I am an administrator on a famous band's website. Some people say they are being harrased by a certain person in a private message on my board. Can they take a screenshot of the harrasement without the other persons permission to use as evidence and show me so that I can moderate this person? Or.. will it be a violation of privacy?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Greetings SpooX,

We cannot comment on the nature of, nor give any advice on any legal ramifications.

However, it would appear that this would simply be a matter best addressed by your TOS (Terms of Service). The bottom line is that most sites consider all content (posts included whether private or public) to be the rightful property of the community owner (the person or entity footing the bill).

The TOS is also an excellent place for describing acceptable use & moderation procedures. This isn't necessarily due to a pressing legal need, but simply to provide expectations to your member base and a set of guidlines for handling infringments.

Now, that being said, keep in mind that there are ways to simply block private messages from unruly members, which may be perfectly adequate for your needs. This is done by clicking "My Space" -> "Groupee Community" -> "Preferences" -> "Private Message Options" which allows selection of who may send private messages. If this is set to "Only Allow My Buddies to Send Me PMs", then you'll need to define some Buddies via "My Space" -> "Groupee Community" -> "Buddies".

Hopefully this will be of some assistance. Regardless, if you continually receive reports about a certain member, it may be worth while pulling said member aside (virtualy speaking) and inquiring as to what's going on.

Regards,

Hi SpooX,

Your best bet is to have the user report the private message to you (the admin) directly. From the private message page, there will be a small yellow icon with an exclamation point in it just like the icon shown in forum posts. That icon is used to report unwanted/unruly private messages to administrators. Once a user has done this, you will have access to view the entire private message to determine if there is indeed abuse occurring.

In your control panel, go to:
Groupee Community -> Members -> Private Messaging -> Reported PMs (tab)

From this view, you will be able to search for reported private messages on your site. Additionally, you will be able to set up notifications of new reported private messages.

For more information, see the owner's manual:
http://www.groupee.com/support/docs/community/owners_guide.doc