privacy Policy. These will go live soon.

    We've put both pages up for your review:

    Terms of Use.

    Privacy Policy.

    EDIT: We have now put these live and you can see them here:

    Terms of Use

    Privacy Policy

    This is the first revision of both documents and are an important step for us. We welcome all questions, though if there is something you disagree with, please do let us know below with your reason.

    Your input will be most appreciated and valid points will be factored in to the next revision.

    Thanks for your time

    Darragh
    Post edited by Shield on


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Comments

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    #2
    Overheal
    Registered Users Posts: 81,669 ✭✭✭✭Overheal


    First things first: Journal.ie??


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    #3
    Darragh
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,241 ✭✭✭Darragh


    Overheal wrote: »
    First things first: Journal.ie??

    Journals.ie ? Yes?


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    #4
    Overheal
    Registered Users Posts: 81,669 ✭✭✭✭Overheal


    Thats the first time ive heard it mentioned. When did that happen?

    edit: T&C
    [you agree not to]

    # post Material that contains violence, or offensive subject matter or contains a link to an adult website
    # post Material that promotes or encourages illegal activity
    # post Material that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, rights of privacy or publicity, or other proprietary right of any party

    [you may not use a username which]

    # Contains any profanity, is vulgar or offensive, or promotes an illegal activity;
    # Misleadingly impersonates someone else.
    These Terms get abused quite a lot. When you quote a news article (a gun violence article perhaps) or register a username with Bertie's name just to make AH jokes, or if people discuss smoking weed, drinking underage, or pirating software or other digital material.
    You agree to waive any moral rights in your Material for the purposes of its posting on Boards.ie and the purposes specified above.
    :confused:
    8.1 Links to other websites

    This website contains links to other websites operated by third parties over whom we have no control. Such links are provided for your convenience only and we accept no responsibility or liability in respect of the content or use of other websites.

    Some of these sites may contain materials that are objectionable, unlawful, or inaccurate. The fact that these links appear does not mean that we endorse these third party sites or services.

    If you do decide to leave the Boards.ie site and access third party sites you do so at your own risk.
    This reads as a backdoor to allowing, for instance, links to torrents etc. doesnt it

    I dont see anything wrong with the Privacy Statement but can you expand on this point?
    The previous website address from which a visitor reached us, including any search terms used;
    Is that just when we follow a hyperlink to boards (like on google), or is it also when we navigate (type our url) into boards? eg. would you know if I switched over to boards immediately after coming off of youtube?


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    #5
    Time Magazine
    Registered Users Posts: 8,452 ✭✭✭Time Magazine


    I had a quick read, Darragh.

    "We reserve the rights to change usernames at our discretion." Typo?

    "...the following will lead to a suspension of your privileges on Boards.ie: ... extended periods of inactivity." I don't think that will lead to anything. Pedantic, I know, but these things are pedantic documents.

    Introduction: "Adverts Marketplace Ltd"
    Section 9: "Adverts Marketplaceing Ltd"
    Section 11.4: "Adverts Marketing Marketplace Ltd"
    Section 11.5: "Adverts Marketplaceing Ltd"
    etc. Make your mind up! You have registered the first one.

    Then I gave up. Also I would suggest that you specify in the Privacy Statement that PMs are private unless (i) yer asked by the cops to show the goods or (ii) the PM is reported. I think that's something that should be adhered to but also specified.


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    #6
    minidazzler
    Registered Users Posts: 14,739 ✭✭✭✭minidazzler


    Regarding the Privacy Policy
    Information relating to your use of Boards.ie generally. This includes, for example, private messages, login and logout times, polls you’ve voted on, threads to which you have subscribed and posts you’ve thanked.

    Can you guys read any PM's sent? Or just the ones reported?


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    #7
    Quazzie
    Registered Users Posts: 28,815 ✭✭✭✭Quazzie


    I have to agree with TM here.

