I just picked up a 30 day ban...

[Spellbound]

... on another, not totally unrelated site. And what was my major crime? Spamming, flaming, being an atheist? No, I posted the profile of my Wizard from Diablo3. And it's a very good Wizard too, I'm quite proud of it, lots of damage and all that stuff.

I nearly got thrown out before after a long argument with the mods about religion. They are awfully sensitive.

[MisterTinkles]

Thats why I stopped doing these "places" for years, until I found GS.

You cant say ANYTHING to anybody without them going off on you, citing you for racism, bigotry, anti- gay sentiment, or personally attacking them. Bunch of inbred douchebags.

[Spellbound]

Yeah, it was just a Wiz, that's all. I mean, if it had been my Demon Hunter, then I could have understood it. You don't want to mess with them.

[Evan]

Lots of forums have a rule you can't post anything that can make it possible for people to find you on other sites/off-site. Nothing wrong with that. If they had a rule like that, and you broke it, it's your own fault.

Just being honest.

[Spellbound]

Lots of forums have a rule you can't post anything that can make it possible for people to find you on other sites/off-site. Nothing wrong with that. If they had a rule like that, and you broke it, it's your own fault.

Just being honest.

First one I came across, and it was pretty harmless. Just being honest.

[Evan]

First one I came across, and it was pretty harmless. Just being honest.

I know it was probably harmless, but even then, they make the rules, not you. And once they start making exceptions, it's hard to draw a clear line.

What you need to understand is there's an exceptionally high rate of predator behavior going on on forums. Posting something that could make people find you on other sites -- read, a place where the mods/admins/etc have absolutely no way to monitor what's happening -- makes you vulnerable to this kind of behavior (not talking about you specifically; generally speaking).
Since there's no way to determine for everyone individually whether or not the particular profile in question is a danger (probably 90% of the time it is not), the only way to be safe is setting up a clear rule: no offsite contact details. Period.

If you break that rule, how can you possibly be mad at them for banning you?

Another thing to keep in mind is, if anything like mentioned above does happen (and it has before), the forum is held responsible. Any kind of subsidy they were granted before, they will lose (yes, this has also happened before).

What I'm trying to show you by explaining all this, is that the admin's/mod's are probably not banning you because they get so much satisfaction out of it; they do it because it's necessary if they wanna keep ensuring a safe environment for everyone. After all, that's what they are there for: ensure a safe environment and help other people.

There's no need to feel offended if I'm giving you my honest opinion.

I hope you at least consider the things I just said.

[Spellbound]

I know it was probably harmless, but even then, they make the rules, not you. And once they start making exceptions, it's hard to draw a clear line.

What you need to understand is there's an exceptionally high rate of predator behavior going on on forums. Posting something that could make people find you on other sites -- read, a place where the mods/admins/etc have absolutely no way to monitor what's happening -- makes you vulnerable to this kind of behavior (not talking about you specifically; generally speaking).
Since there's no way to determine for everyone individually whether or not the particular profile in question is a danger (probably 90% of the time it is not), the only way to be safe is setting up a clear rule: no offsite contact details. Period.

If you break that rule, how can you possibly be mad at them for banning you?

Another thing to keep in mind is, if anything like mentioned above does happen (and it has before), the forum is held responsible. Any kind of subsidy they were granted before, they will lose (yes, this has also happened before).

What I'm trying to show you by explaining all this, is that the admin's/mod's are probably not banning you because they get so much satisfaction out of it; they do it because it's necessary if they wanna keep ensuring a safe environment for everyone. After all, that's what they are there for: ensure a safe environment and help other people.

There's no need to feel offended if I'm giving you my honest opinion.

I hope you at least consider the things I just said.

You know, I'd like to thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with me. I honestly didn't know anything about that, at all.

I'm glad you explained to me what what I need to understand, because I didn't understand that before, so I clearly needed to understand that.

Maybe you need to understand that I'm not mad about it, and I don't care about it, and I don't care about your opinion, which you should keep to yourself.

And let me tell you about another facet of life, which is called risk-taking. Everyone breaks the rules, and rightly so, because they are arbitrary and put in place by people like you. I break the rules all the time, and so do you; we break the speed limit and park illegally and do lots of other things which are against the rules, and posting something innocuous on a gay website comes into that category: harmless.

[Sylph]

Why if you don't care, did you feel the blessed and glorious need to make this known to us and then get feisty when someone merely expressed their opinion, which after all is what you wanted by posting this apparently trivial and to you a non issue matter.

I'm not saying anything to be rude, to start an argument, I'm had enough bickering with you Spellbound, but It is very evident you sought attention with this thread and for you to backlash someone for giving it to you makes no logical sense.

I know you are quite intelligent, however, this was perhaps an oversight on your part or exactly what you wanted.

You can tell me to keep my opinion to myself too, but I just think conversation can be held without resorting to immature childish retaliations. Granted I had one towards you not too long ago, but really, I don't see how it helps or works.

I know how you're going to respond, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't and took the time to actually talk rather than spit venom, as I'm not spitting at you.

[Spellbound]

Sylph, you know I love you. I mourned your loss when you changed names and I thought you were gone.

I shared my experience with the board because I wanted to, and I usually do what I want. That doesn't mean I care particularly about it, I just thought some people here would find it amusing. You could probably tell that from the tone of my posts.

I thought my response was very restrained actually. I'm not sure what you are objecting to.

Let me be a bit more specific then: I'm very careful who I take advice from, and so should everyone. If someone recommends a great French restaurant, and I don't think they'd know such a thing if it jumped up and hit them in the face, then I ignore that advice. That's not being rude, just sensible.

There, I didn't spit at you, right?

Peace and love.

[Evan]

You know, I'd like to thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with me. I honestly didn't know anything about that, at all.

I'm glad you explained to me what what I need to understand, because I didn't understand that before, so I clearly needed to understand that.

Maybe you need to understand that I'm not mad about it, and I don't care about it, and I don't care about your opinion, which you should keep to yourself.

And let me tell you about another facet of life, which is called risk-taking. Everyone breaks the rules, and rightly so, because they are arbitrary and put in place by people like you. I break the rules all the time, and so do you; we break the speed limit and park illegally and do lots of other things which are against the rules, and posting something innocuous on a gay website comes into that category: harmless.

Yes, you are allowed to break the rules. But then be willing to face the consequences.

There's clearly no point in me replying to this in detail anymore, sadly.

It's a pity we couldn't have a decent discussion. Oh well, have a nice day.