removing words/site url

[carpmad]

hi everyone i hope your all well
im having a few problems at the moment with people starting threads about another forum and i am now being threatend with legal action over it.
am i actualy liable for it? or is it down to the posters?
ive changed it so if someone types in the name or url itl show as something else now so hopefully im in the clear but is there a way i can remove the name/url from the whole database so theres no previouse references to it?
if i edited the disclaimer a bit and mabe also terms & conditions would i be in the clear for what others are typing?
its getting on my nerves a bit because i havnt done anything personaly
is there anything you can think of that i can do im using a phpbb forum
thanks in advance
carpmad

[SensoVision]

hi carpmad, nice to see you back!
as for your question I'm not sure if I understand it correctly, is someone on your forum try to refer to some other URL which isn't acceptable for you?

ive changed it so if someone types in the name or url itl show as something else now so hopefully im in the clear but is there a way i can remove the name/url from the whole database so theres no previouse references to it?

this is a good idea, I would use language filter myself if I would get in the similar situation.
as for removing links from the database and if you're not familiar with MySQL you could try to use built-in search function of the forum and delete each thread manually...
as for changing Terms & Conditions I think it's good idea to tell exactly what kind of information could be presened on your forums and ask your moderators to look so none break rules of your forum.
sorry if I wasn't much help, feel free to ask me more questions, I would be glad to help you if I can

[carpmad]

hi SensoVision
thanks for your reply
the problem isnt a problem i have myself but i am being threatend that i have to remove every current and future reference to another fishing forum and its owner and also a random word that i use instead of the real websites url from the word filter


he contacted me today and said that he has seen that i have removed the sites url and his name but its not good enough he wants the replacement word for his url changed
basicly instead of his sites name it comes up suk.cum even though its nothing like his url and has no connection what so ever to his site, its not even a proper url, so i said no its staying,hes a bully and hes just pushing his weight and money around

id imagine even if i just added a . dot after the first letter of his url id be in the clear?
hes also threatening to contact the parents of the members of his forum that posted threads he didnt agree with on his own forum and claiming its my fault? even though they are members of his forum and from what i heard some of them posted links to my forum so he is threatening me over it,
am i in any way responsible for what gets posted on his site?
am i liable for anything posted by others on my forum?
i also told him to tell his members not to come on my site and complain or copy and paste things that go on at that site,can i do anything back to him about his members posting on my forum the same as hes hassleing me?

i will definately be changing the terms and agreement on my forum

all the best
carpmad

[SensoVision]

am i in any way responsible for what gets posted on his site?

sounds like a nosense to me but I'm not a lawyer so can't be sure for 100%

am i liable for anything posted by others on my forum?

depends on your TOS, but it's still good idea to moderate forums and look whenver information which is posted wouldn't be harmful and corresponds the truth.

i will definately be changing the terms and agreement on my forum

good idea.
and maybe if you have a lawyer consult with him about this situation...

[carpmad]

thanks again SensoVision
hopefully i wont need to get a lawyer and all this will die down soon
il just have to wait and see if he replys to my email
thanks again
carpmad
edit:: i just noticed you have karma so k+ and thanks for the help

[SensoVision]

my pleasure let us know when you resolve your problem or if you need more help.

[carpmad]

thanks
ive not heard anything back so i guess its sorted now
but now im having probs with my admin acount 
i can sighn into admin but i cant access my admin control pannel? i just get a blank screen but i havnt touched anything so im stumped but atleast the forums still up and running

[SensoVision]

I'm not familliar with PHPBB structure but in forum I'm using it's possible to give admin right through MySQL database, so if you had access to it you can just restore rights manually. BTW is there any other admins on your forum who could remove you as admin or maybe you were hacked, as I don't know what else could cause you to loose admin rights. if you wish I can search if there a way to restore admin rights with PHP BB

[carpmad]

cheers for the fast reply
no theres no other admin than me and i dont realy use the admin acount i just use a basic acount as i wanted everyone to be the same so no mods either
but i did sighn in as admin at around 1 and it was fine then tried again 3 hours later and got a blank screen
yes i can get to my mysql database still its just the admin section of forum that i get blank screen but i can go on the boards as admin still
if you could find out without using too much of your spare time that would be great
thanks SensoVision
all the best

[SensoVision]

it seems that your problem could be a bit different than I thought at first, I've installed phpBB on my local machine and seems that it has different structure of previledges than SMF(one we're using), I've also found several discussions on the web where people told that they couldn't access admin panel and it was casued by .htaccess file, just take a look on this thread and see if this would be any help. If not please let me know whenver you did any changes or updates to your script or installing any hacks which could lead to this problem?

[carpmad]

its different to that problem
i get sent to admin cp but its a blank page not a loop back to index page
i havnt added any new mods for a while now but thinking back i did clear out the log folder in the first directory of the host,not sure if that makes sense as i dont know the correct path name. but i cant remember if i done that before or after the problem
i think i looked at the stats aswell looking at the urls and clicked 2 links to admin but had a blank screen but i think that was after the problem
i just looked at the database and im on there as admin still well as far as i know
im stumped

[SensoVision]

what about language files are they not corrupted as from what I've seen it seems that admin page are depends on them, here some posts whic maybe interesting for you:
http://www.phpbb.com/kb/article.php?article_id=203
also have you tried to make some user an admin or it couldn't be done easily with the just access to MySQL? (I'll try this later with my local phpBB installation).

[carpmad]

i donk know if the language files are corrupt or not i wouldnt know how to find out?
i just changed my other acount to admin but i still got the same blank screen when trying to access the admin control pannel so ive just changed it back to normal again
il have a good read on that forum and see if i can find anything about it
thanks for the help sensovision

[SensoVision]

not at all, sorry I wasn't able to assist you on this since I never tried to install phpBB until yesterday so it's hard for me to say what's the problem even based on your desciption, I still have sticknote about this and when I got time will try to search for solution if you wish.
Good luck and hope it would be resolved soon!

[carpmad]

thanks sensovision
i still cant believe someone instaled phpbb to help me lol  thats got to make this the ultimate forum 
ive decided to go fishing for a few days as im in need of a break so il have a think to see if i can remember doing anything else or why its not working
il try and get some nice pix to post up here too
all the best and thanks for trying to help
carpmad