    Someone needs to read over this and fix a lot of grammar mistakes.
    Why is there so many capital letters sporadically placed around it?

    I'm no spell czech but if I notice it I'm pretty sure others will.
    post Material that promotes or encourages illegal activity
    As Overheal states this is broken all the time. Does discussing smoking weed count break this rule?


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    #8
    Overheal
    Registered Users Posts: 81,669 ✭✭✭✭Overheal


    I use Capitals a lot in my posts (not that anyone ever notices) when lightly emphasizing certain Terms or Phrases, especially Nouns.
    #Post material that promotes or encourages Illegal Activity
    fyp.

    But yeah we've got marijuana usernames and self proclaimed pirates and and and yeah. These points could do with some polishing. Speaking of misleading usernames (Bertie Ahern) perhaps some names should be protected until they are registered using an official email address.


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    #9
    Conor
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,479 ✭✭✭Conor


    minidazzler wrote: »
    Can you guys read any PM's sent? Or just the ones reported?

    If a PM is reported, the Admins will see the contents of it.

    If a PM is not reported then the only people who can read it are those with direct database access. Currently, that's Ross and me. We're not permitted to read PMs unless explicitly instructed to and the only time that has happened during my time here was when a user was PM spamming and we needed to find out the extent of the spam run. Other than that, my only interaction with the private message portion of the database has been to collect anonymous, aggregated statistics.


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    #10
    mike65
    Closed Accounts Posts: 88,978 ✭✭✭✭mike65


    So Piss Flaps is no more?

    Shame :(


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    #11
    Overheal
    Registered Users Posts: 81,669 ✭✭✭✭Overheal


    mike65 wrote: »
    So Piss Flaps is no more?

    Shame :(
    Id like to request a name change....


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    #12
    Nevyn
    Closed Accounts Posts: 43,045 ✭✭✭✭Nevyn


    Overheal wrote: »
    Thats the first time ive heard it mentioned. When did that happen?

    Journals.ie has been running a long time, mines been active for the last 5 years.


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    #13
    iWillBeReborn
    Closed Accounts Posts: 37 ✭iWillBeReborn


    What does all the following mean?

    The first bit I get.

    You are solely responsible for your conduct and any Material that you submit, post, and/or display on Boards.ie. You agree not to post Material contrary to these Terms of Use. We may, but are not obliged to, remove or limit access to Material from any user which breaches these Terms of Use.

    Then:
    By posting any Material on or through Boards.ie, you grant us a limited license to use, modify, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, and distribute such Materials in connection with Boards.ie or the promotion thereof.

    The license you grant to us is non-exclusive, royalty free and fully paid, sub licensable, and worldwide.

    You are responsible for making sure that you have all rights to what you post, including the rights necessary for you to grant the foregoing licenses to same.

    You represent and warrant that: (i) you own the Material posted by you or otherwise have the right to grant the license set forth in this section, and (ii) the posting of the Material does not violate the privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, contract rights or any other rights of any person

    You agree to waive any moral rights in your Material for the purposes of its posting on Boards.ie and the purposes specified above.

    What does all that mean for the poster? If someone wrote a short story on the writing forum do boards.ie now own that after the 21st?
    7.1 Submissions to Boards.ie

    You do not have to submit anything to us, but if you do you acknowledge and agree that any questions, comments, suggestions, ideas, feedback, or any other submissions to us which may improve our products, services, or offerings shall become our sole property unless otherwise agreed by us.
    By making a submission to us, you grant a nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual, unlimited, assignable, sublicenseable, fully paid up and royalty free right to us to copy, prepare derivative works from, improve, distribute, publish, remove, retain, add, and use and commercialise, in any way now known or in the future discovered, anything that you submit to us, without any further consent, notice and/or compensation to you or to any third parties.
    If you do not want to grant us the rights set out above, please do not make submissions to us.


