Ever been banned or shunned from a bulletin board?

I’ve been going on ten months here in the SDMB. Although I’ve been involved in a couple of ornery message exchanges, and I don’t always feel like I’m contributing to “fighting ignorance,” I think it’s been a good run so far – I’ve been to a couple of Dopefests, met folks for drinks, and I’m now hopelessly addicted. Dopers are an intelligent, easygoing lot, and I like hanging sround, throwing my two cents in, and getting my fill of brain food. (FWIW, I have my own bulletin board for urban planning-related topics, and I was active in the old BBS scene in my hometown from the 1982 until I discovered the Internet in 1987.)

I’m wondering, though … for those that participate in other bulletin boards, have you ever “clicked” in some places, like the SDMB, while being downright despised in others? Have you even been banned or shunned from bulletin board?

About the same time I joined the SDMB, I also joined another vBulletin-based bulletin board, the primary focus of which was dating advice and general chatter. A couple of months later, the paramedics had to carry me out, after suffering third degree burns. There was an entrenched core of regulars there, and I was a suspect newbie. A “post 'em like you see 'em” attitude works well here, but there, it was a completely different story. It seems as if I wasn’t extremely careful about the way I worded something, and someone felt the least bit offended by one of my posts or responses, I got ganged up on with flamethrowers ablaze. I just didn’t fit in, and the regulars made it perfectly clear. When I tried to defend myself or apologize for the way I worded something, I got beat up more. I started to get flamed for for mundane posts that would have been ignored if posted by other people; that fact that it came from me was enough to render the post suspicious and deserving of hard criticism. I remember starting a “chick car” thread that was about as well received as a Klan march through Harlem; here in the SDMB, recent “chick car,” “chick drink” and “chick movie” threads are considered fun chatter.

Things spiraled downward fast, and I eventually left in a huff – pretty immature of me, thinking back on it, but still, I don’t know how else to handle it at the time.

I’ll still have a look at that board every now and then. To this day, they’re STILL ragging on me, several months after I made my last post there. It’s the equivalent of high schoolers that continue to make fun of the unpopular kid, years after he or she transferred to another school where the kids actually like him or her; it’s not a pleasant experience.

I’m shunned here everday.

Not a bulletin board per se, but I was “asked” to leave a newsgroup. It was a newsgroup for the computer game Elite. The Elite series was written in the UK, and the newsgroup had a very strong anti-American slant. In my defense, I mentioned I’m a Canadian living in the 'States, but that was worse in their eyes since that made me a “traitor”. I didn’t make a big deal about it, I just quit. It was just some stupid computer game newsgroup after all, nothing important.

I was sort of shunned on alt.folklore.urban because I felt the newsgroup should discuss, say, urban legends, instead of the social lives of the inner circle there. I’ve never seen a more clique-ish, hostile newsgroup in my life. I of course wasn’t singled out - it was pretty much anyone who wasn’t one of the main people was more or less invited to shut up unless one of the elders there spoke to them, which wasn’t going to happen. It may be better now, for all I know.

Until recently I hung out on the Something Awful forums, but they have gone from being fun and wacky to being hostile and childish, so I willingly removed myself from there.

Yep. I was shunned at www.annabegins.com, which is a Counting Crows site. I used to write stuff there, and post it on their poetry forum. We’d give each other assignments and stuff. One was to write something that started with the line “I could never tell…” I wrote something entitled “Date Rape.” Seemed a logical progression of the intro to me. One of the mods freaked out because she had been raped, and deleted it. I disapproved of this action, and was shunned. I eventually left on my own, before they banned me.

When I first started my internet life, nearly 4 years ago now, I stumbled upon http://www.80s.com and I absolutely loved their games and such. Then I found the message board. I wasn’t a “newbie” for long. I met some really wonderful people there (including fellow Doper Lolagranola - who also no longer frequents the 80s forum) and I even met some of them IRL. We talked about everything, not just the 80s but quite often the posts were 80s related, and as a whole, we didn’t shun newbies unless they came in just to start a flame war. There were a few people who would jump to conclusions and argue about EVERYTHING, and some who would just bitch and moan, but for the most part it was a friendly place.

The the election of 2000 hit, and the topic of discussion on most days was politics (one of the reasons Lola left - American politics don’t interest her, and I can’t say that I blame her - it was getting pretty bad there.) However, the proverbial poo poo hit the fan in April…

It had been coming for a long time. They were making nearly EVERYTHING on the site pay-only access. Even the CHATROOM was for VIP (paying) members only. In April, the owners posted a notice on the forum that we were allowed to post on 80s topics ONLY, and that anything NOT on topic would be deleted. I understood their logic - newbies or people who visited infrequently could be put off by some of the topics. But when we tried to present our arguments or ask questions (some were a little less mature than others, granted) the posts were deleted. Then we were told that posters who had to be deleted repeatedly would be banned. We decided it was time to leave, and one of our regulars created his own message board. Most of us post there now.

