# Being banned from forums. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 17, 2020, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-banned-from-forums/849646 "2020-03-17T12:29:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CastletonSnob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ea924/32.png) [@CastletonSnob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CastletonSnob)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-banned-from-forums/849646/1 "2020-03-17T12:29:47Z")
I go to a lot of forums. I’ve also been banned from or gotten infractions from quite a few forums. How many times have you been banned from or gotten infractions from forums, whether it’s this one or other forums? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-banned-from-forums/849646/2 "2020-03-17T12:45:48Z")
Facebook has Groups, which are similar to forums (and where I spend 99% of my FB time). Been tossed out on my ear from a few of them, usually for holding an opinion that doesn’t mesh with those held by the admins and the cohort who post there. Infracted here once but a board software glitch rescued me from being officially nailed for it. Considering how long I’ve been in this place, that’s a testimony to the SDMB and its moderation. Heh, that being a word that has two fully applicable meanings here. Most online forums aren’t fond of dissent and fractious debate. ---
**Author:** ![MoonMoon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonmoon/32/2959_2.png) [@MoonMoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoonMoon)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-banned-from-forums/849646/3 "2020-03-17T12:48:08Z")
I don’t think that’s the norm you appear to think it is. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-banned-from-forums/849646/4 "2020-03-17T12:50:27Z")
Never banned although incurred a couple of time outs for insults over the line. Of course, I wouldn’t last a day at a far rightie board. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-banned-from-forums/849646/5 "2020-03-17T12:51:53Z")
I’ve been posting here for years. In all that time I’ve had precisely one warning for an inappropriate post (completely justified - I rudely interrupted a thread where a story was being constructed a paragraph at a time.) I would be embarrassed to actually get banned. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-banned-from-forums/849646/6 "2020-03-17T13:03:13Z")
Been going on forums since at least 1999 and some (including this one) I’m still on. Never been banned from one, nor (as far as I know) warned or received a note in my permanent file. ---
**Author:** ![CastletonSnob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ea924/32.png) [@CastletonSnob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CastletonSnob)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-banned-from-forums/849646/7 "2020-03-17T13:17:37Z")
> [@MoonMoon](#): > > I don’t think that’s the norm you appear to think it is. I dunno, maybe I’m just an asshole. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-banned-from-forums/849646/8 "2020-03-17T13:50:09Z")
> [@CastletonSnob](#): > > I dunno, maybe I’m just an asshole. Well, as they often say, ‘Statistically, it’s 1 in 3; Look to your left and look to your right…’ ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-banned-from-forums/849646/9 "2020-03-17T15:07:32Z")
Gee, [304 total posts](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php), including [135 threads he’s started](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/search.php?searchid=16557431). Quite a ratio there. Even beat **[Marcus Flavius](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=22194818&postcount=21)** by a good margin. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-banned-from-forums/849646/10 "2020-03-17T16:27:11Z")
> [@CastletonSnob](#): > > I dunno, maybe I’m just an asshole. I don’t know how new you are to the internets, but usually the lure of being able to assume a different identity that cloaks your physical appearance is intoxicating. You feel you have no social barriers and can let your freak flag fly. You think the equally anonymous audience will be wowed by your brutal honesty, but no, turns out they don’t want to put up with assholes. So, maybe you get mad when reactions to you are negative, and you want to punish “the man” by being more aggressive. It becomes a thrill ride, something you rarely get to experience in real life because the consequences can become physical in nature, whereas on a forum, all you’re really getting is a cyberblock. You’re free to fuck shit up in other forums, like a true anarchist. The pattern repeats itself until you find you’ve burned all your bridges and you get permabanned. Now what? Vent your wrath elsewhere and risk the same outcome? You’re just going to stay miserable when all is said and done. You’ll get older, less physically capable, and lonelier. It’s not worth it to be the online rebel. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-banned-from-forums/849646/11 "2020-03-17T16:53:51Z")
