By Wes Penre, January 10, 2022
Dear Friends,
Some of you are probably asking yourselves why the Forum is down. It seems like ProBoards, who is the Host Company, took down my forum because of what they consider “abuse.” I highly suspect it’s non-retrievable. It seems like it’s more censorship happening here.
If you go to the forum (https://wespenreproductions.boards.net/), you get the following message:
“In accordance with Section 25(a) of the ProBoards Terms of Service, this forum has been taken offline.”
I have contacted the ProBoards (PB) abuse team to ask for a reason, but they apparently don’t give reasons, usually, according to this: (https://support.proboards.com/…/section-25a-violation ).
This is devastating for all of us. There was so much invaluable information there. Thus far, I think this is what happened: someone who saw our info clicked this button: “If you feel these sites have violated the TOS, please click the ‘report abuse’ button at the bottom of those forums.” Then, the Abuse team looked into it, and it says on the website that I just linked here to Proboards Support (above) that people should get a warning, but if they don’t, it’s usually because the Abuse team considers it impossible to resolve the issue and deletes it wiithout warning. I might or might not know more after the abuse team has responded.
I will of course keep everyone updated as soon as I know more.
If worse comes to worse, I hope you’ll all follow me to a new forum, which I will set up ASAP.
If someone knows a good platform for us, please email me back here! ProBoard was free of charge, and it would of course be best if we could find a new platform that’s free, but on the other hand, it’s probably less safe, too. So, even if you only know of pay-forum, give me those tips, too. I’ll look into everything...
Thank you for your patience!
I wouldn’t jump to conclusions and make it sensational. It probably is not censorship, really. It’s likely a violation of the terms of service, like they said. Here are their listings for “abuse”. Scroll down to Adult Content. Read below..
“ProBoards has strict policies regarding what content is and is not acceptable on our service. If you believe there has been a violation of one of our policies, we invite you to report this information to our Abuse Team for investigation.
Please select the type of issue you would like to report:
I was banned from a forum
ProBoards forum owners and moderators are within their rights to block your access to any ProBoards forum. Please see section 10 of the ProBoards Terms of Service for further details. ProBoards does not reverse bans put in place by forum owners or moderators.
I’m still waiting for my forum account to be approved
ProBoards is the web host for forums created using our service. We do not manage each individual forum, and therefore we do not handle approving new registered accounts at forums we host. Please contact the forum owner or moderators with any questions you have about approving your account.
Copyright Violations
We do not allow the use of third-party copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright holder. To report a violation of copyright, please read our Digital Millennium Copyright Act Policy.
Trademark Issues
ProBoards does not permit unauthorized trademark use where there is intent to deceive or where such use may cause confusion. If you believe a forum or user is utilizing your trademark in a way that affects your rights, please report it to us.
Report a trademark violation
Impersonation
ProBoards prohibits impersonation. If your business is being impersonated, please submit a Trademark Issues report. If you are an individual being impersonated, please submit a report of impersonation.
**** (THIS ONE) > Adult Content
ProBoards is a family-friendly service. This means that we do not allow the posting of adult material such as pornography.
Report adult content
Harassment / Violent Threats
We strictly prohibit the posting of harassing content, including but not limited to threats of violence. If a threat has been made against you which you feel may be credible, we encourage you to first and foremost contact your local police department.
You can also report a harassment violation
Privacy Issues
We do not allow the posting of information that violates your privacy. This includes private numbers, email addresses, physical addresses, credit card numbers, and social security numbers.
If your private information has been posted, please submit a privacy violation report.
Illegal Content
ProBoards strictly prohibits the posting of content that violates the law.
