Do you allow your members to post their email address?

[Fergal]

Do you have any policies or rules regarding whether or not members are allowed to include their email address in posts on your forum? Maybe you allow email addresses in posts in your advertising sections but not in other posts?

 

[Luke]

I feel that its up to them how they choose to play their piracy on a forum.

 

[Lone Wolf]

I also think it's up to that individual. If they wanted to keep their email address private, they shouldn't post it.

 

[BrydoRX]

I don't have any rules on a member posting his/her email address but I can say it's not recommended. You should only show your email address on their profile (which can also be a privacy risk) or keep it private to everyone you know on the forum.

 

[Gizmo]

On my new forum coming soon there is a rule that they are responsible for what they share and I am not responsible for such content submitted. So if they wish to do their email then it's their fault if anything happens not mine.

 

[Grumpy]

I allow them to, but we clearly state that if they do then it's not our responsibility what happens to it.

 

[Fergal]

Thanks everyone for your replies. The reason I asked is because sometimes members on my business forum will reply to a question and then add something like the following at the bottom of their post: "email me at [email protected] if you would like further help"

I feel that this makes their post a little spammy or advertising focused?

 

[dan213]

Thanks everyone for your replies. The reason I asked is because sometimes members on my business forum will reply to a question and then add something like the following at the bottom of their post: "email me at [email protected] if you would like further help"

I feel that this makes their post a little spammy or advertising focused?

I could see it being spammy but I would personally take it on a case by case basis. Maybe the person is just trying to be nice, but why not just have them PM you (the poster) if they need additional help rather than post an email address that may contain a link back to their site or something else?

I defiantly see where your coming from and it may be a bit of a grey area, I would personally just do my best to try and figure out their intentions.

As other stated, if you have not done so yet you may want to put something somewhere that states any and all personal information shared by you (the member) is your (the member's) responsibility and BAF will not be held responsible.

 

[Lone Wolf]

Thanks everyone for your replies. The reason I asked is because sometimes members on my business forum will reply to a question and then add something like the following at the bottom of their post: "email me at [email protected] if you would like further help"

I feel that this makes their post a little spammy or advertising focused?

Hi Fergal,

If you are worried about the members of your forum sharing their email address and guests then picking them up, I am sure there is a plugin/product for vBulletin which hides email addresses to guests.

 

[Nitro]

It's up to them if they want to post it or not.

But so far, I haven't seen anyone posting their e-mails in public.

 

[JedoChristo]

I would say it's up to that user to choose if he would like to make it public.

 

[Pinky]

Interesting one. I do have a declaration in my forum guidelines for individuals not to post other members private information ie...email addys on the open forum....never thought about a member posting their own.....and it would suggest spam to me when that is done although if a member did post their email in a post, I would not remove it. From a members point of view, not sure if that's something I'd like to see in topic tbh.

 

[Fergal]

From now on I'll review each post with an email address on a case by case basis, as has been suggested in many of the replies above.

Thanks everyone for the replies and feedback.

...As other stated, if you have not done so yet you may want to put something somewhere that states any and all personal information shared by you (the member) is your (the member's) responsibility and BAF will not be held responsible...

Thanks for the reminder Dan, that's done now.

 

[Gizmo]

Thanks everyone for your replies. The reason I asked is because sometimes members on my business forum will reply to a question and then add something like the following at the bottom of their post: "email me at [email protected] if you would like further help"

I feel that this makes their post a little spammy or advertising focused?

It may feel advertising or spam quality but if they submit their email address they are too becoming a victim of spam. Worse spam than just looking at their email really. So again what they submit is their own fault.

 

[AnAccount]

We do allow members to post their email addresses if they wish to. However, because of spam bots and hackers in general, we like our members to do something like so-and-so [at] hotmail.com rather than [email protected] Helps cut down on the spamming by a lot, and at least if you remember to put "@" rather than "at" when you're typing out the person's address, then there should be no problems at all.

 

[packmule]

Do you have any policies or rules regarding whether or not members are allowed to include their email address in posts on your forum? Maybe you allow email addresses in posts in your advertising sections but not in other posts?

Despite my reluctance when first starting up my board I did include, in my board rules, that members were prohibited from posting their email address in posts on the main board topic pages and could do so only by PM. I also have a rule that prohibits members from posting any personal info about themselves, including home/work/cell phone numbers and home/work addresses on the pages of the main board.

 

[Fergal]

Sounds like a good idea packmule, how has that been working for you?

Thanks everyone for your replies and opinions.