Should you ban released felons?

[Thomasss]

This is something that I can see some debate over. 😛

If you were to get notice of a member on your forum being on probation/parole or even getting a notice of their past records, would you ban them and remove them from your forum? What if they are a registered sex offender, would you allow them on your forum?

Again, IF you knew.

 

[Teapot]

I think it really just depends on what they were charged with.

For example, if it was a sex offender I probably wouldn't allow it. They are put on all kinds of different restrictions, one of them being to stay within a certain distance of children and teens. Even though the sex offender would probably be pretty far away from anyone through a forum, I wouldn't allow it. If they aren't allowed to be near minors, I won't let them talk to anyone.

 

[Joshua Farrell]

It depends on what the person did, to get the jail time that they had.

And for those who are registered as "Sex Offenders," there are some who did stuff while drunk, or they thought someone was older than they were, or other stupid stuff like that, and ends up getting jail time, and being labeled as a sex offender. It is those people that I may be leery over, but won't restrict them completely from being on the forum. The high case offenders have to register with the county, all of their online accounts, so that they are monitored, and if I ran a forum that had minors on it, I would not typically let them on, unless I am in contact with the county sheriffs office where they live, to make sure that the police knew what exactly was happening with the person online.

 

[ddoesmc]

Wow, interesting topic you brought up. Depends on what he/she was charged with, I'd take the appropriate actions. If it's bad like he/she was a "Sex Offender" I'd ban them on the spot, no questions asked. I understand giving someone else a second chance, but I just don't allow that kind of behavior on my forum. If they were arrested for wreckless driving or something small, I'd keep an eye on them.

 

[CM30]

I tend not to do background checks. But if I did catch someone... I'd only ban if there was a good chance that they'd offend again and that the crime would somehow involve the forum.

 

[John]

That's a really tough question. First off, I don’t generally do research into my members, unless I need to for some reason. However, something like a sex offender registery page would make me put some serious thought into whether or not they should still be a member. Although, I'd never let a felon (especially a sex offender), be a staff member and have access to members' personal information. 😛

 

[Cosmic]

I don't think I'd ban a member for something they did in the real world. If I knew that someone was a threat to members, such as if they had committed a sex crime, I think I'd place them under some kind of permanent restriction. The same goes for real-world scammers too.

I would make exceptions though if I was aware of crimes they committed online, including on other sites, such as if I knew for sure that some had scammed someone else online, and was likely to do so again. In those cases I would strongly consider banning them.

 

[Chester Gorilla]

Unless it's causing trouble on the forum, people's personal lives are not my concern. Their past behavior may come into consideration when moderating their posts, if I knew, but I wouldn't ban them on the spot.

 

[Ashley z]

If they're a registered sex offender, I'd definitely look into it first. Some states will put you on the sex offender list for doing something silly one night when you're drunk such as taking a leak on the wall. I heard a story not too long ago where a guy got put on the sex offenders list for having sex with his girlfriend on the beach (public place).

So it really just depends. I'd love to hear the story behind it before making any decisions. If there was a sex offender who was found guilty of distributing child pornography, soliciting a minor, "grooming" a child, or in any way negatively impacting someone's life, then YES - Full on ban. But if someone made a mistake a long time ago and became a felon and haven't done anything to disrupt my forum, they can feel free to stick around.

 

[Nebulous]

This is something that I can see some debate over. 😛

If you were to get notice of a member on your forum being on probation/parole or even getting a notice of their past records, would you ban them and remove them from your forum? What if they are a registered sex offender, would you allow them on your forum?

Again, IF you knew.

How would you know that the records you've obtained actually belong to whomever is controlling that member account on your forum? Anyone can claim to be anyone on the internet and its easy to spoof personally identifiable things like email addresses and IP addresses.

 

[Ashley z]

This is something that I can see some debate over. 😛

If you were to get notice of a member on your forum being on probation/parole or even getting a notice of their past records, would you ban them and remove them from your forum? What if they are a registered sex offender, would you allow them on your forum?

Again, IF you knew.

How would you know that the records you've obtained actually belong to whomever is controlling that member account on your forum? Anyone can claim to be anyone on the internet and its easy to spoof personally identifiable things like email addresses and IP addresses.

I think for the sake of the argument, we should respond as if we know 100% that they are the person on the records. In reality, you probably wouldn't know 100%, but we'll pretend we do to preserve the discussion of what we would do in that situation.

You are right though Joe. We really wouldn't know and it could lead to some scary accusations/slander.

 

[Nebulous]

This is something that I can see some debate over. 😛

If you were to get notice of a member on your forum being on probation/parole or even getting a notice of their past records, would you ban them and remove them from your forum? What if they are a registered sex offender, would you allow them on your forum?

Again, IF you knew.

How would you know that the records you've obtained actually belong to whomever is controlling that member account on your forum? Anyone can claim to be anyone on the internet and its easy to spoof personally identifiable things like email addresses and IP addresses.

I think for the sake of the argument, we should respond as if we know 100% that they are the person on the records. In reality, you probably wouldn't know 100%, but we'll pretend we do to preserve the discussion of what we would do in that situation.

You are right though Joe. We really wouldn't know and it could lead to some scary accusations/slander.

The only way you could know 100% is if you were in the same room, looking over their shoulder, observing them while being logged into the account and making posts. Do you want me to pretend to do that? 😛

Anyway, I am not a judge and I cannot confirm for sure what someone may have done in the real world. All I can do is observe their conduct on the forum and take appropriate action based on that, if needed.

 

[drucrazy]

I doubt in the first place you would actually find out that the person is a released felon. It's also pretty bias to ban a released felon just because he is a felon.

Only if that person is doing something wrong in which it's brought to my attention, then they may be banned from the forum. Again, this is only if that person decides to do something on my forum against the rules, harrying others, etc. It doesn't matter if you are a wanted felon or not.

 

[Cosmic]

If you know someone is a felon, it is almost certainly because they admitted to it in one way or another. Either you were given evidence which was pretty convincing, you asked the person, and they told you, or their name is in a database, and they had previously told you their name, and you can geolocate their IP to confirm that they are in the same geographic location. There are many instances in which you just can't know for sure, but there are also cases in which you can know for almost certain that that person is who you think they are.

 

[MrDawn]

As if they would tell. Most forums have a rule not to talk about any kind of illegal activity in real life. I've come across one guy who had to do time in prison on a forum and he never talked about it openly, he would have people message him or email him about it.

 

[mikado]

TBH I wouldn't care. My forum(s) are separate from the 'real world' and a lot of people use forums as an escape. For all you know your forum and its community could serve preventative in some sort of relapse in behavior. MOST convicted criminals are just people who made bad mistakes or bad decisions or were selfish at certain times. They're not all evil.