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Important Announcement Important Announcement
The MSN Groups service will close in February 2009. You can move your group to Multiply, MSN’s partner for online groups. Learn More
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How to : Why MSN closes down Groups
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From: French  (Original Message)Sent: 10/21/2007 5:43 AM
There are two main reasons why MSN closes down Groups.  They are inactivity, and violations of their Code of Conduct and Terms of Use.
 
Inactivity
 
After 90 days of inactivity, group managers are emailed a warning to their manager accounts that their groups may be shut down for inactivity.  They are given a link to click to immediately restore the group.  Posting to the group will also restore it to active status. 
 
If they do not reactivate the group, the group's status is changed from active to inactive, and a further 30 days grace period is granted to reactivate the group.  If there is no activity or attempt to reactivate the group after a total 120 days has passed since the last activity in the group, then MSN will go ahead and delete the group.
 
Code of Conduct or Terms of Use Violations
 
When you create or join a group, you have to click on a button to indicate that you have read and will abide by the Code of Conduct.  The Code of Conduct also indicates that there is an additional document called the Terms of Use that governs all activity on MSN and MSN's affiliate services, and you should also be aware of what that says.  You are also obligated to review both the Code of Conduct (CoC) and Terms of Use (ToU) once in awhile because they are updated occasionally.
 
In both the CoC and ToU, MSN indicates that they reserve the right to terminate your access to their services and delete any content that you may have uploaded to your group.  This means they may delete pages or specific messages in your group, or even delete your entire group.  
 
MSN also is known to shutter groups.  This means that neither the group manager or members are allowed to access the group anymore, but the content is kept intact in case re-investigation is needed or a court order is received.
 
In the past, we've seen many groups deleted or shuttered.  MSN does not actively check groups for reasons to delete or shutter them.  MSN acts as a result of a complaint received from users who find inappropriate material.  The most common complaints are as follows:
  • Copyright violations - if you didn't create it yourself, and you don't have permission to post it in your group, whether it be posts, pictures, music, etc., you are probably breaking copyright law.  If the owner of the copyright catches you using their stuff without their permission they can ask MSN to have their material removed. 
  • Meter cheating - could be a post that a manager starts that states that as many people must post as possible to get the group higher up in the ratings.  Or it could be a group that posts thousands of images in a short period of time - again to boost their ratings.  Other managers in the category usually will complain about someone boosting their ranking up artificially, because it takes away potential new members from their groups. 
  • Defamatory libel - this includes "jerk lists", warnings about "hackers" in addition to slagging or flaming anyone using their name or online nickname.  The person named may complain.  Additionally, because nicknames are non-permanent, someone else might pick up the name down the road and not know why they are being banned from groups until they see their name on a jerk list and not know why it's there. 
  • Inappropriate material or links to inappropriate material - this can include instructions on how to hack computers or networks, xxx-rated material, giving out other people's real names, addresses, etc.  These things are generally considered a violation of MSN's be a good neighbour policy.   
  • Illegal activity - frauds, drug trafficking, kiddie porn.  Basically if it's against the law then MSN doesn't want it on their servers.
  • Bots - Many trivia groups use bots in their chat rooms for their games.  Other groups use bots in their chat rooms to monitor the rooms for offensive language, links, to kick out people who don't respond correctly to a pre-determined question, to check profiles, or compile a chat transcript.  Most members do not know what information the bot is gathering about them or their computers and it makes some people uneasy. 

There are times when MSN gives a group the benefit of the doubt and emails the manager to remove offensive materials withing a 48 hour period.  If the manager complies with the request and removes the material, then MSN usually does not close the group.  If the offense is severe enough and/or committed by the group manager, then MSN may close the group without warning and without giving the manager a chance to remove the offensive materials.

Remember, MSN owns the infrastructure we are using.  I know many Group managers put in many long hours working on their group to make them a success.  But no matter how hard you work, you are still a guest using MSN services, and you have to act accordingly and respect their rules.  If you don't like the rules, then perhaps you would be happier running your own server.

Code of Conduct

Terms of Use 



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