The Rayaan / Jacob(smooth) Situation

[Waratah]

I still disagree with the investigation of someone who has broken no rules, as I believe it could create a bias. I believe judgement should be totally based on this forum only. A confirmed poe's (from outside the forum) posts will be treated differently compared to others. I do not think it is fair.

Without an investigation, sometimes we don't know if a user is breaking the rules or not. For example, if a spammer comes along and posts a lengthy post that looks copy / pasted, how can we know that they are spamming unless we take part of the post and Google for it on other forums? Sometimes posts that look copy / pasted are actually written specifically for these forums by the member.

So you are saying that you could be banned or warned for acts outside this forum.
I may have missed it in the rules for spamming, could you please point out where it is wrong to have the same 'large chunks' text from other places on the internet.

Likewise in this case, the suspicion that Jacob was a poe was the reason for Rayaan's initial investigation. The investigation showed that the suspicion was wrong, so nothing happened.

My point is that nothing would have happened if he was found to be a poe outside of this forum anyway, so why investigate in the first place? I understand your reason is because they usually turn out to be trolls. Can you show some proof that this is what happens with poes. It would be interesting to know how long does it take for a poe to turn into a troll.

If I understand what you have written above correctly, I think this is ok(privacy wise). Just to confirm I am understanding correctly.

You will only use publicly accessible information to confirm suspicions about a user's intent.

Yes, that is correct.

I think that if someone is investigated, they should be notified. I think this would create a bit of transparency and more trust. Ever since this has happened I have had a little sickly feeling about my privacy and also whether I have been investigated. If I have been investigated, I would like to be pm'ed with all relevant details. I would be quite shocked if I have ever been, because I have tried to act within the rules.