Hello guest,
I'm Lonhro and quite frankly I'm a bit sick of all the confusion over what is considered harassment and what isn't. Savannah, just_kawaii, is as well.
Please, read past the quote, that's just the beginning of the page. As you can see, I'm not claiming it as mine, just the rest, and some of the posts.
If I directed you here from your board proclaiming someone as a scammer, I'm doing this to make sure you don't get frozen for harassment -- you've probably had enough done to your account already.

The Neopian Times Editorial from the 2nd day of Celebrating, Y7, Issue 218 addressed the issue as follows:

On the boards, when someone makes a board containing someone elses username in the title, is that harrasment? What if they aren't saying anything bad about the person? Or what if they are saying nice things about the person or whatever? I think it's annoying when on the boards, if someone has another username in the title, people start posting "reported for harrasment". ~ crazy_cat86
We're in the same boat as you! We find it quite annoying as well, especially since most of the harassment reports are simply the result of petty arguments and do nothing but prevent the Monitors from responding more quickly to real complaints. Simply posting someone's username is definitely not harassment.

To help those who are confused, here are some examples of what is and isn't harassment:

- NOT HARASSMENT: Someone simply disagrees with something you've said and you don't like it.
- HARASSMENT: Someone disagrees with you and begins to berate you and insult your intelligence.

- NOT HARASSMENT: Someone posts a warning that a particular user may be a scammer and to be wary.
- HARASSMENT: Someone posts that a particular user is a scammer and that everyone should report him and send him nasty Neomails until he is frozen.

I took this to some people on the Avatar/Neosig chat board the other night, and found some surprising results. The boards I visited were divided into two groups, the 'it's harassment, read the editorial' and the 'it's NOT harassment, read the editorial'. Despite already having done so, I read the editorial, quoted above, and discovered what I thought caused the difference.
I had simply taken it for granted that the key words would be noticed and observed. These words are may be and is when referring to posts on the boards about scammers.

One board I visited began an eye-opening discussion I feel you should see.

Apologies for the choppiness of the images, Savannah tried to save as much room as possible, rather quickly. Anyway, the above discussion took place mainly between just_kawaii, marthaclone and forsaken_dreamer (who all gave consent to be shown here.)

Another result of this editorial is an increase in the number of suspicious feelings. Another board, where the original poster boasts "I never put the word scammer and the username in the same sentence, therefore I never accused - it was a warning" was quick to "scratch heads" and comment that the one person who labelled the board 'harassment' sounded like the 'scammer.' This behaviour has not only been seen there, but in numerous boards where innocent, helpful Neopians are being all but accused of being 'in on it.

Now, many people are still saying they don't get it. A warning, as stipulated by TNT is ok, but by warning, it means that there should be reference to a "possible" scammer, never an outright accusation. A WARNING says that a person may be a scammer -- which is not harassment, as the editorial says. An ACCUSATION says that a person is a scammer -- harassment.

Someone on yet another board said this when referring to it's title being harassment: "Ok it should have been re-phrased by the board poster that people should be wary as the person that KEPT the other persons FQD did not give it back and is a POSSIBLE scammer..."
I think that's it about it.

Well, before I'm off, here's some proof that this page has done something. I'm glad to have helped you, Hikari=)

Link Back.


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