I just sent this letter to AOL and before I could even cut and past it to this board had received an, almost immediate, response from AOL rejecting it as it was outside of their TOS. Note the Quote from TOS that indicates that AOL TOS applies anywhere on the net. I will post the reply if necessary.

Subj: Harrassment on The ChipBoard by AOL Member
Date: 8/12/01 11:39:01 PM Central Daylight Time
From: WMAS 1960
To: TOSGeneral, TOSWeb

I am writing this email as an AOL subscriber and a reader of a bulletin board that is being harassed by another AOL subscriber. The website in question is The ChipBoard, http://www.thechipboard.com/cgi-bin/tcb/tcb.pl and a sister site, The StrikePoint. http://www.thechipboard.com/cgi-bin/tsp/tsp.pl. The person in question has been posting inflammatory posts that are intended to cause a disruption to, what is considered, a serious topic of debate. He has been making false statements about other participants and has been actually going so far as to assume the identity of other people to cause fights and arguments among people who would otherwise consider each other friends. As has been mentioned by other members of the board, in letters sent to you, the most serious offenses here would be the Harassment, libelous comments and the assumption of identities. He has been responded to by numerous participants on the board and has been told of the inappropriate nature and unwelcomness of his posts. He has chosen not to stop his activities and has even begun to antagonize people with comments of free speech etc. He has now started to taunt other participants on the board.

It has probably been over a week now since AOL was first contacted and it is felt that there has not been any action on this subject. While this involves a forum outside of the realm of AOL's supervision, the offender is using AOL servers, there are numerous AOL members on this board who have been given similar IP numbers and are now having their posts scrutinized as some viewers of the board are using the IP numbers to weed out potentially offensive posts. The webmaster has reportedly been blocking posts from similar IP addresses and has been screening them. That, while maybe necessary in this case, is not fair to the legitimate AOL subscribers who are having their messages blocked and moderated or the webmaster who has to moderate the discussions.

This person is clearly abusing AOL's Terms Of Service.

"However, as an AOL member you are required to follow our TOS no matter where you are on the Internet. If another ISP or Internet organization reports you to us, we will take appropriate action against your account the same as we would if you had committed a violation on the AOL service. " "Online conduct should be guided by common sense and basic etiquette. You will be considered in violation of the Terms of Service if you (or others using your account) do any of the following:

* Post, transmit, promote, or distribute content that is illegal. - Some of this persons comments could be considered libelous. Also I would think the attempt to assume other peoples Identities would be an illegal act.

* Disrupt the flow of chat in chat rooms with vulgar language, abusiveness, hitting the return key repeatedly or inputting large images so the screen goes by too fast to read, etc. This is online vandalism, and it ruins the experience for others. - This persons posts have definitely taken on an abusive tone. He , as mentioned above, is actually starting to taunt and antagonize certain members. His posts can be perceived as harassment in that he has on occasions posted excessive new posts. On August 8th he posted 11 posts in about 4 1/2 to 5 hrs. and posted them under 5 different names. All those posts were antagonistic.

* Pretend to be anyone whom you are not. You may not impersonate another member (including celebrities), an AOL employee, or a Community Leader. - I refer you to the above where he posted on the one day under 5 different names. While it is not uncommon for people to use aliases when posting on public forums, using the names of other known people should not be acceptable.

Obey the rules wherever you are. This includes the rules of other interactive services, AOL area guidelines, state, local, federal laws, or foreign or international law where appropriate. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. "Netiquette" is used all over the Internet. Whether you are on AOL or using other Internet functions, it's important to be polite. If you disagree with someone, respond to the subject, not the person. Many newsgroups, Web communities, and the like have their own community guidelines or standards, and you should consult them before interacting.

Thank you for your attention to this letter. Please reply to Us as we are all getting very frustrated.

Sincerely,

William Schelhas,
Wmas1960@AOL.COM

cc. www.thechipboard.com (edited)