Internet Forum Threatening To Forward Posts To My School

**HypeCity** · 05-20-2007, 10:14 AM

Hello all,

I am writing to find out about the legality/effectiveness of what an internet forum moderator is trying to do to me. I am a medical student and post on a medical school internet forum and it is unrelated to any school. Well, there are some moderators that are threatening to submit my posts to my school.

The situation is based on another poster posting some pretty funny stuff about how lame the moderators were on the forum. And I posted stuff that was basically in agreement but added some colorful words but not bad words. My criticism was harsh and the mods told me to change it, so I did. And then one of the mods sent me a PM saying that if I was threatening her, I said ABSOLUTELY NOT, and actually said that I will participate in the forum to the fullest, without EVER violating the rules. I was very explicit, so she wouldn't have any lame excuse to follow through on any other action. I also had a few choice words about her bullying, but only through PRIVATE MESSAGES. I even told her that I would send her PM's to other members showing her tactics. Then she stopped threatening me.

Then a few weeks later, I get a message that says that the moderators are filing some kind of report on another forum member that was clearly posting some stuff against the TOS of their forum. And because some of my posts were also in support of the poster, they are thinking of turning my posts over to my med school administration. They said that my posts were "Unprofessional and unbecoming of a professional in our field (medical)". The moderator also said that he would not do it if I would offer an apology to the forum members in a post saying basically I was sorry for my offensive posts.

They know what school I go to because I usually offer some insights on what our school is like and it is always fair and never offensive. I like my school and have never said anything bad about it. The only thing is that I took a very sensitive moderator to task and now they are trying this crap.

Do you guys/gals think my school could do anything to me because of what I posted on this forum?

Is it even legal for this forum to give my info to the school?

What would you do if you were in this situation?

Thank you in advance.

panther10758 · 05-20-2007, 10:32 AM

Read the privacy poilcy for that site. That is where you should start.

**HypeCity** · 05-20-2007, 10:34 AM

I have and they have some overlapping things and probably could give the info to my school.

However, do you think my school would care what I had to say to another poster on the forum, totally unrelated to my performance/actions at my school?