Ok well several emails have gone back and forth with this member and her family which were also members. Now they are threatening (even though they say they aren't threatening) to hack my site and cause major damage to it. What can I do about this? I have saved all emails and im conversations just in case.

At this point I have closed registration to all new members because of this because they are in Oregon and they just wait for us East coasters to go to sleep to cause trouble. I am not sure what else to do. Its not even about the images anymore, its more about a woman scorned

I do have a lot of "dirt" on this person and her family that, after hours upon hours of research have discovered and could possibly make them lose their kids and it would involve the FBI, but I hate being vindictive and stooping to their level. It's just getting really old and my patience is running thin.
I am holding on to this card just in case, but would rather play nice.

Can anyone give me any advice on what to do here? TIA!

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I presume from this quote you are talking about your parenting forum.

If this is gained partly from your forum, it is your responsibility to report the person, for whatever the evidence can prove. Whilst it is your responsibility, you also need to feel comfortable doing it. If you will feel guilty for weeks/months/years, you need to think would it be worth it? If it is a matter of loosing kids, does this evidence say something bad is going on that should be reported? It's your decision, Yes a tough one, but you need to decide, In my opinion it would be wrong for anyone here to push you.
Of course I'm sure we all would want a nicer solution, from your post, I am thinking that friendlier measures may have been tried, or if they are tried, will fail.
Collect all emails, IM conversations, as you have been doing, they could come in handy should they take it out on your website. Be sure to have backups ready. The possibility might be low, but you can never tell with some people.

It's a difficult situation, I hope you find a solution that won't result in any major incidents, but it may come down to it, we can only hope not.

I hope this was a usefull post

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Thanks for replying! This does have to do with my parenting forum, but the research found was just on regular internet searches. Its all very disturbing.

You know through all of this, I never even thought to back up the site. I have had about 8 hours of sleep in the past week so my head is not clear lol

Thanks for the great advice

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9/10 hack threats are bluffs, but like Jolteon said, you need to make backups. Anyway, if you want to take an aggressive approach, say that if they hack your website, you'll follow with legal consequences. Sure, this would be a bluff on your part, but I pretty much assume that you know these people well enough to get them in serious trouble if they hack your site.

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No one should wait for a potential threat. Backup, backup, backup. Use the features of your forum software or your domain host to backup the content and the database at least once a day (I have a small forum and backup every 4 hours via cron jobs). It only takes a matter of minutes to destroy what your forum has accomplished in its lifetime. You can protect it and restore it to its glory in short order and lose only what has been accumulated since the last backup.

I had a vandal try to bring one of my forums down. He deleted every message on the board. A backup was restored and we lost only a couple of hours. What is your forum worth to you?

Jim

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Yes, I do know them but just from the internet. I have her address, all phone numbers, etc. We were actually friends at one point, until she turned all freaky, then it just wasn't safe to keep her on my site anymore. My members are way more important to me.

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eJM, point taken....thanks

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backup and dont worry, unless they are VERY advanced hackers they probably wont have any success in trying to hack vB, its pretty tough. keep all the convos you have from them, if it gets hacked......

1. you have a backup
2. you have very good reason to drop the proverbial hammer on them..

don't worry, it'll be ok

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Just finished backing everything up Thanks everyone!

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You should automate that process so it gets done without you having to worry about it.

Jim

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