Re: Posting Personal Information

tl;dr version if you're busy: R2Pleasent has posted his own personal information in the past and made it public knowingly, while both FireZ and Govind have stated that WHOIS information is public. I should not be banned under the current rule, which states "but posting information such as addresses, personal MSNs, photographs, etc. of other members without their permission will result in a 1 month ban." If you want to get super technical, the information under the WHOIS link was confirmed by R2Pleasent to be his mother's (besides his name, which he has made public) and not Will's, so it would not even hold as a Sythe member's personal information, if you consider public information private.

Ban Reason:

Argument:
WHOIS information is not personal information. When R2Pleasent registered his domain, he was clearly notified by the company that the WHOIS information would be completely public, unless he purchases privacy protection. Therefore, posting a link to the public directory is in fact not posting personal information. Since it can be looked up by domain, it is not necessary for anyone to have any personal evidence of R2Pleasent to find the link, and therefore, it cannot be compared to posting a Facebook link, or other directly personal information. Think of it this way: when you post someone's name, they can look it up and access more personal information from directories, but otherwise, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack. However, when a person publically posts a piece of information that can be traced to them (such as a domain), anyone can easily access this information.

Here is a direct quote as you register, from a popular domain website, GoDaddy.com:




Here is a quote from Govind, in regards to him directly posting someone's WHOIS information in the past:

It is only fair that I can assume an administrator knows the Sythe rules well enough, to where when he makes a statement like that, I can assert that it will be fine to post a link to someone's WEBSITE'S PUBLIC WhoIS information. I understand that many moderators were bothered by the R2Pleasent/RSUltimate drama, but that's no grounds for an unfair ban.

In regards to harassment:
I was in no way involved in the actions by third parties, such as the alleged ordering of pizzas to the address listed under R2Pleasent's WHOIS information. I did in no way condone such behavior.


Please, it's common sense. Anyone can go look up R2Pleasent.com, Sythe.org, or RSUltimate.com. Richard respects his information, so he has purchased WHOIS protection. R2Pleasent obviously did not, and he is using it as an excuse to take out a competitor for a month. I do respect my privacy as well, but since I am a verified LLC, I must keep my information showing. If R2Pleasent were to post a link to my WHOIS, it would be completely public, and I would not hold him accountable for harassment caused by third parties.


Precedent:
While I cannot pull the links, I reported members posting my personal information directly, and all that was done about it is the information being removed, and the members got away scott-free. These member(s) included Shall Skill and Deathsnova. You can check my spam reports for evidence.

Govind posting someone else's WHOIS with no repercussions: http://www.sythe.org/showthread.php?t=382048

Link to R2Pleasent posting his full name. If he respected his privacy, he would not do this:
http://www.sythe.org/showpost.php?p=2853157&postcount=17

Link to R2Pleasent posting his GMAIL registered under his WHOIS info:
http://mobile.sythe.org/showpost.php?p=10964667&postcount=7863


If you want to uphold my ban, that is fine, but please don't be selective with the rules, and apply it across the board, while being more specific, such that public business records are also considered as leaking private information. I would appreciate it if Richard could take a look at this if he already hasn't, as I'm sure he could agree with me that a business owner should be responsible enough to protect his information with WHOIS privacy if it's that important to him.


Thanks,
Grave


P.S. I would like to add that FireZ unbanned me after realizing I was not involved in the prank calls, and stating that, and I quote: "whois is public info." I do understand that the staff revisited the issue, but please see it from my perspective.

 

It doesn't matter that it is public. The rule is very clear.

"posting information such as addresses.... will result in a 1 month ban". We don't want people's addresses posted on the site, period.

 

Denied.