The Rayaan / Jacob(smooth) Situation

[Jackalope]

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Given that he is exhibiting the same spammish behavior here that he's been observed doing elsewhere, I support FNM's motion to ban.

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I did some poking around on other sites (starting with the list of links cato123 posted here).

On all of the sites I checked, the pattern was the same - post the exact same thing (multiple times in some instances) and never participating in discussion. His one reply here to Tiberius was the exception.

I see no reason to treat him any differently from any other spammer, and have banned him as such. I'll take the spanking if this action was premature.

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(the moderator quoted above is me)

In this typical case, what was done was to take a representative sample of the post in question and run it through google, looking for matches. We already had a sample of links to go on, provided by the member who reported the post. We did nothing more or less than what I presume the reporter did - search on the post's content.

This is IMHO a very clear cut example of one of the few circumstances where off-site investigation using public information is perfectly OK.

But, again, an action was taken against that member (or we used the information internally) only because it was verified from our investigation that he was a spammer (i.e. he was copy-pasting a lot of stuff across different forums and not participating in discussions), which is against the rules of this forum. As Tiberius told you already, the only way you will get warned or banned is by breaking the rules of this forum, on this forum. We won't ever punish you unless you start breaking the rules in this forum.

While all that you say above is true, I'm getting the sense that the discomfort rises above just what will or will not get you in trouble here. Many people are uncomfortable with the idea of being looked into using privileged information, for it's own sake.