Where is EZForum.org?

[Carrie]

Does anyone know what's going on with them? I can't get into our message board and can't even get their main site to open.

HELP!

[Bruce]

Their account was suspended.

[Carrie]

Their account was suspended.

Hi Bruce, thanks for responding. Was it permanent? Do you or anyone else have info on this?

I was hosting a non-profit support board there and I'm very worried that it's gone forever.
Thanks in advance for any assistance or advice.

[Bruce]

I don't know. I went to that site and it had a suspended page. It could be a temporary thing, or their provider may have cut them off permanently.

The guy who runs the site was banned from these forums some time ago though, so I'm not sure how much help you'll recieve.

[Carrie]

I don't know. I went to that site and it had a suspended page. It could be a temporary thing, or their provider may have cut them off permanently.

The guy who runs the site was banned from these forums some time ago though, so I'm not sure how much help you'll recieve.

Oh no. Well this isn't good news.

Thanks for your help Bruce.

[Blank Verse]

the word suspended usually implies temporary, but I'm guessing a situation like this doesn't provide any sort of timeframe for when they'll be back. So I guess just keep your eyes open until they sort everything out.

[ppx]

This is from sebflipper's forum:

"Ok since I lost my server due to some loser with child porn and a set of weird circumstances I think its better to sell my 3 forum sites"

[bozley05]

ezforum, is that the annoying dude who hangs around here? if so, haven't seen him/her for a while, maybe they got arrested or something.

[notnamed]

Read up, bozely...


The guy who runs the site was banned from these forums some time ago though

[bozley05]

Oops, I all thought it was referring to his hosting account, thanks..

[Blank Verse]

good thing too...that guy SUCKED

[niv]

Every time his reputation went down, he made fun of it. I bet he was weeping behind his monitor :p

[Arnold69]

This is from sebflipper's forum:

"Ok since I lost my server due to some loser with child porn and a set of weird circumstances I think its better to sell my 3 forum sites"

I was just on sebflipper's forum and couldn't find that post.

Cheater assured everyone that ezForum would be around for a while. So, I spent some time trying to optimize, what little I could, and managed to get a high ranking in the search engines. Now it's completely gone. All that work--gone.

No warning. No nothing. All gone. He doesn't reply to emails, either. So, I came here trying to find out what is going on.

By the way, I've never heard of a hosting account being terminated because somebody linked in illegal content. You couldn't host much of anything on the server with ezForum, so you had to link in. Maybe he's referring to his image hosting? Regardless, whoever did it should be executed.

What gets me is that he went hog wild on registering domain names and stuff for his forums, free image host, free web host, etc. He had a lot going on. Too much to be legitimate, perhaps? That stuff costs some serious money.

Oh well. I wish it would come back! EzForum was awesome. It's been a full week since it has gone away and I miss it.

[Arnold69]

Ezforum is back up as of this writing. But for how long this time is unknown. There have been two major outages in 3 weeks time. The first lasting a few days. The second lasting an entire week.

As of now, you can access the main index page, but you can not view any of the forums or messages inside. An error is returned.

[Ericsson]

ezforum.org had a problem that someone had child porn on their forum, so his server was shut down.
But it will be back up soon with a new owner.

[Arnold69]

And Ezforum has ads now, too. I'm sure it will become very, very restrictive, as most Google Ad supported sites are.

Most Google Ad forums are strictly PG-13 material. No R-rated stuff allowed.

Huh, I guess I'll look at hosting at home.

[nickstallmansucks]

Hahaha. Nice try! You CAN'T host at home! The new ezforum owner, edkinnovations.com, does NOT allow backups! You can't take your forum anywhere. Not only that, but according to the terms of service in his other forum host, phpbbforfree.com, he owns all content, copyrights to all graphics, avatars, and even owns the name of the forum!

If you start a forum with them you are making a deal with the devil. You don't even have rights to your own forum name.

[Cheater]

If you start a forum with them you are making a deal with the devil. You don't even have rights to your own forum name.
You'll find that by law they own and are responsible for the content they host.

Which is why EzForum was down in the first place. :rolleyes2
If I wasnt responsible for the Child Porn someone put up then I wouldnt have had to sell it.

[Arnold69]

You'll find that by law they own and are responsible for the content they host.

Which is why EzForum was down in the first place. :rolleyes2
If I wasnt responsible for the Child Porn someone put up then I wouldnt have had to sell it.

First off, let me say that those sick *&^%$# who are into child porn should be shot.

Second, your responsibilities under the law are to REMOVE the offensive content and REPORT the offender to law enforcement. (I hope you reported the offender!!!) There is no requirement to shut down entirely, sell your operation, or anything else. The law in most civilized countries does NOT hold the host responsible for the actions of their users provided they take appropriate action when notified of illegal activity.

You were notified of this material before your web host was. Didn't you remove it and report it?

ANY provider of internet services whether an ISP, image host, web host, or forum host should know damn well that there are going to be idiots out there who do stuff like this.

The first step is a big notice saying that you will be certain to report such offenders to law enforcement so they can be tracked down and prosecuted. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

EDIT:

And no, hosts don't necessarily own copyrights, names, trademarks, logos, or anything else. Unless they assert ownership, that is.

To be honest, you didn't have any terms of service at all. Not on ezforum. I knew it was too good to last.