The following is being presented to Gaydar Management as of February 25th 2008 To GayDar Management, As faithful and regular users of Gaydargirls.co.uk (GDG) chat rooms we wish with respect to present our feelings to you. We would like to state that users are very grateful for the site created by Gaydar that is free to access for lesbians as a social meeting place to make new friends and relationships. Recently there has been a spate of people getting unnecessary and increasing volumes of abuse in the chat rooms. This has always been a problem, however in recent months this issue appears to have escalated beyond reasonable tolerance Many users are aware of the \"Ignore User\" facility (used consistently by some) and also that we can report abuse; however only a small number choose to do so. Due, in part, to the inconsistent reliability of these features in the past and the scale of recent activity it has become necessary to contact you in this manner. The scale of abuse we are referring to includes both open and veiled threats, severe and sustained attack for a wide range of reasons; many of which are unsubstantiated or complete fabrication, innuendos and out right accusations made against users who have done nothing to deserve them. In addition, some minorities within GDG have been the recipients for many of the above abuses. Since no apparent, long term solution has been provided to us following previous attempts to report such abuse, many users now no longer report it, whilst in some instances they have considered leaving GDG completely and removing their profile. On numerous occasions we have seen both new and existing members {some returning after a period of absence}, log into the chat room only to leave again and not return as some one in the room is causing a problem. This behaviour clearly dissuades them from wanting to stay and so they choose not to return. This clearly affects any possible revenue and growth of GDG, its online facilities and affiliated companies (Gaydar, Gaydar Radio and Gaydar Nation), as well as promoting the view that GDG is neither a friendly or safe place. Evidence of this inability to offer a guaranteed \"banning\" for abuse is witnessed by users who are banned and then they return with a new profile, free to continue with abuse. It has even been bragged in the room that regular offenders have a second profile in case the current one is suspended. It is known that if the MAC address of the computer were banned there would be no possibility of return using that computer. \"Upon logging into the chat room, we are presented with this: ----------------------------- There are monitors in the chat rooms - promoting commercial or other websites will result in us immediately suspending your profile. -----------------------------\" The role and focus of such monitors should not specifically be to deter advertising but to prevent malicious, unwarranted, spiteful behaviour and bullying which is caused by people who feel coming into a chat room gives them free licence to behave in a manner not tolerated in general society; as opposed to friendly jibes, bad language or discussions involving sex and attitudes to it. As yet we have never seen any thing of this nature used, but we feel that it is time such monitors/moderators were present to use a light touch in moderating some of the more unpleasant aspects of the chat rooms. Any monitors/moderators should use common sense, allowing some leeway when an incident emerges rather than reaching for any \"boot from room\" or \"banning\" controls. All such \"staff\" would also be accountable to the same rules and as such appropriate controls should be in place for such an occurrence. There are many suggestions in how such behaviour is then tackled, however one is that if someone is kicked this is broadcasted to the room as with other chat communities, with a default 24 hr ban for that user. In addition, when a user clicks on terms and conditions to get into the room listings, the number of currently banned users could be broadcast to users, including the severity of such a ban and/or summarised reasons for it; demonstrating that action is being taken. We would not advise broadcasting usernames of any parties currently under warning since users could be encouraged to aggravate them. Whereas if a user is banned for periods longer than 24 hours or if a user is permanently banned and the profile deleted then that username should be displayed. Due to the number of parties involved in approving this correspondence as well as our varied backgrounds and experience of the internet it might be worth getting our feedback on any such upgrades to the system through user testing, surveys and open dialogue. We look forward to you response, With all due respect, Members of Gaydar Girls. For those not familiar with the Terms and Conditions these can be found on the Gaydar Girls website.

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