I want to ask a question that I have not seen asked before in the administrator's forums:

What do you do about a classmate/classmates that use foul language on the website? I have a few that use it in our Message Forum and when they do I noticed that we lose participation from other classmates for days afterwards. Does any one else have this problem and if so what do you do about it? Our graduating class are 47 and 48 year olds and I would hate to have to send them to detention (so to speak). HELP!

Dawn

Hi Dawn-
We had an incident of a classmate bad mouthing our principal about an incident that happened over 40 years ago! We are in our mid-50's! His remarks were really upsetting. We asked him to remove the comments and told him we did not set up our website to use as a forum for these types of remarks. He did apologize and removed them.
I would do the same on your site. If they continue you delete them which ban's them from your site. Would anyone really "miss" someone like that on your site anyway?? That person is not an asset.
If they want to talk trash let them do it in a chat room somewhere else.
Good luck!

Hi Dawn

Its your site, so its up to you to simply tell them that foul language is unacceptable. Tell them that it is your responsibility to ensure that everyone is comfortable on the site, and that the foul language must stop.
Then, if they don't comply.... well there's one guy who's now missing from our site. We just deleted him.
The longer you wait to tell them the more acceptable they believe it is to curse.

Hope this helps,
Don

I had someone that was using profanity on their profile; but luckily for her she had to use the good sense to go back in the next day and retract some of her statements. I thought I would have to go in and reprimand her for using vile language. All you can really do is politely state that the language is offensive to many and to please refrain from that. But as administrator of your site; you should just delete offensive language or topics that one posts. I think for the most part; your group will respect this and it should solve the problem.
Brad,
is it positive for you as the web designer to automatically bounce out any messages containing foul language. I know some companies scan incoming email and the receiver will receive a message saying that a incoming message was bounced out due to offensive language. How big of a deal is it to do this?

I will concur that I would let the person know that it is not acceptable and to remove the language. I will have to confirm, but I think the admin can delete messages. I have gone as far as letting someone know that they will be removed from the site if it continues. Maintaining a positive/healthy environment is too important to the "cause."

I would not be in favor of the site bouncing out foul language. I have seen it on other sites and it becomes too difficult to decide what is foul language and what is not (this is different for many.) These are our sites, with adults, most of which know the difference between right and wrong. We need to monitor them and correct any situation that creates a problem.

Thank you all for your advise and quick response to my problem. It's so nice having this forum for us administators to find answers to.

Thanks again,
Dawn

Yes, as administrator you can edit or delete other member's comments from the Message Forum or from their profiles. I was requested to edit a member's profile by her because she has sustained brain damage and has a difficult time now with spelling and grammar. I have had to delete two inappropriate messages from the Message Forum and I explained why to each person.

One thing that I think would help a lot, especially with larger sites, is to put verbage in your auto letter that goes out to each new member saying that profanity and inappropriate messages are not allowed. I haven't done that myself because we only have 140 members and whenever someone joins, I send them my own personal welcome note and let them know that we keep discussions positive and don't discuss controversial topics on the Forum that can get people's ire up. I don't want to lose members over stupidity. If they want to talk in private messages back and forth, that's their business. We've only had minor profanity in our forum and I don't worry about that. We're all adults.

Good luck!

Retha

Since posting that question, I have posted the ettiquette that should be used while in our Message Forum. Here is what I posted and it is under my How To Use This Website. I also sent an email to all classmates refering them to it:

FORUM ETIQUETTE
The MESSAGE FORUM IS INTENDED for reconnecting with old friends and making new ones. All of us on the Reunion Committee welcome and encourage your use of this forum to share memories and stories as well as providing updates on your lives since leaving Central High School and the Shenandoah County.

Please use good judgment when posting messages. Personal attacks, political and religious messages, as well as inappropriate language will be removed immediately.

Since my original post in April, I have not had any problems. The one classmate that I had the problem with actually kids me when a bunch of us are in the chatroom. She always says, "Be careful what you say in here or Dawn is gonna get ya!". It's nice we can laugh about it now.

Dawn