These are very good points. Let me take a shot at addressing them.
sguevar wrote: ↑Wed Aug 31, 2022 10:30 pm
To me you are trying to fix your inconsistency with applying consistency after the fact.
One thing you need to understand from our point of view is that all 3 sites are linked via the archive. This is how Search Voat Forum was constructed and later on how Talk.lol was also built.
The only sites I am concerned with are voat.co, searchvoat.co (the archive) and searchvoat.co/forum (here). Talk.lol has nothing to do with me and I am not concerned with what happens there.
sguevar wrote: ↑Wed Aug 31, 2022 10:30 pm
If a user, who is first and foremost, responsible for his information, posts it either by mistake or by his own free will, that doesn't mean the rest of the community should be held accountable for sharing the information that user posted. Especially on a fairly public forum, that even if we value anonymity it wasn't as if we forced the user to post said information.
I respect that opinion and disagree with it. The rule here is not consistent with your position, even though your position is widely held. Regardless of how the information became public, users here have an obligation not to reveal it on the site (PMs are an exception; just not in the open). I'll come back to why later...
sguevar wrote: ↑Wed Aug 31, 2022 10:30 pm
If the user wants to regain privacy he/she needs to take accountability of his/her actions and act accordingly with making that information private or deleted from the other end. It is not fair to make the community nor the site admin liable for the mistake or foolishness of that user.
Consistency in this case would be - "you fucked up, sorry, but you need to take actions on your side to make that information private from the other end" or "we didn't request for that information from you, you provided it out of your own free will, sorry, please make sure to take the necessary actions to rend it unavailable for others to see from the other end."
Realistically, this is impossible. As ALS put it in chat,
antiliberalsociety wrote:Wed Aug 31, 2022 2:11 am How quickly people forget the old Reddit addage: "The internet is forever".
sguevar wrote: ↑Wed Aug 31, 2022 10:30 pm
Not going ahead and deleting the posts,...
I stand by that decision. I will delete all rule-breaking material I become aware of.
sguevar wrote: ↑Wed Aug 31, 2022 10:30 pm
...threatening the community with a ban for sharing the content that the first user shared...
I regret that and apologise. No one was going to be banned for what had already been done. I became emotional and wanted to strongly express my disapproval.
sguevar wrote: ↑Wed Aug 31, 2022 10:30 pm
...and certainly, but no less important, redefining the concept of dox at convenience of the stupidity of the other user.
I dispute that. From my perspective I have not redefined the concept of dox. I have always considered it to mean posting personally identifying information. Voat.co's ToS says "
You agree to not post anyone's sensitive personal information that relates to that person's real world or online identity." It doesn't say anything about whether that information is already public. (Incidentally, voat.co's ToS includes "sensitive information relating to that person's
online identity" so is actually broader than here.)
sguevar wrote: ↑Wed Aug 31, 2022 10:30 pm
The user wasn't hacked. The content was not acquired in an illegal fashion. The content was acquired by him providing his own first and last name, social media and then a simple google search that is of public domain. Even a 10 year old would know how to follow the crumbs... And not only that, this happened after the user so flagrantly bragged about him knowing how to play the game.
This is all true, but does not have a bearing on the rule. I'll come back to why in a moment...
sguevar wrote: ↑Wed Aug 31, 2022 10:30 pm
He is not a fucking kid, and the concern of the community is that he preys on kids given the degenerate art he so proudly shares. You removing the ability to the community to retroactively inform the rest because of whoever knows what, is NOT CONSISTENT (not shouting btw) in the first place. Two wrongs do not make a right.
This sounds like an argument that the rule shouldn't apply in the special case of "we think we preys on kids". If you have evidence that he does then your duty, for the protection of children, is to report him to the appropriate authorities. But if you
don't have evidence that he does, just suspicion, then I'm afraid you're going to have to limit yourself to flaming and trolling him online.
I will not apply a rule selectively based on a user's reputation (IRL sense). This is not a pedo-hunter forum. Maybe one is needed, but it's not here.
This, I believe, is the heart of the matter:
Why can't I share identifying information about a user who made that information public themselves?
Mainly, because people make mistakes. Suppose, for example, I get drunk or drugged or otherwise incapacitated, maybe even coerced, and as a result I reveal my full name to the world. I wake up with a hangover to a personal catastrophe. The information is out there, it can never be recalled. However, this site is forgiving to the extent that should I choose to stay as a user here, I don't have to worry about people dragging up what I said a year ago and posting my name, address, place of employment, names of family members, favourite holiday destination yada yada (all of which is available from "a simple google (or facebook) search").
Sure, they can do it at some other site. Out of site, out of mind. Doesn't affect what happens here.
You may believe this an unreasonable edge case that probably never happens, or if it does you're a dumbass and you deserve what's coming to you. I don't believe that. I believe that everyone - and I mean
everyone - is entitled to redemption. And I believe that being a dumbass doesn't disqualify you from protection.
And finally, to get meta: I need to design rules that can be enforced without reference to personal point of view. Every rule in the world has edge cases that almost everyone will disapprove of. But it is more valuable to have a rule which is rigid and clear, than to have one which is open to personal interpretation by whomever happens to be in charge today.