What Do You Do?

[juststeven]

When your own staff copy things off you forum.

Happened to me, won't mention names, there is no point as, not trying to brag but my forum is better than there's so I'm not worried about it been bigger than mine though it has now made it self look unique and different when in fact I was the brains behind the idea.

 

[kavin]

Just warn them through PM. You shouldn't allow people to copy your Forum even if they are staff.

 

[D]

 

[juststeven]

Really?

@Kavin Yeah I warned them sort of, more of my shout at them in a super long pm.

 

[D]

Well if somebody stole unique ideas off you, yeah of course ban them. You don't need staff who steal your ideas. 🙂

 

[Branden]

I agree with ShadyX. Ban them. Don't let people get onto your forum as staff and then steal from it.

 

[AnAccount]

Wow, it's one thing if a random person copies your stuff, but your own STAFF? I'd never been through that before! Oofda! If that ever did happen to me, I'd probably send a friendly warning through either PM or email, and if they kept at it despite the warnings, then I'd go for a demotion. But if they kept at it despite the demotion, I'd probably go for a straight-out ban.

 

[Gimgak]

I agree with ShadyX. Ban them. Don't let people get onto your forum as staff and then steal from it.

Ban them? That's a bit crazy. Remove them from staff yes, but don't make yourself seem like a nazi admin. It's just an idea, doesn't matter if its the best idea in the world if the execution sucks, which is likely the case on their site if they copied you so you don't have much to worry about.

 

[AnAccount]

Yeah, I wouldn't ban them straight off the bat. I would do like I said in my original post and go from there. We always go on a case by case basis anyway.

 

[D]

Ban them? That's a bit crazy.

Not really, when you hire someone they are in a position of trust on your forum. It's 10x as bad as a random user stealing an idea as staff have been hired to make the forum a better place, by stealing your ideas before you put them into practice is nothing short of Industrial espionage.

 

[Fergal]

When your own staff copy things off you forum...

What did they copy, e.g. did they copy and paste text, copy ideas or something else?

 

[juststeven]

When your own staff copy things off you forum...

What did they copy, e.g. did they copy and paste text, copy ideas or something else?

Services, theme, so it's not copyrighted but it's certainly trying to make it seem like my forum when my forum is under maintenance so people will think I stole their idea which will piss me off.

 

[AnAccount]

When your own staff copy things off you forum...

What did they copy, e.g. did they copy and paste text, copy ideas or something else?

Services, theme, so it's not copyrighted but it's certainly trying to make it seem like my forum when my forum is under maintenance so people will think I stole their idea which will piss me off.

Wow, you never said you were doing behind the scenes stuff, unless I missed that! If it happened when the board is still under construction, then yeah, a definite demotion would certainly be called for in my book.

 

[Zuinag]

I'd tell them politely to stop. If it continues I would demote them and tell them again to stop and that their actions are not right. He/She doesn't stop? I'd ban them. I would always give him/her a warning or two first.

 

[Nebulous]

I'd tell them politely to stop. If it continues I would demote them and tell them again to stop and that their actions are not right. He/She doesn't stop? I'd ban them. I would always give him/her a warning or two first.

Asking them to "stop" means what?
Remove all copied stuff? Leave all copied stuff alone but will no longer copy from this point on?

Anyway, a few years ago, I had a staff member (on a previous forum) pretty much copy and paste my whole forum and use all our ideas. I felt a little betrayed & I demoted the person from the staff, but I didn't ban him.
You cannot really ban someone for what they do outside. Only for what they do ON your forum. At least thats how I feel.