I'm accessing forum from office and there is high possibility of others also using the forum. Whom should I update about this so that account doesn't get flagged as 'duplicate account'? Rules section states that we need to update about this, but it doesn't state whom in particular we need to update. Office has more than thousand of people, so I really have no idea how many are using the forum and with which username.
So long as you stay out of officemate't thread, do not trade itrader or rep, bump, or promote same thing you are safe.
Yea that is what Rules section also says. Problem is I'm not sure who's who. With over a thousand of people working in same office, I could unknowingly bump into a thread of someone working from this very office - probablity is low but it's not zero. Confused.
If you don't have usernames to give us, we cannot include those details in a usernote. If you're on here doing company business for the same company, then you do run a good risk of being banned (that would be multiple people acting as a single entity -- same as duplicate accounts). If you're on here for personal business and aren't promoting the same company, sites, etc. it's unlikely you'll have an issue.
This is what describes my situation. I'm here to take part in discussions and do business for myself only and not for the company which I work with. While going through the Rules, I realized that it's quite possible that I could find a thread in BST, do business and exchange iTraders - without knowing the fact that the thread is run by someone sitting in the same building, having similar or same IP. What would happen in such a scenario? I know for the fact that you guys are busy managing the forum, and won't dig deep to see whether the members are legit or just playing around.
The most ethical thing to do is handle your personal business dealings from home and not on your employer's time.
Please don't mind but ethical or not is not the theme of this thread The workplace (and company) is cool. When others can spend their free time on Twitter and Facebook, then I've my rights to use my free time in a way which I feel is more productive for me. Company doesn't expect employees to work for whole 8hours every day. That being said, employees also don't mind pulling in weekends and extended working hours - when there is a need. *off-topic* Okay! Even if I'm to do business dealings from home, and let's say browse forum occasionally from office - can't this cause a little confusion with regards to duplicate account/IP sharing thing? Food for thought. So do we have an answer for the question I've asked in my above posts? I, for one, don't think that "don't access forum from office" should be an answer
You already got your answer. If you choose to do personal business on your company's time, you do so at your own risk. If we have enough reason to feel there's a duplicate account, they'll be banned as such. If we don't, then they won't. People use shared IPs here all the time without a problem. That alone is highly unlikely to be an issue. User behavior is what leads to most bans.
Nopes, I never got a satisfactory answer. If you're referring to "don't access forum from office" then somehow I believe you will agree that it's not the best possible solution. Something better can be thought of. If you/and the team here believe that it is the best possible solution, well, what to say other than "Thank You" for solving the query. I really appreciate you guys responded to the thread. There are forums on web where mods/admin don't even feel the need to run sections for users to ask queries. Thank you Company and personal business has nothing to do with my query. I won't lose job just because I accessed a webmaster forum or did something personal. Regarding risk of losing account, well, I got nothing to say on this. I've no intention and time to enter into an argument/lengthy discussion when I myself cannot think of a perfect solution, without increasing time complexities of mods. I've been a member for years and know how things work. I just asked a query because I was not able to find the answer for this particular scenario by going through Rules/FAQs. And I know it's not an easy task to cover every scenario and manage forum of this size. Not to mention, we are not even charged a penny. This is the answer which I was expecting when I created the thread. It came late though. It's far from being perfect as possibilities which I mentioned in my above posts are not covered. But then this is a free forum and not your business, you guys are busy and owe me/others nothing. I really appreciate what you guys do to manage the forum (I've learned A LOT from the community of this forum). I'll continue to use the forum from office if I get time. I'm presuming taking part in discussions should not be a problem in any way. Regarding risk of getting banned because of iTraders and all such stuff when sharing IP, not sure about this as the scenario remains uncovered. Thanks again. Good Luck!
Mod's aren't fools in this forum. They understand that people can have sharing IP's. You cannot keep sending each other rep's, itrader's, bumping posts without knowing the person at the other end. After two-four transactions if you go on with that user, you obviously are going to get into personal details of each other. Once you know its your staff in the same building, you should be wise enough to stop "online" business under the same roof. But if you still don't stop that "online" business under same roof and continue bringing it online it clearly means you are doing it to padup your post-count, rep-count, itrader-count and therefore as I said before, "Mods aren't fool"; You/the activity group will be banned or as per mods decide an action would be taken. Hope it helps.
Satisfactory or not, that's the answer. If you do personal business under your employer's IP, you do so at your own risk. We don't care if there's a risk with your employer. All it means is that you risk being banned here if your behavior shows us you're a duplicate or acting as a duplicate with someone else on the IP. That's all there is to it. Your behavior dictates whether or not you get banned -- not solely your IP address. As we've said several times now it's unlikely to be problem. No need to make a mountain out of a molehill. If you learn username of others on the company IP, PM us so we can add notes to the account. Other than that, there's not much we can note anyway.