NZMac.com - Supporting the New Zealand Mac community

Hi all,

I've had a few emails/private messages today about a forum poster who claims he works for Apple Australia. Most weren't happy about his posts, some suggested we discuss it privately (he and I have now done that)...but a few were concerned that I was taking an approach that would see us lose a valuable contact "inside" Apple.

There are many things that tell me this person doesn't work for Apple. Including a failed registration using the same IP, virtually same username and personal name...but with an NZ email address.

Some time ago I had an email come to me one weekend from someone claiming to be Paul Johnson (General Manager of Renaissance). The message wasn't anything important (I honestly can't recall what it was about, so no secrets revealed) but it was from a private address. It could have been anybody.

My response was to request that Paul email me from his Apple address...and he kindly did.

I want to assure you that your details on this site (if you have chosen to hide them for others) remain confidential and that I do my utmost to protect them...and you. Those who have lost passwords etc will know the routine I go through to ensure you are who you say you are, before I reset passwords etc.

So you are most welcome to use a username....I don't object to that. Anonymity can be a great thing to allow more thoughtful discussion at times. But you are expected to maintain respect for other users of this site (and I'm not trying to imply that hasn't been the case recently).

But I wanted to post part of my message to the user here, as I am going to amend the forum guidelines to make it clearer. In short, I do not agree to a user of the forum using the mask of anonymity to make claims about who they are that cannot be substantiated.

I hope you understand that this is as much about your protection as mine.

Cheers, Phil

I have no objections to people using the site with some degree of anonymity. Users are not required to provide contact details, names, email addresses to other users, but can work in the safety of a username to post their views and comments.....knowing that the only person who has access to personal contact details is me, as administrator.

I will not allow users to come on to the site and use the mask of anonymity to make claims about who they are or are not, without any person on this site having the ability to verify this in any way shape or form. That is misrepresentation. You could post that you're Steve Jobs and we have as much chance as proving that as any other claim you make....hence why I said that if you were going to continue to make that claim, you needed to email me and prove you are who you say you are.

Sorry folks...after the most confusing conversations I've had with anyone in a long time, where the chap demanded apologies, said he would just act as a Mac user in the forum (like the rest of us) and I asked him not to attempt to gain feedback for anything other than actual topics and opinions (this is not an area to post messages asking people to simply contact you about anything or to ask for people to comment on this site)...he then went on to say I was being very complimentary (yes, you follow that if you can) and then informed me I had "one last chance".

I've now taken the unusual step of banning and deleting his posts. They were in the most part meaningless.

My apologies if any regular users feel this was in approrpriate. I hope those that genuinely felt he was an Apple employee have not passed on any information such as account details or anything like that.

Phil