They were threatening legal action against the admins and posters on the board because they didn't like what they were reading.

On what grounds? Some people threaten legal action if you look at them cross-eyed; doesn't mean you have to take them seriously.

And again, I'm not sure requiring registration would have done Thing One to discourage someone like that.

You'd have to lock all the threads, then, really. Because the show threads go off-topic. And it's mostly Natter, but Natter can lead to more personal stuff.

No, I'm more concerned that we had to handle the response backchannel because we didn't want them seeing the debate on what to do about it.

you can never tell *what* someone posts that might make an insane lurker decide legal action is necessary.

This, too. I mean, someone could post a link to a fan site and say something mildly critical about it, and we could be off to the races if the person who ran the site was a)reading and b)overly sensitive. Threatening legal action is kind of the grown-up equivalent of calling in mommy for certain people.

If it's a question of protecting the board itself, would a statement to the effect of "Buffistas.org is not responsible for what individual posters say" do as much good?

No, I'm more concerned that we had to handle the response backchannel because we didn't want them seeing the debate on what to do about it.

Oh, right. I grok.

If it's a question of protecting the board itself, would a statement to the effect of "Buffistas.org is not responsible for what indivoidual posters say" do as much good?

We've done that.

I'm more concerned that we had to handle the response backchannel because we didn't want them seeing the debate on what to do about it.

Understood.

But if something like that did happen again, would we want it to be up for a week's worth of discussion while we figured out what to do? ISTM that, if it's not posted here, it SHOULD be handled backchannel or in the forum where it comes up.

Mails were few, but the fact that it was there did help in terms of cyber-molesters, I think. It's existence was a huge sign that read, "Adults are watching, and we'll crush you like a bug if you try to hurt these kids, you fucker."

Sounds like what the admins email account is already used for (on occasion). As an admin, I've no problem with acting as an impersonal advocate.

it SHOULD be handled backchannel or in the forum where it comes up.

I agree. At the risk of seeming elitist, I didn't see the need to bring up that particular issue in front of all registered users.

t edit Plus! How do we know whether the folks threatening legal action are registered or not? Maybe they've used a different email to send their threats. Again, a false sense of security is worse than keeping things open or in backchannel, IMO.

If it's a question of protecting the board itself, would a statement to the effect of "Buffistas.org is not responsible for what indivoidual posters say" do as much good?

We've done that.

I can't find it. We talked about it briefly here:

ita "Bureaucracy 1: Like Kafka, Only Funnier" Mar 22, 2003 11:47:49 am EST

but it looks like we got sidetracked, and never followed through.

I have to say, whenever I've used email--and it's been a personal email to a stompie's own account, response has been swift, even if said response was just "we know, we're on it."

I know it's more of a hassle, but I still think backchannel is the way to go if a discussion needs to be not-public. If the admins don't want to handle things without a discussion, then we need an offsite account to discuss. But I don't think the login should be available to anyone who a)isn't registered here, and b)doesn't ask for it.

If that's exclusionary, so be it. I think the overwhelming majority of posters don't concern themselves with the nuts and bolts of board maintenance, either mechanical or ethical. And if they choose not to participate, there's no reason to disseminate a login/password. Those who are motivated to take part can apply for login. Is there a non-admin-intensive way to do that?