Banning Members On Forums

[Philidor]

Originally Posted by ImmortalBeloved

I had committed the crime of having two accounts.

OH MY GOD. THAT'S DISGUSTING. HOW COULD YOU? THEY SHOULD HAVE THROWN THE BOOK AT YOU. IT'S THE ONLY LANGUAGE SOME PEOPLE UNDERSTAND.




I hope @_FK_ and Classical Review are reading this.

[ImmortalBeloved]

Originally Posted by Philidor

OH MY GOD. THAT'S DISGUSTING. HOW COULD YOU? THEY SHOULD HAVE THROWN THE BOOK AT YOU. IT'S THE ONLY LANGUAGE SOME PEOPLE UNDERSTAND.

Weren't my fault guv..I fought me uvver accahnt was gorn! Won't do it agen. Promiss!

[Philidor]

Originally Posted by ImmortalBeloved

Weren't my fault guv..I fought me uvver accahnt was gorn! Won't do it agen. Promiss!

Too late. The punishment must fit the crime.

[marquis66]

Originally Posted by Philidor

Don't get me wrong. I emphasised the ridiculousness of grown adults fighting on the internet: often thousands of miles apart, furiously banging their keyboards, shooting insults down a telephone cable, leaving loved ones waiting in a lonely bed while they hunch over a flickering screen into the wee small hours.

I HAVE NEVER DONE SUCH A THING!

Just don't try to verify that information with my wife...

[Philidor]

Originally Posted by marquis66

I HAVE NEVER DONE SUCH A THING!

Me neither... oh..! ow..!! what's happening..??!

[Mirror Image]

Originally Posted by Philidor

Don't get me wrong. I emphasised the ridiculousness of grown adults fighting on the internet: often thousands of miles apart, furiously banging their keyboards, shooting insults down a telephone cable, leaving loved ones waiting in a lonely bed while they hunch over a flickering screen into the wee small hours.

But there's another side. Social networking is increasingly important. Millions do it. More and more litigation is arising as people defend and promote their online reputations. (I chased an ad agency representing a major British company out of Brightcecilia recently for illegal stealth marketing.) This happened in the UK last week.

So it's a paradox. On the the one hand there's the obvious ridiculousness of internet fights. Observers open the popcorn and watch open-mouthed when they occur. On the other there's the fact that our lives are connected increasingly with online activity. So the normal rules of civilized social interaction are expected to apply: people demand to be treated fairly and with respect by the managers of social networks and their rules, and not to be done down without right of reply. Those aren't unreasonable demands. Some social networks from the old 'Wild West' days (of USENET for example) are playing catch-up. The old 'My forum, my rules' mantra isn't good enough, and the notion of owning a community is shot through with problems.

I think being banned on TC was a good thing for me in the end, it was kind of a signal that I needed to take a break from all forums for a while. My participation here is actually quite minimal compared to my output on TC and that's the way I would like to keep it.

These forums can become addicting, which is why I needed to limit my output. If I'm bored, I usually come on Bright Cecilia to kill some time, but, in the end, my life beckons.

Classical music is one my passions and I love talking about it, but I think an environment has to foster that kind of love and I think BC does this in spades. This forum promotes that love instead of trying to control it.

Finally, I can breathe in the air, kick my feet back, and relax.

[Stlukesguild]

I've been banned from two sites. In the first instance it was a literature site geared toward middle-aged housewives who would make gushing and unintentionally embarassing statements such as "Dan Brown is the greatest writer I've ever read!" At one point a moderator sent me a PM berating my unwanted "hostile" manner of having suggested that Edgar Allen Poe was perhaps not a brilliant poet (Mind you I love his tales, but he's no Keats or Blake). When I responded (quite respectfully mind you) that we cannot always agree when it comes to art, and that such disagreement can be healthy... forcing us to think about and evaluate our preferences, she responded that I was not expected to explain myself in response to her PM, I was simply expected to do as directed, end of story. I assume she banned me after inviting her to engage in a rather impossible auto-erotic activity.

In the second instance I was a participant in a particular art forum run by two boobs who considered themselves true artists. One, named Bob, painted faux textures for people's toilets using sponges. The pair felt it was their duty to belittle and harass anyone having an actual art degree from an accredited university or art school or anyone expressing the least admiration for anything painted after 1860. I, unfortunately, was guilty on both accounts. The pair had a great penchant for making anyone with whom they disagreed simply disappear from the site. Eventually I became disillusioned with the whole situation and wrote a lovely little parable in which I compared "Sponge Bob" to a certain failed German artist who also hated modern art and had a penchant for making people disappear.

But I'm much better house-trained now.

[Mirror Image]

StLukes,

I feel your pain, but you're better off without those forums I think. It's only when you become banned that you realize that you never needed that forum to begin with. If moderators feel the need to control every little thing you do, then ultimately, it's not worth it.

The other forum I was banned from was "All About Jazz," which was a decent forum, but I got banned from there for pretty much the same reason I got banned from TC: telling somebody what I really thought. I guess these forums don't mind opinions just as long as they coincide with the moderator's and the other more "prestigious" members. I'd hate to meet some of these people in real life.

[Herzeleide]

I've been banned from several forums ('fora'?) one of which over ten times! Once it wasn't even for something I'd done on the forum from which I was banned, it was because I'd annoyed someone on another forum who was the boss over on another one on which I posted, and he got all stroppy and wanted revenge.

Fantastically petty but almost always entertaining. Especially when I get on my high horse.

P.S. rofl @ this thread.

[Mirror Image]

Originally Posted by Herzeleide

I've been banned from several forums ('fora'?) one of which over ten times! Once it wasn't even for something I'd done on the forum from which I was banned, it was because I'd annoyed someone on another forum who was the boss over on another one on which I posted, and he got all stroppy and wanted revenge.

Fantastically petty but almost always entertaining. Especially when I get on my high horse.

P.S. rofl @ this thread.

I love getting on my high horse, because usually when I do, I leave all kinds of scared people in my wake. The biggest problem is people on forums (not all of them) are cowards. They're so afraid of telling somebody what they really think. I held my tongue for too long on TC. I just had to let some of those people know how stupid and petty they were.

And if I had a chance to do it all over again, I would do the same thing.