EDIT: I have to express my deepest apologies to Yves (surfeur51).
I misunderstood him completely. What I read as a threat was in fact meant completely different and obviously not as a threat at all.

Sorry Yves, don' think we can really be friends after this (as the end of this thread asked), but probably we can talk like normal people again.

To all that gave me positive votes for the original posting, please withdraw them as I don't deserve these.


ORIGINAL MESSAGE DELETED BY GOBLINSDOITALL FOR BEING OBVIOUSLY INCORRECT

Forward the PM to Ken.

Quoting northbloke:

Quote:
I would have sent it straight to Ken anyway. That kind of blackmail is totally unacceptable. 

You are the 4th now telling so, the rest came via PM. Consider it done.

Quoting goblinsdoitall:

Quote:
Quoting northbloke:

Quote:
I would have sent it straight to Ken anyway. That kind of blackmail is totally unacceptable. 

You are the 4th now telling so, the rest came via PM. Consider it done.

Excellent. 

Quoting kahless:

Quote:
What a shame!

Don't worry! The misusage of the reputation system is gutless and totally unacceptable. User, trying to blackmail others, do not have a piece of social competence and should be temporary banned from posting and voting. I really mean temporary, because IMHO everyone deserves the chance to social rehabilitation.
But this should not be a gift! An apology is the minimum! If the referring user is not able to do so, he should be excluded from this community.

So, maybe this is the end of my high rating as well, but freedom of opinion has my priority 

I don't know if you'll be able to extract an apology from someone in a manner that's meaningful, but as long as they can jump back in and contribute productively, that's proof of the rehabilitation. And hopefully this can all be conducted behind the scenes between Invelos and the users involved.

Quote:
Quoting m.cellophane:
I don't know if you'll be able to extract an apology from someone in a manner that's meaningful, but as long as they can jump back in and contribute productively, that's proof of the rehabilitation.

Well said! If an apology is meaningful or not is the decision of the offended user.

Quote:
And hopefully this can all be conducted behind the scenes between Invelos and the users involved.

Would be nice, but maybe too late! I'm afraid that the cause of this conflict already started in front of the scenes. Let's wait and see and hope the best!

Quoting Darxon:

Quote:
And the user should be banned permanently, not temporarily, as I do NOT wish to communicate unknowingly with someone capable of criminal behavior over the constitionally guaranteed right of free speech in a forum.

We have no guaranteed right of free speech in this forum.  This is a privately owned forum and we have whatever rights Invelos grants us.  Free speech doesn't apply here.

Not that I disagree with your message of course.  Just trying to set the facts straight.

Utterly disgraceful, this kind of blackmail! 
Michael, you have my sympathy.
I hope this will be taken care of swifty and effectively.

While I don't condone what has happened let's not blow this out of proportion. All we know is one user threatened to give some a negative vote. The OP says himself he "assumes" the threat comes from a group. And all he did was say he would give a negative vote, not exactly the end of the world.

I have been threatened via PM by one of the most vocal people on this forum on more than one occasion and I know others have been as well. Threats of "making my life miserable if I don't stop corrupting the db." Well that (to me) is more of a threat than someone saying they will give you a negative vote. I made the decision to block any further PMs. I would suggest you do the same here.

Report it to Ken and move on. That's all you can do and IMO all that needs to be done. As Mark said, we have whatever rights Invelos gives us. Put down the pitchforks and let Ken do whatever he feels he needs to do.