Concerning Meets

Hey peeps,

After a quick review of the chatlogs it has become apparent that the latest meet thread is causing a stir amongst some of you who feel it's unfair you cannot participate in one. As somebody who never went I am going to explain how this original meet came about and just exactly what we are saying what can and cannot happen with meets.

First off, if you have problems with how things are done then you come and speak to the staff directly about it. There is no excuse to go into chat or any area of the forum screaming "anarchy". You would be surprised by the amount of work that the staff need to do to keep the forum safe, and they aren't about to go ruining that by allowing an obvious flaw to slip through the net (by that I mean meet threads).

Now, I was perfectly aware that a meet was occuring between staff and one or two members. This meet was not even organised anywhere on the forum (I know this because I was asked to go along when the organising was being sorted). The meet happened and everything went smoothly, as you all saw. The problem seems to be that this thread has been posted and it has all pushed ideas into your head about going to these meets.

The rules for these meets are simple:
1) They are organised via PM for Full Members.
2) A member of staff either organises it or attends (at the very least we need to be aware of it).
3) No details are posted on the forum. This includes information of when, where, why, who etc. You CAN post that a meet is taking place and that they can PM you for details, but that is it.

Everybody understand? It's really very simple.

Sooo, now we get to the bit that some of you think it's one rule for you peeps and another for us. It is not like that at all. We are aware now why it may have looked like that, and as a result the thread was locked. However, we are not saying you can't meet. You just have to do the exact same things that they did when this meet was created. There really is no favoritism, special treatment, whatever going on here.

These security features are in place so that EC can remain online. You can moan about them until you're blue in the face but don't think that by moaning at us we're suddenly going to fold. We have NO CHOICE but to implement them otherwise the owners pull EC. If we gave into your demands and changed the security here then you wouldn't be able to moan about the security anymore because EC would no longer exist. I am sure most of you would rather have strict security over having no forum at all. We aren't willing to jeaporadise the whole site for the sake of a few annoying security features. Yes, they suck. Yes, they limit you. Yes, they create lots of work for the staff. Without them EC does not exist so just put up with them like the rest of us do.

Nowwwww, I hope this is the last I'll hear about this meet favoritism malarcky because it's suddenly becoming an annoying echo in my ear. Any problems with it then come and complain to me, not in chat or to other members. That solves nothing.

If anybody has any questions or comments then feel free to post them here. I promise not to bite your head off (and I mean the one on your shoulders, incase any of the males are worred).

 

They are needed because of what the owners asked for. This wasn't just them saying "I want it" though, the situation was a lot more complicated than that.

An older member was found to be making innappropriate contact with members, and when we were aware of it the situation had already got way out of hand. I'm not going to reveal who or any of the background details of it as it's a matter already dealt with, but it was something that required the owners to know about. The owners have their own legal team (being a company and all) who informed us that the company would be liable for anything that happens to members organised on the forum.

Originally the owners wished for all communication to be cut off for all members, including private messages and the chatroom. The staff did not want this at all because we knew it would guarantee a death sentence for the forum. The owners, who I believe also got this approved by their legal team, came up with the current system we have.

This wasn't just their lawyers being overly anal either. Paul also spoke to somebody about the legal aspect of the situation and got the same results as the owners. If these were not set up and maintained then the owners would pull EC to avoid risking any liability to the company aswell as putting members at risk.

I know it may look like they are covering themselves, which they are perfectly entitled to do, but the people who maintain these security features aren't doing it for their benefit. We actually saw how out of hand the situation got, how close it was to becoming extremely serious and just how easy it was for it all to go unnoticed by us. It was only sheer luck we spotted it early as any later and it could have been too late. That is why everything here is monitored so that we have a record of it, and any private communication between members is only done once the majority of staff members have reviewed the members in question and approved them (application process).

The features are very much like Big Brother, but our intentions for doing it are for everybody elses safety. The forum gives off a vibe that people here are fantastic and great, but sadly there are a select few we have to get rid of because they just want to exploit those who are comfortable here and feel danger doesn't exist.

 

Hmmm, I don't like cheese. You'll need to do better than that. *nods*

...and yet your user title says:

 

It depends really. If you are organising it on MSN or off the site then it's not essential that you do (there is no harm in doing so) but if it is organised on the site then yes. Chances are we will spot it anyway when we are monitoring the site, but we still need to know about it if it's being done on EC. We would also encourage peeps to tell us even if it isn't organised on the site just so we know your whereabouts if anything did go wrong, but it's not something we can step in and take action on if you don't.

I'm not going to patronise you all by saying you should all meet in a public place and let your parents know etc, but obviously everybody should make sure that they have stuck to this and not just hope everything goes well.