<p>Note to mods - Regarding the post above #320 - this is the third time a TOS violation of this nature has happened on this thread. Please do not allow posters to mention identifying information about CC posters. Three of us have hit “report problem post” and have gotten no response as yet. Thank you.</p>
<p>Roshke, </p>
<p>Oddly, NO reports came into our report system regarding post #320. Just so you know. I am not sure why, however. Further, all the mods are volunteers and are not all signed on during a given time frame, nor all read this thread. Since these reports did not go to our reporting place, no moderators saw it. I just found your note here and have taken out personally identifying information about another poster in post #320. Berurah knows that I have tended to this violation on this thread before when it has been called to my attention. We don’t allow this, as you can see from my previous moderation on this thread.</p>
<p>Okay, public discussion of the TOS is a violation of the TOS- I get that. But I’ve read (and reread) the TOS and I can’t find anything in there which calls for suppressing the name of the Kansas High School in question (which appears to be the corrective action that has been taken.) I don’t see anything in the TOS about “mentioning identifying information about CC posters” (which hasn’t happened in any event, as the “true” identity of anyone here hasn’t been disclosed as far as I am aware, but that’s a different question) although that is what Roshke has identified as the violation. So what was the TOS violation? It would be helpful to know.</p>
<p>Kluge, </p>
<p>Allow me to attempt to explain. In post #70, you put up a quote from a source about the yearbook controversy which named the high school, and in post #87, you posted a link to a blog (we do not allow links to blogs, see TOS) that also linked to the an article about this controversy, naming berurah’s children’s high school, and she is also quoted by name in the article. I can’t recall exactly in which of these two posts there was a link to an article with berurah’s real name but this was why both those two posts were editted (along with the link to a blog which is not permitted). Our Terms of Service states:</p>
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<p>While the TOS doesn’t explicitly state that another member can’t post the identity or other personally identifying information about another member, that is implied as we don’t want anyone to post personally identifying information. At the least, that would be up to each individual poster to disclose. We haven’t allowed other posters to post the names of other posters or other ways to identify that poster. By naming another poster’s school or a link to an article about their school that contains that poster’s name in the article, when the member doesn’t wish to have that information posted, is a violation of their personal identity which they wish to keep anonymous. Opie’s post which only contained the high school name wasn’t as much of a personal identity as the previous posts that linked to articles about the school which contained a member’s name. The member prefers to not disclose the name of her school or identity. It is nobody else’s right to do that here if that person doesn’t choose to give out such information. Since I had already editted the posts that linked to Berurah’s name and school, I stayed consistent and didn’t allow the name of the high school in Opie’s post. If berurah opts to disclose it, that will be her choice. </p>
<p>However, as a bit of friendly advice to berurah, by posting about a public controversy in which you played a role and about which is covered in the news and online, you are taking a risk in focusing threads on this case. There is enough information so that others can figure the story out and google it. Still, we won’t allow others to name your school, location or name, or link to it. We can keep that off our forum but by starting various threads on this case, it does call attention to it on this forum where others can research it quite readily. You have some choice in what you post about here. </p>
<p>We would like all members to refrain from posting personally identifying information for their own safety but surely to refrain from identifying information regarding other members. Thank you. Otherwise, it compromises the safety and comfort level of posters if others identify them or their location/school. Please respect that. Berurah has already mentioned that her school is in Kansas and others can readily refer to the school in their posts as the school with the yearbook controversy in Kansas (as I have editted in the posts referred to here). If Berurah opts to disclose more about where her kids attend school or about articles with her name in them, that will be her choice to do so. By the same token, posters need to realize if they choose to post and put a lot of focus on a situation in their community that was a public situation with news articles containing their full names, they are taking a risk in calling attention to it here.</p>
<p>I hope that explains this some.