    What does that part mean? If I wrote you some fancy code to speed up the site, it becomes your sole property if you desire?:confused:


    Should this discussion itself not merit a site wide announcement?


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    #14
    Earthhorse
    Registered Users Posts: 14,715 ✭✭✭✭Earthhorse


    I think that's exactly what both those passages mean, essentially. Though the likelihood of boards enforcing them in that manner is probably pretty slim. Still...


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    #15
    jhegarty
    Registered Users Posts: 6,434 ✭✭✭jhegarty


    You agree NOT to use Boards.ie to:
    * solicit personal information from anyone under 18

    How does one know someone is under 18 ?

    Wouldn't any public poll asking a personal question fall foul of this.
    modify, adapt, translate, or reverse engineer any portion of Boards.ie, or use any robot, spider, site search/retrieval application, or other device to retrieve or index any portion of Boards.ie, except as expressly authorised in writing by Boards.ie

    Shouldn't you updated the robots.txt as it allows most of those things ?


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    #16
    ynotdu
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,817 ✭✭✭ynotdu


    What is the reason that an account cannot be closed?
    I understand that to delete posts from threads would make any replys to a question etc seem ridiculous,so a persons posts would have to remain up to the date they wished to delete their account,but after that why not allow people to totally leave?{cynical thought would be that having x amount of subscribers is a good selling point for Ad's}

    Also why keep infractions on record well past the 'offense'especially for new users while they learn the ethos of the site and the diffrient rules across forums.?
    Surely keeping these infractions forever is bound to influence Admins/Mods decisions even when members have learned what is acceptable on boards and what is not{often a post is just borderline as to wether it is a rule-breaker or not}

    Often times new users have come to boards from more 'crude' sites and it takes time to adjust.


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    #17
    Overheal
    Registered Users Posts: 81,669 ✭✭✭✭Overheal


    iWillBeReborn wrote: »
    What does all the following mean?

    The first bit I get


    ......



    What does that part me

    an? If I wrote you some fancy code to speed up the site, it becomes your sole property if you desire?:confused:


    Should this discussion itself not merit a site wide announcement?
    You know thats a good point. On one hand the T&C is claiming [Intellectual Property; Text; etc] is all surrendered to/owned by Boards, but the other half of the T&C conflicts with the first half, saying you're not responsible for all of the offensive and illegal stuff.... so tbh, which is it?


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    #18
    Darragh
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,241 ✭✭✭Darragh


    Hey all

    Thanks for the continued input. Please continue - we are reading it all, and I'll set aside time this afternoon to address all your points.

    Cheers and thank you

    Darragh


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    #19
    Jay P
    Registered Users Posts: 4,944 ✭✭✭Jay P


    From the terms of use:
    # post Material that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, rights of privacy or publicity, or other proprietary right of any party

    Surely that could include many videos on Youtube? Namely user uploaded content such as live shows and album rips. Or does this not count because it's a 3rd party site?

    About the user names:
    # Contains any profanity, is vulgar or offensive, or promotes an illegal activity;
    # Violates any trademark or other proprietary right; or
    # Misleadingly impersonates someone else.

    Is this rule going to be implemented across the board? Old users included? I can think of a good few examples of each.


    I'm sure these points have already been raised, this is just how I see things.


  • Options
    #20
    Eoin
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators Posts: 21,238 CMod ✭✭✭✭Eoin


    Overheal wrote: »
    Is that just when we follow a hyperlink to boards (like on google), or is it also when we navigate (type our url) into boards? eg. would you know if I switched over to boards immediately after coming off of youtube?

    A site can only tell what site you were on previously if the user clicked a link on the previous website to get to the new site.

    e.g. You're on youtube.com and type boards.ie in the address bar, there will be no record. If you're on youtube and click a link there that brings to you boards, then it can be recorded by boards.


