My Apologies

[Ted S]

http://www.scubaboard.com/faq.php?faq=tos_items#faq_scubaboard_tos

www.Scubaboard.com retains all rights and privileges to its user and other data bases. Spam, data mining or recruiting our membership is expressly forbidden. We are dedicated to keeping our users' information private and will never sell it to a third party.

.....

The moderators have the last word in any dispute and are responsible for interpreting the TOS. At their discretion, when they deem it in the best interest of Scubaboard, they may edit or delete posts and threads, and ban users.

 

[got4boyz]

http://www.scubaboard.com/faq.php?faq=tos_items#faq_scubaboard_tos

what is data mining? How is anyone suppose to know what that means. I certainly wasn't recruiting anybody to anything. I was asking simple questions.

 

[ShoalDiverSA]

Data mining, in the context of SB, is using the Board as a market research tool for the development or introduction of new products. Well, that's how I interpret it, anyway. For an "official" definition, go to dictionary.com. They talk about mining a database for information. The members of SB form a database of well-informed scuba opinion and experience. Utilising this knowledge for commercial gain is against the TOS. If you are planning to release your invention into the public domain, that may be a different story (though how do you prove your good intentions?).

Just a quick comment: The more I read this thread (...moving on to page 2...), the less it looks like an apology.

Cheers,

Andrew

 

[Phaethon]

Just a quick comment: The more I read this thread (...moving on to page 2...), the less it looks like an apology.

Beth did apologise, but now seems to me to be simply and quite reasonably trying to understand whatever rule(s) she broke.

I must say that 1) I can't imagine thay many people read through the TOS word by word anyway, like software licence agreements - you get the general idea and then click the agree button. and 2) "Data Mining" is not a term that is in common English useage outside of Computing and IT fields and perhaps some real English examples of what Data Mining encompasses would help people like Beth, who read the TOS but are not necessarily fluent in "Techie", to better understand the board's rules. A definition of Data Mining as "discovery of useful summaries of data", with some thought, can be seen to incorporate market research, but to expect everyone in the general population to put the effort into looking up every unfamiliar term in the TOS and then incorporating abstract concepts like 'members form a database" is a little mcuh and I don't blame Beth at all for being confused; more so I applaude her for trying to understand and get clarification.

Professional Data Miners will recognise the term in TOS and understand it, perhaps, to mean what you intend, but I think, in the absence of a plain-English TOS, a little forebearance is in order when someone who appears to be an ordinary member falls foul...

Just MHO.

Cheers,

K.

 

[Ted S]

It is well known that not everyone reads everything they sign and indeed when it comes to a 25 page legal agreement on windows xp there may be a fair argument that reading it is simply not possible, however, our TOS is just over a page, less if you use Microsoft’s agreement font size for the text. A page is not a lot to read and again while some terms may be hard to understand for some users we have tried to present things in a manner that is rather easy for our average non-technical users to grasp but clearly not everything is written in laymen’s terms. It is my belief that ScubaBoard users are rather intelligent and as history has shown us, there have only been a few data mining issues over the last 4 years thus this aspect of our TOS is not greatly detailed – Why? Because it would lengthen a document that we want to keep short.

The violation that occurred here in this context was not particularly bad and no one is being blamed for not understanding a term, however, it is your responsibility as a user to keep yourself familiar with our rules and to ask any questions you may have. Our TOS, like everything on this board has evolved over time and will continue to evolve; as new issues come up we add descriptions and change policies to better fit the needs of this community and I encourage you to make your suggestions, express your ideas and if something seems confusing, don’t hesitate to ask us.

Thank you.

 

[Walter]

To be fair, I believe Beth did offer a sincere apology for violating a rule she didn't understand. I also believe the management of this board understands Beth's sincere apology and is being helpful in assisting her in understanding this rule. I don't think it's helpful to be trying to stir things. Both parties are being very sincere, understanding and helpful.

 

[The Chairman]

I too believe that she offered a sincere apology and is simply trying to figure things out. If we had felt that she was aggresively trying to circumvent the TOS, then we would have handled this situation differently.

We are committed to keeping manufacturer's "paws" off of our board. Some manufacturers use polls such as this to find a target audience that they can "spam" without creating a stir. If we let small ones get through (which I am sure that we missed some somewhere) then we are almost obligated to let the big ones through as well. We are currently finding that many are trying to get around the TOS by putting others up to do their "dirty work" (Check out Say "NO" to Spam). We don't appreciate the attempts and will do all we can to get individuals and buisnesses to play fairly.

 

[chrpai]

Pete-

The Say No to Spam link doesnt work for me. Also I've read the TOS and I can't find a reference to what is talked about here.

 

[ShoalDiverSA]

I don't think it's helpful to be trying to stir things.

Then allow me to apologise sincerely for misinterpreting Beth's posts.

:1poke: > :whack: > :Kissy:

Regards,

Andrew

 

[The Chairman]

BTW, we found out about this from concerned users who reported the threads in question. Please use that "Report this Post to a Moderator" link whenever you feel that a post is questionable (flames, or commercial, etc.)

All such questions (and apologies) are appropriately handled in the site support forum. That has always been the case, and will continue to be.