Report illegal content”
__________________________________________
**** Your forum recently had a post that included the image of a naked female. That would fall under the adult content violation because all forums must be suitable for 13-year old’s and family-friendly. They probably consider that type of post/image inappropriate. Someone on your forum could have also posted material that was protected by the DMCA policy, but the person who owns that media would have had to be the one to report the abuse. Since abuse can only be reported by registered members of ProBoard, that is unlikely and a huge coincidence in timing, if so. It’s likely the naked image was responsible. It must have offended someone. Just a guess.
forum suggestions:
https://www.forumotion.com/
https://www.createaforum.com/
You can also add a forum plugin to your wordpress sites (either this one or your WPP blog) with bbPress.
https://bloggingwizard.com/create-wordpress-forum/
Putting links on your forum that lead to WEBSITES which violate Proboards terms of service will also get your forum deleted. If that is the reason, it would be hard to know which link/website got you in trouble. There were a lot of external links. A moderation team could help with that problem moving forward, if you don’t have time to personally check those websites for violations.
I just saw something about that, too, on the ProBoards Support page. Someone mentioned it as one reason why a site would suddenly just be deleted. That’s a megajob to moderate when there are many posts, but if that is what it is, and they are so strict with that, it needs to be done (by having more moderators). Now, I can’t sign up on ProBoards again, but something to be aware of in the future on other platforms.
I got a reply from ProBoards, and they fail to tell me why they deleted the forum:
———————-
“Hello,
ProBoards has exercised its right to terminate service to this forum per section 25(a) of the Terms of Service. For more information about ProBoards’ policies, please see our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines:
Terms of Service: http://www.proboards.com/tos
Community Guidelines: http://www.proboards.com/community_guidelines
We are sorry, but we are not able to provide any further information.
ProBoards Abuse Department
http://www.proboards.com/
Terms of Service: http://www.proboards.com/tos
Community Guidelines: http://www.proboards.com/community_guidelines
ProBoards Abuse Team
http://www.proboards.com“
Sorry to read that. Looks like you won’t get an answer. Of course, there is always the possibility that it was *health* related information, too. It could have been anything, to be honest. Good luck with finding your new direction. Sometimes, what feels like an obstacle is a necessary door we need to step through when one cycle has been completed and it’s time to begin something anew. You already know that, though. Chin up 🙂 All the best.
Yes, it could have been anything. I am looking into opening a new forum on another platform as we speak. I will keep everyone informed…
🥲
Looks like the 25a section states that they can delete a forum for literally whatever reason they please, sad indeed, with the amount of information gathered on those forums.
Yes, that’s the section they refer to. They need not and will not elaborate on why they delete entire forums without any warnings first. I’m not the only one who’s been subjected to this.
did you check on wayback machine if there have saved something there
did you check at wayback machine website they may have something saved there, not sure how is it doen
Yes, I did. They only save the main pages, not the posts themselves, unfortunately.
I’m so sorry!! I will follow you wherever you may go. I do not know of any forums that you could use.
Thank you, skye power!
I am sorry this happened to your forum…I will follow you where you go next. As always keep up the amazing work ……
Thank you, Drew!
I cannot understand most of the links posted in the that forum was to youtube, bitchute, rumble etc which was nothing wrong, unless any material which had copyright was posted in the Forum. Lately, there were sensitive information posted there which was interesting and knowledgeable, but it could be one of the reasons for this termination. I can’t wait to be part of the group as no other place to hang out as most people are brain dead out there and cannot have any discussions with them
Is it true I have to pay £8 per month in order to join your new Forum?
@Anonymous. I don’t know who said that. It’s false. We have not decided yet how we will administrate the new forum. But I will post here on the blog and on Facebook all the details when we are set up (which will hopefully be VERY soon) and have all the details organized. Thanks for bringing this up, though!
create a forum here… there are many free templates to connect to wordpress sites
here are two good platforms
https://www.forum2x2.ru/
https://9bb.ru/
Oh, boy, I am so sorry! In fact I was just checking in this evening to see what was new on the forum and got that warning page so immediately went to search that you were still active here. It’s getting more insane on planet earth as the days go by. oxJulia