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WebSleuths.com review: The moderators banned me 19

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Author of the review
6:53 am EDT
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OMG. I wasted so much time on the website www.websleuths.com. I registered and took the actions in the debates on the website. But one day one users abused me and I complained to the moderators, but these guys didnโ€™t help me, they simply banned me. They deleted my account and told me not to register on their website. No idea why they have done it, but it was terrible attitude. Beware!

19 comments
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James Dante Wood
Temple, US
Jul 25, 2023 5:20 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Can you please have sys admin check access logs for hacks? A friend of mine checked Websleauths.com for composite sketch of accomplice seen with Richard Allen Davis (Polly Klaas abductor) yesterday, July 14. Now, everything on Polly Klaas is gone.

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Tom Braden
Boston, US
Oct 26, 2022 7:29 am EDT
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Websleuths is a money racket. Donation buttons are in every moderator's signature and the owner is CONTANTLY begging for money. They will ban you if you do not donate but they will not let you delete your account because they need inflated subscriber numbers for ad revenue. Which is another problem. The ads on that site are maddening.

Moderation is heavy handed and comments outside of the moderator's chosen pet theory are heavily edited or deleted altogether. A handful of longtime members have formed a clique and will run you off the board if you don't kiss the ground they walk on and "Like" all their posts.

You also cannot sign up anonymously using gmail or protonmail or yahoo mail or anything like that. They force you to sign up using your official ISP or a work or business e-mail which is personally identifying information then sell those email accounts to spam lists. And as others mentioned when they ban your account from posting you cannot remove or delete your account nor can you remove your identifying information. It stays in there forever and requests to delete the account/information are ignored.

Privacy is also a problem. There is a private messaging system there which the mods insist they cannot read. This is not true whatsoever. They can and do read messages between members that are meant to be private and members have been banned after moderators read their private messages.

The one good thing I will say about Websleuths is it's a great place to find links all in one location. And members are so busy trying to be "first" with every new article or press release they are posted really quickly, so it's easier than googling all over the place yourself. They do that part for you. Whatever you do just don't read the comments and don't make an account. You'll regret both.

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gdpr_rights
Orlando, US
Mar 31, 2023 4:26 pm EDT
Replying to comment of Tom Braden

"They have banned me but will not allow me to delete my account, my personal details etc."

This does not follow GDPR! Non-compliance with the GDPR could lead to fines and legal penalties, even for US websites.

According to Article 17, you have the right to erasure, which is also referred to as the 'right to be forgotten'.

Submit a Right to Erasure Request (Template pasted below).

******

Right to Erasure Request Template

To Whom It May Concern:

I am hereby requesting immediate erasure of personal data concerning me according to Article 17 GDPR.

[Please erase all personal data concerning me as defined by Article 4(1) GDPR.]

[Please delete the following personal data concerning me:

Specify the data to be deleted here.]

I am of the opinion that the requirements set forth in Article 17(1) GDPR are fulfilled. You cannot claim an exception based on Article 17(3) GDPR either, particularly as I am not a public figure.

If I have given consent to the processing of my personal data (e.g. according to Article 6(1) or Article 9(2) GDPR), I am hereby withdrawing said consent for the entire process.

In addition, I am objecting to the processing of personal data concerning me (which includes profiling), according to Article 21 GDPR. I request that you restrict the processing of the data concerning me pending the verification whether your legitimate grounds override mine, pursuant to Art. 18(1)(d) GDPR.

If you have made the aforementioned data public, you are obliged pursuant to Article 17(2) GDPR to take all reasonable steps to inform other controllers, including search engine operators, who process the personal data listed above, that I have requested the erasure of all links, copies or replications. This applies not only to exact copies of the data concerned, but also to those from which information contained in the data concerned can be derived.

In case you have disclosed the affected personal data to third parties, you have to communicate my request for erasure of the affected personal data, as well as any references to it, to each recipient as laid down in Article 19 GDPR. Please also inform me about those recipients.

If you object to the requested erasure, you have to justify that to me.

My request explicitly includes any other services and companies for which you are the controller as defined by Article 4(7) GDPR.

As laid down in Article 12(3) GDPR, you have to confirm the erasure to me without undue delay and in any event within one month of receipt of the request.

I am including the following information necessary to identify me:

Enter your identification data here. This often includes information like your name, your date of birth, your address, your email address and so on.

If you do not answer my request within the stated period, I am reserving the right to take legal action against you and to lodge a complaint with the responsible supervisory authority.

Thank you in advance.

Yours sincerely,

Enter your name here.

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kangabit
Athens, US
Mar 14, 2022 10:52 am EDT

Websleuths is not a website to be taken seriously. No value, no legitimacy. Victims are victimized, and crimnals go there to get a scoop while posters pretend to be detectives. No class, all trash. It's that bad.

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Hanna Isayno
, US
Jan 26, 2022 3:50 pm EST

I have insufficient privilge can't comment

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Susan Anderson
, US
Jan 19, 2022 7:42 am EST

I only joined websleuths a few days ago and went to login this morning it says I an banned what the heck is that all about I didnt even get the chance to comment.