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    #21
    Jazzy
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 6,315 ✭✭✭Jazzy


    what a big fat load of bureaucratic sh1t. i suppose some ppl will love it though. they will learn it and wield it and impose it at every opportunity they deem necessary. with documents like these you really can get that authentic smell of importance and smug satisfaction right into your clothes at only 30 degrees. it all stinks of control and other agendas which dont really suit. and ppl wonder why there is so much red tape in the Dail and why they are so incompetent. it all begins at the lowest echelons in this country :)


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    #22
    Darragh
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,241 ✭✭✭Darragh


    Jazzy wrote: »
    what a big fat load of bureaucratic sh1t. i suppose some ppl will love it though. they will learn it and wield it and impose it at every opportunity they deem necessary. with documents like these you really can get that authentic smell of importance and smug satisfaction right into your clothes at only 30 degrees. it all stinks of control and other agendas which dont really suit. and ppl wonder why there is so much red tape in the Dail and why they are so incompetent. it all begins at the lowest echelons in this country :)

    Erm, Jazzy, what? Did you have anything constructive to offer at all? Your post is suspiciously troll-ish.


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    #23
    Time Magazine
    Registered Users Posts: 8,452 ✭✭✭Time Magazine


    Darragh wrote: »
    Erm, Jazzy, what? Did you have anything constructive to offer at all?

    Darragh, he's Jazzy. He dislikes an awful lot about this site but, I presume, has nowhere else to go.


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    #24
    Quazzie
    Registered Users Posts: 28,815 ✭✭✭✭Quazzie


    Darragh wrote: »
    Erm, Jazzy, what? Did you have anything constructive to offer at all? Your post is suspiciously troll-ish.
    Why is it Troll-ish? Because it questions the need for this at all? Because he sees this as totally unnceccesary and unlikely to affect anybody with the exception of the a few mods and admins? Or maybe its trollish because he questioned why this looks like a legal document aimed at protecting BoardsCorp and screwing over the average user?

    Then again maybe it wasn't trollish at all.:rolleyes:


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    #25
    Jazzy
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 6,315 ✭✭✭Jazzy


    Darragh wrote: »
    Erm, Jazzy, what? Did you have anything constructive to offer at all? Your post is suspiciously troll-ish.

    well it isnt. its exactly how i feel. you asked for feedback and you got it, if you dont like it dont accuse it of being 'troll-ish' just for the sake of dismissing it.
    basically, things like these documents only serve to control. boards is already more of a personality cult instead of discussion board nowadays anyway and these documents will only enforce this. you are turning the site into a day-glo 50's american small town with the village elders and of course, the idiots to be looked down upon by all the normal, respectable folk. the site has become all about moderators and all about the different personalities. why is there "congrats to xxx for becoming a moderator" threads? i thought these were (best word usage here) 'volunteers' or some lark? surely they dont need to be tugged off by the populance to secure their position? from what i can see these documents will grant those that love authority and rules and that need to be important the flexibility to do so. and in true american 50's small town fashion, there is indeed witch hunts, or do i need to clarify my point with a jpg of a random girl from the background of a picture posted on the dating thread with a little mspaint moustache & beard? or perhaps a "profile infraction" for posting nothing offensive at all in the early hours of the morning but one of the golden gods has decided that it falls under the "don't be a d1ck" rule simply because he can? thats the reality and all these policies will only enforce it and that attitude
    Time Magazine wrote: »
    Darragh, he's Jazzy. He dislikes an awful lot about this site but, I presume, has nowhere else to go.

    a lot of my friends post here and there are a lot of good aspects of this site. it has a nice soccer and games section even if the former is full of drooling 90's kids full of sugar and no sense. love the dismissive tone tho, really suits my arguement :)


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    #26
    Overheal
    Registered Users Posts: 81,669 ✭✭✭✭Overheal


    Jazzy wrote: »
    what a big fat load of bureaucratic sh1t. i suppose some ppl will love it though. they will learn it and wield it and impose it at every opportunity they deem necessary. with documents like these you really can get that authentic smell of importance and smug satisfaction right into your clothes at only 30 degrees. it all stinks of control and other agendas which dont really suit. and ppl wonder why there is so much red tape in the Dail and why they are so incompetent. it all begins at the lowest echelons in this country :)
    bobkelso.jpg "Damn Hippies!"

