- Joined
- Mar 28, 2010
- Messages
- 4,839
- Reaction score
- 14,310
MOD REMINDER:
ALLOWED SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES
Individuals
Victim (missing or murdered person)
Suspect (as officially named by LE)
Public Pages
Mainstream Media (MSM)
Law Enforcement (LE)
Approved group support pages for victims, such as "Help Find..." and "Justice for..." (usually a page run by family)
Legitimate non-profit organizations who provide assistance and support to victims and their families (e.g., Klass Kids, Texas Equusearch).
Also, please remember that Websleuths is a victim friendly forum. Attacking or bashing a victim is not allowed. Discussing known victim behavior, good or bad is fine, but do so in a civil and constructive way, and only when such behavior is known to be relevant to the case.
The "victim friendly" rule extends to family members of victims and suspects. Sleuthing family members, friends, or others who have not been officially designated by law enforcement or in mainstream media as a Person of Interest or suspect is not allowed (i.e. Sleuthing out this type of information, and publicly posting their personal information, including names, addresses, and background data -- even if it is public is not allowed and such posts will be removed, along with any posts that encourage such sleuthing).
This does not mean, however, that statements made by family members and other third parties cannot come into discussion as the facts of the case are reported in the media. Members may reasonably discuss what is said in MSM by them or about them, but do not make random accusations, insinuations, suggest their involvement, trash, bash or attack them, or speculate negatively about them.
ALLOWED SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES
Individuals
Victim (missing or murdered person)
Suspect (as officially named by LE)
- Links may be used to direct members to posts made by a victim or a suspect.
- Paraphrasing is okay, but direct quotes, copying/pasting, screenshots from these pages is not allowed.
- NOTE: Comments and posts by Friends on these pages are not allowed to be linked, quoted, copied or referenced. They are considered rumor. Just don't mention them.
- Do not link to a victim or suspect's social media page if you are not 100% certain it belongs to the correct individual.
- If a social media page is set to private and you get in the back way, you may not post what you find. Private means private!
Public Pages
Mainstream Media (MSM)
Law Enforcement (LE)
Approved group support pages for victims, such as "Help Find..." and "Justice for..." (usually a page run by family)
Legitimate non-profit organizations who provide assistance and support to victims and their families (e.g., Klass Kids, Texas Equusearch).
- Posts by an owner or admin of the above public social media pages may be linked, copied, quoted, or paraphrased. This refers primarily to posts or tweets by MSM reporters, announcements by law enforcement, the admin of an approved group support page (usually a page run by family)
- NOTE: Comments and posts by readers/visitors of these pages are not allowed to be linked, quoted, copied or referenced. They are considered rumor. Just don't mention them.
- Regarding group support pages, i.e., "Help Find..." and "Justice for...": If at any time the WS staff determines a group support page to be inappropriate, a notice will be posted in the thread stating that the page is no longer approved.
Also, please remember that Websleuths is a victim friendly forum. Attacking or bashing a victim is not allowed. Discussing known victim behavior, good or bad is fine, but do so in a civil and constructive way, and only when such behavior is known to be relevant to the case.
The "victim friendly" rule extends to family members of victims and suspects. Sleuthing family members, friends, or others who have not been officially designated by law enforcement or in mainstream media as a Person of Interest or suspect is not allowed (i.e. Sleuthing out this type of information, and publicly posting their personal information, including names, addresses, and background data -- even if it is public is not allowed and such posts will be removed, along with any posts that encourage such sleuthing).
This does not mean, however, that statements made by family members and other third parties cannot come into discussion as the facts of the case are reported in the media. Members may reasonably discuss what is said in MSM by them or about them, but do not make random accusations, insinuations, suggest their involvement, trash, bash or attack them, or speculate negatively about them.