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ReneeGA21 ๐ŸŒŽ๐ŸŒŠ
, US
Nov 11, 2021 5:52 pm EST

So true. The moderators on Websleuths are bullies and they censor comments, even mild, boring comments, because they are like Chinese dictators. Avoid them!. Any other "sleuthing" site where they actually let you talk is so much better.

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jdgwv
, US
Oct 27, 2021 9:54 am EDT

That site is obviously run by people who like to control what other people think and say. The mods act like mommy, yelling at their children. Mods are needed in a forum to stop bickering but they block opinions. And not allowing anything that is NOT MSM is ridiculous. Crimes are solved by things NOT on MSM. Every time someone posts something interesting, the mods take it down, then put it up a few days later when it hits MSM. WTF?

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Sugar control
, US
Oct 05, 2021 6:45 pm EDT

I posted something on there and it was taken down. Why? Because they don't deal with internet drama.

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ReneeGA21 ๐ŸŒŽ๐ŸŒŠ
, US
Nov 11, 2021 5:53 pm EST

No, because they are bullies and censorship. Very anti-democratic too. If you disagree with them they ban you or give you "points" like you're a little child. It's demeaning and offensive.

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granddad ugh
, US
Apr 26, 2021 12:20 am EDT

This website is not really about sleuthing it is about controlling a tight narrative that is shaped by the owners and moderators political and social bias. It prides itself on being "tightly moderated" but the moderation results in outright censorship especially when you see reasons for moderators deleting posts only apply when the wrong opinion is given seeing as how the "right" opinions are never censored meeting the very same criteria. If you disagree with their narrative you will be censored as "bickering." Don't come here if you expect an open forum about missing people and crime or you will be severely disappointed. Somebody needs to create a new equitable crime discussion website that does not censor the members.

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Max Alberts
, US
Jul 15, 2021 9:53 pm EDT

Truer words were never spoken. It's terrible.

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ReneeGA21 ๐ŸŒŽ๐ŸŒŠ
, US
Nov 11, 2021 5:54 pm EST

I agree - I don't know what's involved in doing that, but pretty much any other forum would be better than that one. The censorship is insane.

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granddad ugh
, US
Apr 26, 2021 12:20 am EDT

This website is not really about sleuthing it is about controlling a tight narrative that is shaped by the owners and moderators political and social bias. It prides itself on being "tightly moderated" but the moderation results in outright censorship especially when you see reasons for moderators deleting posts only apply when the wrong opinion is given seeing as how the "right" opinions are never censored meeting the very same criteria. If you disagree with their narrative you will be censored as "bickering." Don't come here if you expect an open forum about missing people and crime or you will be severely disappointed. Somebody needs to create a new equitable crime discussion website that does not censor the members.

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shellinaya
, US
Sep 30, 2021 3:00 am EDT

The moderators don't even follow their own rules of actions to take when someone violates one of their constantly-added rules. I was banned for not adhering to a rule they added to the thread during the discussion. The stated remedy was to mark the post off topic but instead they kicked me off completely. They are idiots. They are mad Nazis there, beware, and stay away.

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Sugar control
, US
Oct 05, 2021 6:38 pm EDT
Replying to comment of shellinaya

Well thanks for this advice. Wish I would have done research before signing up

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joe boggs
, US
Jan 29, 2021 2:10 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I would like some help, I had the exact same experience, lots of the websleuthers felt it was wrong i was banned. Before my account was banned, I emailed them to ask on how to delete my account. They have banned me but will not allow me to delete my account, my personal details etc.

surely they are breaking the law doing this to me - not allowing me to delete my account? Any advice on what I can do.

I can not log into the site to ask any of the admin to help me as they have banned my account!

I log in, it says banned but all of my details are still there. So also they are using my banned account to boost their member ratings.

I would like to find a way to have my account deleted, that is all? any help advice gratefully received. I photo snipped the emails i sent them asking them how i could delete my account. They then banned me .

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shellinaya
, US
Sep 30, 2021 3:02 am EDT
Replying to comment of joe boggs

Their policies on accounts is not to allow deletion. You cannot be deleted, or delete your account. They just ban you and leave everything you posted online with the mark of the last thing that happened to you there. It's designed to ruin your reputation and anger you and it should be against the law, but it's obviously not because they do it to tons of people.

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Cari Sue
Bloomington, US
Nov 15, 2017 1:32 am EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

There is obviously a lot of bullying and favoritism on Websleuths. There are certain posters who repeatedly get away with being rude and hateful. Some of the mods take part in the bullying and others ignore it. Recently members have been leaving the forum, some of them long-time members. The bullies continually criticize other posts and make false accusations, even when it's irrelevant to the case. And usually the bullies, who don't seem to care that much about a case beforehand, will jump into the middle of a discussion to start berating other members and twist their words to try to start an argument. It's obvious they're on the forums only to argue and drive other posters away. Of course, on some threads posters are very civil and discuss opposing views and theories politely, but the bullying on other threads ruin it.

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