CollegeMom</p>
<p>Someone also named the faculty advisor whichis how I found an AP article.</p>
<p>College mom, sorry. </p>
<p>your edits are fine, still keeps my point. I am not bothered you did that. I wasn’t aware I was in violation of anything. </p>
<p>What does kinda bug me is alot of the stone throwers here, fail away at people. Then run to you because they’ve dug a pretty deep hole for themselves. My spouse deals with this daily “jimmy pushed me!” a little deeper ya find out, jimmy pushed because sally stuck gum on his back.</p>
<p>( edit: just so you feel better, I changed the kids names for safety.)</p>
<p>No problem, Opie. I realize you may not have intended to violate anything. Nonetheless, we do not like to reveal personally identifying information about members, particularly without their consent. </p>
<p>Moderators do not take sides. We merely enforce the posting guidelines. If someone sees a violation of the Terms of Service, they should alert us. </p>
<p>Even if no posters came running to us, if we came across such a violation, we would edit or delete it and inform the member as to why. Often, members’ violations are not intentional. Sometimes they are. We hope to guide members to staying within our posting guidelines and we attempt to enforce these rules fairly no matter who the poster is and how much we value his/her contributions to the forum. </p>
<p>I want to also remind all posters to discuss issues and viewpoints, rather than go after one another as members. Some posts on this thread are borderline with respect to our TOS about posting with courtesy and not discussing one another. Thank you. </p>
<p>Carry on…</p>
<p>CollegeMom</p>
<p>True…the “gang of four” reference is probably not exactly courteous (in addition to being exclusionary).</p>
<p>OK I’ve only scanned through a lot of these posts, but regarding the original issue of the yearbook—</p>
<p>It seems like yearbooks in general are changing in concept from what I remember in high school. They now resemble scrapbooks rather than a book of pictures of various organizations and their officers. Our yearbook, like berurah’s, puts little postage stamp sized pictures of the clubs, teams, and organizations at the end of the book and the guts of the book are more like artsy photo collages with ‘themed’ pages. None of it makes sense to me. Even the athletic pages will have artistic action shots of a few players and spectators, but no traditional group photo of the team, coaches, and captains. </p>
<p>I guess it’s a different world. The only guarantee a kid has of getting his or her picture in is the headshot class pages. The rest are random photos taken during school, parties, around town, dances, games, etc. I think this is “award” driven on the part of the yearbook staff- our yearbook earned a big award last year for producing a book using this approach.</p>
<p>“True…the “gang of four” reference is probably not exactly courteous (in addition to being exclusionary).”</p>
<p>HH, you just keep assuming it’s you, 
It could be my favorite new wave band from my youth or a tribute to the chairman Mao. Go figure? </p>
<p>Something to spend your time thinking about over the weekend.</p>
<p>I still am wondering, and maybe you didn’t see my previous questions, berurah, but did your yearbook win some award? I recall you mentioning that the teacher advisor seemed motivated to win awards for herself. While I wasn’t aware that there are yearbook awards, I guess in some areas, such as Kansas, there are. What ever happened with that?</p>
<p>SoozieVT, the Kansas Scholastic Press Association gives out awards: <a href=“http://www2.ku.edu/~kspa/[/url]”>http://www2.ku.edu/~kspa/</a>
They don’t seem to have prior year winners listed, so I can’t answer your question about last year’s book, though. They won an “award of commendation” for 06-07, though.</p>
<p>OK, thanks. I think with the fact that the school won an award for this yearbook will make the efforts to knock it down harder, whether right or wrong or what anyone’s views are. Somehow, the yearbook met a standard set by the state association. I think the parents who opposed the yearbook have certainly raised questions and raised consciousness on the views of a portion of the community and so hopefully perhaps a panel can discuss what the school wants for the next publication. I don’t know who decides these things. This goes beyond the yearbook as far as who decides which materials are acceptable or appropriate in school. Hopefully there is input from many about it and some decisions made by whomever ultimately gets to decide. I think it is a little trickier if the yearbook won an award, however. The award is for 2007 and I would think that pertains to the yearbook that came out this past fall which was for last year’s senior class (their yearbook comes out the following fall, which is not the norm at a lot schools). Berurah can clarify if the award was for the yearbook in question.</p>
<p>Actually, this is something I never knew about, and kind of interesting. The award I linked to is appears to be the result of a tournament-style competition held in Kansas where the student journalists are given an assignment and create copy on the spot, which is then judged and awards given, rather than the assessment of finished products. I never knew such things existed. Digging a little further, it appears that there are at least three different national “scholastic press” organizations which hold competitions and give out awards for student newspapers, yearbooks, etc. Lots of awards of different types. I don’t know if this yearbook won any. The students in the journalism program did pretty well in the Kansas state tournament, though. Not knowing any student journalists I had no idea all of this stuff was in place. Pretty impressive, actually.</p>
<p>Okay, guess what was in our public high school yearbook this year? I heard some parents talking about <em>tatoos and piercings</em> and of course, my first thought was, “do they read college confidential?” LOL. I haven’t seen it but I guess there is a page in the yearbook featuring tatoos and piercings. And according to these parents, it is suggested by the yearbook publisher to highschools to include these pages. </p>
<p>Just thought it was interesting. Don’t want to stir anything up or anything . . . :)</p>
<p>
It is also HIGHLY suggested by the “journalism” associations who give “awards.” The journalism associations are sort of one-trick-pony ACLU clones–their major purpose is to heavily promote the first amendment rights of h.s. students and to undermine the Hazelwood decision, which they stood in staunch opposition to. The constant pushing of the envelope is one of their tactics, and then they have whole teams at the ready to rush in to defend the teachers/sponsors who head up this pushing.</p>
<p>~berurah</p>
<p>My thought is, that if it is suggested by the yearbook publisher, then it is hardly anything innovative or orginal on the part of the school/advisor/students. More like following a formula . . .</p>
<p>I thought this post died awhile back?</p>
<p>
Yes, but WHY is it part of the “formula” given by the publisher? Read my above post. It’s about a political agenda re: Hazelwood. </p>
<p>Also, many schools go way beyond tattoos and piercings. ;)</p>
<p>“Yes, but WHY is it part of the “formula” given by the publisher”</p>
<p>Is making a butload of money a possibility? </p>
<p>Every agenda isn’t necessarily driven by some “noble cause”, often it’s how to make money.</p>