I was banned from Television Without Pity (TWoP) with no warning and no idea what my infraction was. I did once get a “watch it” from a mod here for posting song lyrics, which I should’ve known better. StG ---
**Author:** ![Unreconstructed\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/76d3ee/32.png) [@Unreconstructed\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unreconstructed_Man)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-banned-from-forums/849646/12 "2020-03-17T17:02:10Z")
I’ve been banned from a few, mostly anti-vaxxer and rabidly pro-trump boards that I trolled for a laugh because I was bored 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![McDeath\_the\_Mad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a3d4f5/32.png) [@McDeath\_the\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McDeath_the_Mad)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-banned-from-forums/849646/13 "2020-03-17T17:06:48Z")
I don’t know if this is “Justified” but it reminds me of a quote from the great Raylon Givens: “If you run into an asshole in the morning, he’s the asshole. If you run into assholes all day, you’re the asshole!” 🙂 MtM ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-banned-from-forums/849646/14 "2020-03-17T17:08:34Z")
I wasn’t banned, but I posted comment on a company tech support board that got a sub forum shut down. There was a thread called “Remember the suggestion boxes?” and I posted a joke saying “Little known fact: they were actually paper shredders in disguise.” Well, a manager read it and decided the sub forum was bad for morale and that was the end of that. ---
**Author:** ![CastletonSnob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ea924/32.png) [@CastletonSnob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CastletonSnob)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-banned-from-forums/849646/15 "2020-03-17T18:25:52Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > I don’t know how new you are to the internets, but usually the lure of being able to assume a different identity that cloaks your physical appearance is intoxicating. You feel you have no social barriers and can let your freak flag fly. You think the equally anonymous audience will be wowed by your brutal honesty, but no, turns out they don’t want to put up with assholes. > > So, maybe you get mad when reactions to you are negative, and you want to punish “the man” by being more aggressive. It becomes a thrill ride, something you rarely get to experience in real life because the consequences can become physical in nature, whereas on a forum, all you’re really getting is a cyberblock. You’re free to fuck shit up in other forums, like a true anarchist. The pattern repeats itself until you find you’ve burned all your bridges and you get permabanned. Now what? Vent your wrath elsewhere and risk the same outcome? > > You’re just going to stay miserable when all is said and done. You’ll get older, less physically capable, and lonelier. It’s not worth it to be the online rebel. I have no filter, and I tend to get upset when people disagree with me or give me criticism. ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-banned-from-forums/849646/16 "2020-03-17T20:30:09Z")
I got banned from a subreddit for holocaust denial. I wasn’t denying the holocaust, though. Exactly the opposite, I was using it as an example of an attempt to wipe out the Jews. Illiterate mods, mayhap? ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-banned-from-forums/849646/17 "2020-03-17T20:42:28Z")
I was banned from JREF for … some sort of thing relating to an unfair banning of someone else. It was pretty much suicide by mod at a time when the moderation was really crappy. (At least I thought so at the time, it’s probably a decade ago now?!:eek:) And I might have gotten a mod note here once or twice. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-banned-from-forums/849646/18 "2020-03-17T22:44:24Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > I was banned from Television Without Pity (TWoP) with no warning and no idea what my infraction was. I did once get a “watch it” from a mod here for posting song lyrics, which I should’ve known better. > > StG Who HASN’T been banned from that place? You sneeze and they ban you. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-banned-from-forums/849646/19 "2020-03-17T22:56:55Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > I was banned from Television Without Pity (TWoP) with no warning and no idea what my infraction was. I did once get a “watch it” from a mod here for posting song lyrics, which I should’ve known better. > > StG I was banned from there for questioning the ridiculously over the top antics and mocking people on the iirc Ghost Adventures forum. I learned that we must respect the opinions of everyone. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-banned-from-forums/849646/20 "2020-03-17T23:34:16Z")
This is the only board I belong to (except for giraffe, but I haven’t gone there for years) and I am obviously not banned. Did I ever get a warning? Don’t recall any. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-banned-from-forums/849646.md?page=2)