    I worry it will just act to Supersede the Charters and the Mods will just point at it to ban people with too. But then, Boards is a legal entity, and you do need a T&C. Theres not much way around that.

    I think Stan (Kyle?) Put it best in that Southpark episode with Mohammad and Family Guy - once you pull or censor one thing, you'll inevitably pull and censor more, until there is just so much red tape around that the place will choke itself into inactivity, and ultimately death.


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    #27
    Gone West
    Registered Users Posts: 6,374 ✭✭✭Gone West


    What is the point of this?
    Was a real need identified or was it just a slow month in the boards.ie offices?

    Of course the lonely yet smug bureaucracy lovers & red tape fetishists will love this one.
    Boards is supposed to be fun, its not supposed to come with a contract.


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    #28
    Darragh
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,241 ✭✭✭Darragh


    Quazzie wrote: »
    Why is it Troll-ish?

    Because it's general statements aimed at eliciting a response rather than stating constructively why he feels that there's something amiss with it.

    Because he brings the Dáil into it for some reason?

    Because he talks of "control" and "agendas" yet fails to state where and what these are, perhaps?
    Because it questions the need for this at all? Because he sees this as totally unnceccesary and unlikely to affect anybody with the exception of the a few mods and admins?

    You don't think there's a need for this?
    Or maybe its trollish because he questioned why this looks like a legal document aimed at protecting BoardsCorp and screwing over the average user?

    This *is* a legal document. I'm not sure why you think it's out to protect the site and "screw over" the average user. Care to clarify on that point?
    Then again maybe it wasn't trollish at all.:rolleyes:

    Oh but it was. It was.


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    #29
    Overheal
    Registered Users Posts: 81,669 ✭✭✭✭Overheal


    And this discussion still isnt a sitewide announcement despite its own fine print saying users will be notified 7 days before changes are made. Whats up with that?


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    #30
    Darragh
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,241 ✭✭✭Darragh


    Jazzy wrote: »
    well it isnt. its exactly how i feel. you asked for feedback and you got it, if you dont like it dont accuse it of being 'troll-ish' just for the sake of dismissing it.
    basically, things like these documents only serve to control. boards is already more of a personality cult instead of discussion board nowadays anyway and these documents will only enforce this. you are turning the site into a day-glo 50's american small town with the village elders and of course, the idiots to be looked down upon by all the normal, respectable folk. the site has become all about moderators and all about the different personalities. why is there "congrats to xxx for becoming a moderator" threads? i thought these were (best word usage here) 'volunteers' or some lark? surely they dont need to be tugged off by the populance to secure their position? from what i can see these documents will grant those that love authority and rules and that need to be important the flexibility to do so. and in true american 50's small town fashion, there is indeed witch hunts, or do i need to clarify my point with a jpg of a random girl from the background of a picture posted on the dating thread with a little mspaint moustache & beard? or perhaps a "profile infraction" for posting nothing offensive at all in the early hours of the morning but one of the golden gods has decided that it falls under the "don't be a d1ck" rule simply because he can? thats the reality and all these policies will only enforce it and that attitude


    That's a lot of words right there Jazzy, but would you like to show where you see these documents affecting the site and how it's " turning the site into a day-glo 50's american small town with the village elders"

    I mean, specifically, here, please.


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    #31
    Darragh
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,241 ✭✭✭Darragh


    Overheal wrote: »
    And this discussion still isnt a sitewide announcement despite its own fine print saying users will be notified 7 days before changes are made. Whats up with that?

    Because they're not going live yet, are they? They're here for the discussion of people who read this thread.


This discussion has been closed.
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