solved Disabling User and Maintaining Their Content

I'm looking for feedback on whether the solution proposed below is the correct use-case for our need. [Maybe there is an easier way, and I just don't know it yet!]

Here is the situation.

We have members who have left the site (some for cause). However, the content they posted is still germane and we want it accessible to all users. Ditto for their profiles. What we don't want is for the user to be able to log back into the site, delete their content, or change it.


In NING, disabling the profile did not hide the user's content. However, in JamRoom, the corresponding control is to make the profile inactive. In JamRoom, making the profile inactive also nerfs its content, by design.* We need another solution.

*Note: there is a bug in the current design where this is not happening, however, they do intend to fix that. See @brian posts in: User Privacy Settings Don't Seem to Have Right Descriptions [https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/forum/using-jamroom/25856/user-privacy-settings-dont-seem-to-have-right-descriptions].

PROPOSED SOLUTION

Create a new Quota (let's call it "Suspended for Cause Quota")

Apply the following permissions:

- Activity Timeline - UNcheck all options and make item "Approval on Create and Update"
- Group Support - UNcheck all options and make item "Approval on Create and Update"
- Image Galleries - Check group by Gallery and Allowed on Profile, and make item "Approval on Create and Update"
- Image Support - Use default settings.
- NING Notes - UNcheck all options and make item "Approval on Create and Update"
- Page Creator - UNcheck all options and make item "Approval on Create and Update"
- Profile Blog - Check "Allow on Profile" and make item "Approval on Create and Update"
- Profile Events - UNcheck "Attending Button", check "Allowed on Profile" and make item "Approval on Create and Update"
- Profile Forum - Check "Allow Profile Forum" and UNcheck all other options.
- System Core - Use Default Settings.
- User Accounts - Uncheck all options, Sign-up Method = Admin Validation.
- User Comments - Check "Allowed on Profile", UNcheck all other options and make item "Approval on Create and Update"
- User Profile: Global - visible to everyone, UNcheck "Show Privacy Options".
- Video Support - Default Settings with "Approval on Create and Update"
- YouTube Support - Check "Allowed on Profile" and UNcheck all other options and make item "Approval on Create and Update".


Adjust Communication

via Admin > Tools > Profile
~ Change Profile Quota to "Suspended for Cause Quota"
~ Change Password

via Admin > Tools > Account
~ Confirm profile is in the Standard User group.

via Admin > Tools > Notifications
~ Change all radio buttons to "Do Not Notify"


Retain the Profile via Users > Profile Browser > Global Config
~ UNcheck "Disallow Profile Deletion"
updated by @asil: 04/26/15 11:28:29PM

Im sorry- could you repeat that please?

Not sure what you are asking me to repeat.

Can you repeat the part where you say what happens when you applied those settings?


--
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Education, learning resources, TEL, AR/VR/MR, CC licensed content, panoramas, interactive narrative, sectional modules (like jrDocs), lunch at Uni of Bristol. Get in touch if you share my current interests or can suggest better :)

The purpose is to keep the content of users who have either left the network, or been banned from the network, visible to all users. And, to stop the banned member from being able to access the site and delete content.

This is the only way I can think of to create the effect.

My question: is there a better way to do it?
updated by @asil: 03/07/15 06:02:35PM

Change their email and password, wait for letter from their lawyer.


--
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Education, learning resources, TEL, AR/VR/MR, CC licensed content, panoramas, interactive narrative, sectional modules (like jrDocs), lunch at Uni of Bristol. Get in touch if you share my current interests or can suggest better :)

You first need to consider who owns the content. With all the privacy and right to be forgotten going round at the moment you need to be careful.

If a user adds something to your site, is it

a) fully theirs
b) fully yours

If it's A then if a user leaves etc they have the right to remove everything as it should be.

Well this actually brings up an interesting thing that happened to me over on Ning concerning Discussions

The BP Transocean Deepwater Horizon blowout had just happened the day before- so to give you a rough idea this guy started a discussion something simple like a single question

WHAT HAPPENED ON DEEPWATER HORIZON?

Well even though the guy did not contribute much more than that to the discussion- IT REALLY TOOK OFF! Somehow Google picked it up quick and we had industry experts from around the world making detailed explanations- even had some of the guys that worked on the platform in there commenting....soon CNN and Fox were posting asking questions and for possible interviews etc...had like 70 pages of comments in just a couple days and a phone call from NPR radio wanting interviews...site shot up to a solid 30,000 page views a day..... then out of the blue this guy that posted the original question which EVERYONE had contributed so much to decide to delete it!
I was really pissed and still am...no one person who is not an admin should have the capability to destroy so much that so many had contributed to...

My plan is to ban their IP and wait to hear from their lawyers...then talk all retarded and slobber when I answer the lawyer call ....
updated by @derrickhand300: 03/08/15 01:20:03AM

Yes - there is a better way. While it's not viewable in the User Account section, just click on the "View Keys" option in the User Browser the search for the username. Set the "user_active" value to "0" (zero) and save.

That will prevent the user from being able to log in.

Like other posters have mentioned however, you might want to discuss this strategy with a lawyer and ensure your Terms of Service cover you the best you can.


--
Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

Thanks, Brian. I thought there might be, but could not find any documentation for it. I appreciate the clear direction.

This was an issue on NING also. Their solution was to make it so once a posted item (discussion, blog, photo, video, etc.) had been commented on, the original poster no longer had the ability to delete the entire thread.

They could still delete their own content, but not the content of others.

That is a possible solution; thankfully, JamRoom has a way to block a banned user from accessing the site.

Thanks, Gary. It is important to understand how intellectual property rights work in your jurisdictions, and to be clear with your users about what they may be giving up when they upload data to the site.

Our ToS makes clear they are giving a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sub-licenseable, and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform their content. We also include a link to the DMCA Notification Guidelines, if they are alleging copyright infringement on the site.

It's been awhile since I had our lawyer look at the ToS, so that's one of the things we'll be reviewing before moving off the test-bed.

I think on Ning though, even despite that setting...if a user created a Group and the group became popular or important, then if the member left and checked the "delete my content" box, the entire group and everything in it would be GONE.

One other quirk that applies to those migrating their content from Ning to JR:
I found that after an archive import of my ning content, I was missing a handful of Groups. Upon investigating, Paul and I figured out that those particular Groups had been created by some of my Ning members who had since left my ning site, but their Groups were still there (they had not deleted their content, but they left my ning network and deleted their profiles). Thus, the groups were in my archive but the JR import tool could not find the groups' owners amongst the member profiles, so it could not import and activate the group because it was an 'orphan'.
Paul was able to reset those groups so that they were seen as having been created by me instead, and then they could import and show up fine again. So- after a ning migration, count your gropups and see if any are missing due to departed ning members.


--
...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

classy!

Yeah well...It's got me this far! ( works well on you guys- I try to portray the drop and sloober in my typing)

Yeah mate. I really do like it. My wife showed me a similar method for navigating the crazy crowded streets in Tokyo. Make the weirdest face you can and watch as the crowds that want to keep their distance part.
updated by @michael: 03/09/15 02:34:21AM