Occasionally I’ll check out the 80s forum to see what’s going on. Traffic has really slowed down there since we left. Sometimes questions that are posted there won’t be answered for days at a time, if at all. But I guess that’s par for the course. They made a decision, one over the other. Life goes on. There are other meeting places.

Here, for instance.

YES!

The Hissyfit.com and MightyBigTV.com forums.

AT Hissyfit, there was a debate about calling centers, and the stupidity of some callers. Someone mentioned people calling who couldn’t speak English and were incredibly rude about it. Someone said, well, no one should have to speak English-it’s your fault you don’t know whatever language. So, the one person, who had written articles for this site-and thus, was in the “Inner Clique”, called someone HoneyPuke or whatever (her name was HOneyBeespit).

I just said, “You know, it’s really not very mature to just say, “So and so whatever”, or something to that effect, and signed off. The next day, when I attempted to log on, I was not allowed to post. I’m like, huh?
So, I e-mailed and e-mailed the admins, who sent me a Form LEtter-Dear So and So, you were purged in an Undesirable Poster purge, and we are sorry to state that there is no recourse. Which means, any additional e-mails, asking again, why you were banned, will be ignored.” That didn’t tell me jack, and I had NO idea what I had done, so I did something stupid, but only just to appologize-I signed on with a Space in my name and told the posters what happened, stated I was sorry WHOEVER I offended, and that I wouldn’t be back, I’d miss them. No one knew WHY I was banned.

Then, that thread was closed, new title banned-and thread DELETED. Whatever-I really was over it, at this point. THEN, I get an e-mail from Wing Chun, the Head HOncho over at Hissyfit telling me I was stupid, none of her “inner circle” liked me, because I had argued with someone over a point and even though I tried to concede, was laughed at, I was stupid, blah blah blah and that I was banned from MBTV because I had asked there why I was banned. She said, “That was dumb. I don’t like stupid people on my boards.”

I found out I’m not the only one-people have been banned for signing their posts, having sigs (but there is one guy who was allowed to have sigs-because they liked him)-for starting topics-ANY TOPIC that the Admins don’t like-like for instance, list making threads. (Guess they don’t like Opal over there,), for being teenagers who ask about dating questions-and not stupid ones either-but they make fun of most younger people-for asking questions about the MEssage board-you’re not allowed to discuss the board on the board-you have to e-mail admins-for starting threads about SUVs, or being SLIGHTLY Un-PC (I knew someone who was banned for saying that she Loved Rufus Wainright and said, “It’s so unfair to us girls that he is gay!”)-which is deemed homophobic, etc etc.

It’s a pretty cheesy board, when compared to this one. I mean, they think they’re so high and elite and intellectual, but I’d say if any of them came here-well, the “inner circle elites” they’d get their asses kicked.

MOST Of the people there are nice, just the few that run the board are pretty full of themselves. Here, at least, you can disagree with someone who is a mod-on politics, say, and it’s generally not a big deal, since we’re debating. There huh uh-if you disagree with WIng, you’re out. As a result, it’s not a good place for debate-no opposing view points are allowed.

I hope I don’t sound bitter. I mean, it was just a board. I just wanted to explain, because most of you probably wouldn’t think of me as the type who would get called on by a mod for being “stupid.”

I have been banned from BadAstronomy Board; by error, as it turns out, but BANNED, nonetheless.

I had logged on to the Board into the middle of a bashing, with no purpose seemingly in mind other than to hack & slash, to bash a poster who was disliked. It was a street gang, cyber-kicking one of the enemy. I didn’t much like this poster either since when he got irate, he filled the board with ill-tempered rant. Nonetheless, this particualar time, I chided the hack & slashers and said that they made the Board look more like something out of NAZI Germany rather than from the U.S. Alas, the BadAstro, himself, thought that I had called HIM a Nazi for deleating nasty threads (he never did that to me but…). I was, and am, banned for life.

I suppose that it was all for the better, though, mistake or not, since unlike what everyone else has said about the Boards they have left, I get very “homesick” everytime I go the the BadAstronomy Board. It’s really a very nice Board; the BadAstro is, if anything, overly tolerant (in my mind) of crudeness and rudeness; and the original posters—when I first got there at NASA’s suggestion—were a very nice bunch. The stories linked by them were usually GREAT: top of the line, space-wise. The PICS linked were FANTASTIC. Still, when you’re “off to war”, it’s not a good idea to let yourself get “homesick” for the nicer, pleasanter times.

