Well,
I FINALLY got some sort of a response from Christy as to why I was banned. It didn't have the corresponding TOS cut and paste she says HAS to be there, but I guess it will have to do. I did get my reimbursement of my classified account money (a little over $24), and I will be applying that to my new banner ads here on Fauna and Cornsnakes.com, which I will shorlty be ordering.
Anyway, here is Christy's response to my formal request of a reason for my banning, and my answer to her. Enjoy it; I know *I* did!
:laugh:
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For discussing the banning of an another user. I don't understand why, when you know that the guidelines of the forum and the TOS both say that we don't discuss bans with third parties or in public, you asked point blank why another user was banned. If we answer that question, we are confirming that another user has been banned, which violates our TOS. If we leave it unanswered and uncontested, it also appears we are publically confirming that another user has been banned, and worse, that we are confirming that the REASON GIVEN IN THAT POST is the reason they were banned. It is an impossible situation. It appeared that you were deliberately being inflammatory in order to cause a disruption, since you knew perfectly well you wouldn't get an answer to your question, since we'd already been down this exact road before.
The purpose of the feedback forum was to give kingsnake.com users the same ability as all the other sites to ask questions, make suggestions, and give feedback. All the other sites have feedback forums - but kingsnake didn't. That didn't seem right to me. But it was not intended as a forum for the dissection of personal issues. That was stated with crystal clarity in the Forum description and even in the TOS. I reminded the forum of this several times, both within threads and in a stand alone reminder. I get that you wanted it to be that. But that was not why I was allowed to create it. That was not the basis on which it was offered. If I had asked Jeff if I could create a forum where users could badmouth each other and the hosts and kingsnake staff, he would have flatly said no. Such a forum would be totally irresponsible and rude. Instead I said that I wanted a forum where users could give comments and suggestions and make complaints about ISSUES, rather than people. With some restrictions I was allowed to do so.
Do you really think a forum where users can come and point fingers at each other and the hosts, and squeal about this person and that person being banned, and speculating as to why, and then having staff of the website come out and give their side of it (uncontested, since the banned person can't even post on the site!), is a good idea? And Darin, didn't we already have this conversation?
I don't know what more I can tell you. I don't know you, but I feel you are someone who'll do whatever you believe is right. If you wish to appeal your ban, just write to Bonnie at
[email protected]. She doesn't know anything about the situation and is a very fair person, so you will get an impartial hearing. If you don't want to appeal it, that's your choice.
Christie
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In a message dated 2/12/2003 3:56:01 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:
> you asked point blank why another user was banned.
You know what, Christy, I did NOT ask why another user was banned. What I did was ask if it was possible for "one" to be banned for using the Toys and Tools to an excess that was neither defined nor previously made known to any of us. I purposefully did not mention anyone's names at all.
After that post I made, Sean Belanger, who WAS banned for the reasons I was asking about (even though I never said that in my previous post about him), came back on under a different screen name and said that he had been so banned. I then agreed that it was ridiculous for such a banning to take place, and it is. I then made a comment about, even though it is 2003, it feels like 1984 in the KS forums right now.
BOOM! I was banned with no warning. I have still not been given my "official" reason for that banning (although you have now told me why I was banned), with the section of TOS I violated copied and pasted therein. Christy you even said that this has to be done for every banning you undertake. If this HAS to be done, and it HASN'T been done for me, what is that supposed to say to me? Am I just not important enough to consider? Have I done nothing to violate TOS in reality, but my comments hurt, so you ban me without rightful provocation? Or do you all just violate your own rules whenever it suits you?
Finally, I want to comment on something that you said in the announce forum in answer to a question from Lorraine. She asked if a person could post a "goodbye" message after he had been banned. You said that users cannot post after they have been banned. Lorraine then said something like, "Thanks, that's what I thought." Then, in another thread on the same forum, you implied that some people were lying when they said they had been banned. Well, Christy, I was the individual to whom Lorraine was referring about posting a "goodbye" message after being banned. I DID post such a message, and I HAD been banned, as you well know. However, now Lorraine (and who knows who else) thinks that I have lied about the facts of my situation, because she sees that I posted after my banishment, when in fact, it is just that KS's ability to enforce a ban on someone is limited by the determination of the banned party to post whenever he wants. It is ridiculous to be banning people because they disagree with you, ask tough questions, or cite uncomfortable literary referrences, but it is even more ridiculous to think that the KS forums are some sort of an impenetrable fortress of the web! Please do not imply that I, nor anyone else, is a liar without having actual facts to back up your statements.
Thanks for your response as to why I was banned, even though it a) is not factual that I did what you have cited me for, and b) violates your own TOS because it was not immediate and does not have the corresponding cut and paste section of the TOS that I supposedly violated. I hope you have a great PetHobbyist day!
Darin K. Chappell
"Rudeness is better than any argument; it totally eclipses intellect." -- Schopenhauer
censorship