Greetings,

We received correspondence from a website member who is receiving harrassment e-mails from another registered member. How can we downgrade the harrassing classmate's account so that that while their profile will show, they will not be allowed to e-mail any members through our website. It appears that changing this person's membership to a "Guest Member" will not achieve that.

Or, if we have to delete this person entirely, how we can block them from resubmitting their profile, or hijacking another person's account. Our profile page is password protected and the classmate being harassed has her profile set up so that only registered classmates can correspond with her.

And finally, if through your experience, how you have handled the banning of a member (if necessary) in the past.

Thanks! Bill

There is no such thing as a Member Downgrade. But here's a variety of answers for you...

First, I'd try the diplomatic approach and write to the Classmate and politely ask them to stop. If it happens again then threaten to delete their account. And then do it if necessary.

If you have your Classmate Profiles page password protected, then if you end up deleting this person's account you're already protected. Just don't tell the offending Classmate the system password, and they'll never be able to hijack any unused accounts.

In answer to your final question, the best way to handle this may well be our upcoming new Preferences area, which is finally nearing the top of the Task List (we'll be working on this after the launch of the 6 themed designs). The new Preferences area will stop hijacking in its tracks, and thus would also stop hijackers from emailing Classmates with restricted Profiles. More information is available on this thread.