Over a month ago, I was banned from the Yanks Abroad forum by Dark Knight for no violation whatsoever. In his own words it was because a "5 post limit is in effect on all threads." And I inadvertantly went over the 5 post limit. When I informed him that other posters had posted well over 5 times, he replied that "It doesn't apply to everyone." There are users who have posted over 20 times in single threads on the forum, users who are actually constantly sarcastic and hostile. I still have absolutely no idea why I was banned, simply for posting? When I politely asked why i was banned, Dark Knight replies with "You need to drop the hostility/faux confusion if you want to have any chance of making any progress here." It really comes off as him trying to play a game at my expense. He claims I ignored his request to stop posting, which if I did was inadvertent, but to ban someone for posting more than 5 times? A "stop posting or you're banned" ultimatum is pretty much a lose lose for the poster, and I absolutely did nothing to warrant such treatment. You can look through my posting history and see that there's nothing that warrants a forum ban by any stretch. When I asked him what I needed to do in order to be given posting rights again, he replied with "I'm not sure what you have to do - I'll think about it." And there has been no reply since. I still to this point, don't understand why Dark Knight is playing games with me.
You probably tried to introduce a dose of realism, which doesn't go down well in that forum. It's a horribly moderated forum with a bunch of posters completely divorced from reality. I used to try and point out some of the more obvious nonsense, which naturally got me banned eventually.
Dripping Milk - you were banned for ignoring requests multiple times - and not caring that you were ignoring requests. We don't have time to hand hold posters that can't be bothered to listen to us.
I was not aware that I had gone over the posting limit in either case, and also am still not aware why there was a posting limit for me at all. You said a 5 post rule was in effect while other posters were posting 20 times a thread. I wasn't posting anything close to an excessive amount, and was posting at the same frequency as the majority of users.
No, I wasn't doing anything controversial. I'm still waiting for Dark Knight to explain why he did what he did.
That's a disgrace. You didn't ask "what's happened to Adu recently" did you. It's best not to bring that up.
Nope, I still have no idea. And I'm still banned. Are there any other mods I could ask? Dark Knight still hasn't explained, what he said in this topic doesn't make any sense.
I was banned for also exceeding a posting threshold. Mine was 15 -- I think. When I asked Dark Knight what the limit was, he responded with the following post -- Like you, I checked the TOS to see where this type of rule came from. Nothing there. There was a "joke" in the Freddy Adu threads last summer, where people would come to the thread and complain that people were posting there. It was suggested that a posting limit would cut the conversations way down. Apparently the posting limit was implemented for some people, and not others. I thought that there were ignore lists for that reason. Not impressive.
And meanwhile posters like Sidefootsitter make 20 posts a topic, almost all of them obnoxious. Agreed, not impressive.
IM there too, I havent been allowed to post. But yea, I agree its lazy moderating. Thats what we are here for, to post. If you dont have time to watch over the forum, delete posts or keep people in check.... LET SOMEONE ELSE step up to be a mod! But yea, I politely followed the rules, as I too have been told by DK to not post on the Adu threads. It worked I guess, cause they are no where as full of posts as before. Lazy Moderating I say.
Guys - if you ignore moderator requests, the likelihood of you being banned from a forum is very high. You were all politely asked to restrict your posting in Adu threads, 2 of you completely ignored the requests, one of you ignored the requests, but apologized when it occurred. Guess who is still accessing the forum? I'm sure there are unmoderated forums out there where you don't have to listen to moderator requests.
I actually thought it was fairly successful as the same handful of folks who were constantly dominating discussion took a step back and let others join the discussion and the noise to signal ratio improved. Lazy moderating would have been to just forum ban the lot and been done with it.
"Stop posting, otherwise I will be forced to revoke your posting privileges. It's ok if everyone else posts though, and you didn't do anything against the TOS or post anything negative in any way. " Dark Knight, it makes no sense, at all.
Except that's not was said to you and your unwillingness to make an effort to get that is a big part of the reason you have no access to the forum. But - if that had been said to you - and you ignored it - what did you expect to happen? You ignored it multiple times.
I just went and checked. Last July, I peaked for participation in an Adu thread at 50 posts in a 1000 post thread. (I was at the beach and it was when Adu was being dumped by Aris.) Today's Adu thread is ~500 posts longs and the poster "dominating" the thread has 33 posts. Is that good or bad? Will that poster be banned? Should that poster be banned? For myself, once I realized that the YA forum was being set up so some posters were more equal than others (ie, that some posters had these limits while others could post all they want) , I had no interest in posting there any longer. Simple as that really. Certainly I wasn't going to apologize because I had expected to be treated the same as every other participant in that forum. Since this is the customer forum, I would suggest that the TOS be modified so that they make it clear that anything, anytime can get you banned from a forum. Right now, the TOS imply that so long as you follow all the stated rules, you're golden. Not true, apparently.
I no longer participate in the YA forum due to the poor signal to noise ratio. This is what the mods are trying to address. I would guess that you had sevaral good posts and were not asked to limit them. This, as it appears, is what the mods of that forum are doing. AFIK, they are contacting said posters through PMs and let them know to turn down the noise. The consiquence is to be banned. You appear to be upset that posters were banned for not listening to the mods. It happens on every forum on BS. You don't participate positively, you get warned by a mod. You ignore that warning, you can be banned. Further, differnt forums have different characteristics. These characteristics need to be addressed differently by the mods of each forum. The characteristics of YA are different than The Beautiful Game, which is different than Mexico. The one commonality is that they all have mods, and they all have posters banned because they did not listen to the mods.
SEe thats the thing, we were not banned because of being 'bad' posters. We added many great points and points of view to the discussions. But in doing so, we caused TOO much discussion, and many times mods felt the need to clam things because of how fast posts would acuumulate in said threads. We werent 'flame' posters, and I feel the way the mods have dealt with it has been poor. It is a job of a mod to keep things open, free, and discussion going. The second that stops, and it gets limited, the second this site loses its 'charm'. Maybe there needs to be more mods? I know how it is, I am a moderator at other forums non soccer related (car forums). I know how it can get stressful, but its the job of the moderator to keep things going. To just sit posters out and cut out theri participation becuase they are 'lazy' to keep watching over like a hawk on threads is just plain lazy to me. If you need more mods for help, look for that, or if you are not up to the job STEP DOWN.
No BF - Soccernutter has it right. The problem wasn't "too much discussion" nor is it about not wanting to watch the forum.
We were banned from a certain thread/ posting on it. I know I cannot post right now as a result. Although I am not 'physically' banned where I am not blocked, I have been told if I do post, my YA posting priv's would get taken away. Why was this? I am lost based on your response on post #22. Why? Why were we told not to 'post anymore'?