As the OP, since people are fessing up to the sites from which they were banned and/or generally spat upon, I’ll admit to http://www.wtpforums.com.

This is untrue. I have never banned anyone from the BABB, ever. Furthermore, I can’t do it; the software doesn’t have a banning capability.

I have sent email to different people who have repeatedly or grossly broken my rules on the site and told them they were persona non grata there. If you are who I think you are, I did send you such an email. It certainly did seem to me that you were likening me to a Nazi, and several others felt that way as well. Not only is such an analogy silly (I have one of the most open posting policies on the web), it’s insulting and completely over-the-top.

If I am mistaken and you did not call me a Nazi, then my apologies. Bear in mind, once again, that I cannot ban anyone from my board (which I also explained in the email). However, using words like “Nazi” is a great way to end a thread quickly, and I reserve the right to delete such a thread with alacrity and without apology. I would gather from reading what moderators here at SDMB have to say about similar situations that my reaction is similar to theirs.

I wasn’t actually banned, but I made nothing but enemies
at an Andy Griffith Show Bulletin Board.

Andy Griffith fans! They got mad at me, when, in a thread
where the OP was basically, “Wouldn’t the world be so much
better if everybody was like they were back in the days
when everything was like Mayberry?” and I dared to challenge
it.

It wasn’t a bulletin board but a moderated digest-format mailing list (a listserv) instead–PROFEMEN, a list for men who support and are in agreement with the goals and theories of the feminist movement.

I was shunned in general and twice threatened by powerful established regulars (although not by the Moderators) with “You watch it or I’ll have you banned”.

The board mentality was…well, the emotional dynamics were kind of like a sackcloth 'n ashes fundamentalist Christian group I once knew: All men are oppressors and (sinfully) benefit from it; we can (and should) eschew participation in patriarchy even as we acknowledge that we are (weak and sinful and backsliding) invariably going to take advantage of our male privileges, and to pretend otherwise (pride goeth before a fall) is to testify to just how oblivious you are to your (sinful) masculine enculturation and blind expectation of privilege. In this forum we do not speak for women, nor tell them what they should believe, but we will watch each other for missteps upon which we will pounce (for none among us is free of original sin), quoting and replying to the list, “Franklyn, did it not occur to you that, instead of complying with the request to speak on the subject, you could have directed the reporter to call a local radical feminist women’s group? You are complicit in denying women their own voice and we as men must stop doing that…”

I posted something to the effect that “if you can convince me that I genuinely and truly BENEFIT from patriarchy, I will stop supporting feminism and will embrace patriarchy wholehearted, for reasons that the dictionary definition of ‘BENEFIT’ should make clear and apparent; otherwise, excuse me if I fail to do the blame & shame game shuffle, and allow as how I might seek the end of patriarchy for wholeheartedly self-serving and self-valorizing reasons.”

This did not go over well.

I’d mention it by name, but that might get me banned from this board, so I won’t.

Sometimes it just ain’t meant to be - and sometimes, that ain’t a bad thing.

Esprix

Never been banned. But I expect to be today. I made the statement “Some mods are jerks.” True enough, not hard to prove, but a taboo subject.

Wow…Mark IV was banned before my eyes…poof. I was kicked off a mailing list because “I didn’t post often enough”. Just because I didn’t reply to every post with a "me too’ or a “three cheers for you” type post.

I made the mistake of questioning the distribution policy of Left Behind-The Movie on the LBMB, had all of my previous posts on all subjects removed, and was banned for life. They wouldn’t answer my e-mails, and pre-banned me from the Left Behind-The Movie Message Board, though they claimed not to be afiliated with each other.

I got kicked off a homeschooling mailing list - the mod was a fundy and she didn’t like me at all. We had a lively little debate about welfare and about how if all those lazy bums got off their backsides they too could work. She kicked me off for crude language after I commented that trickle down economics was where the rich pissed on the poor.

Not really banned just shunned from an RPG website/ messageboard. No one would talk to me or comment on anything I said 'cause I didn’t agree with them on which was the best RPG for the playstation. That was a couple of years ago the site isn’t even around anymore.

You might enjoy the Gil Thorp Message Boards, where making
fun of Jerry Jenkins is a big sport:

I was kicked out of Fidonet’s Men’s Rights echo when I kept asking people for, you know, objective evidence of their claims. The moderator, “Lazarus Long,” had some sort of mental problem.

And I’ve banned myself from Usenet, which I’ve just given up on completely.