Banned members

[Kevin]

I was just cruising through some 2+ year old threads looking for some specific information. I saw some names that I have not seen in a long time and I went into the thread just for old times sake. I was quite surprised to read that descriptions had been added to their names.

One person was "Banned for not paying his debts.", another was "Banned for having big balls." Although the second may have been a joke, I thought that they were both is very bad taste.

This kind of action by whoever did it is defamatory and not constructive. If the person cannot post on AA anymore, does that mean that their previous posts bring no value to the archive and they should be "qualified".

I could see a poor vendor rating if a person had a bad business dealing but they were still posting, an action like this may protect members, but since that person is banned it does little to protect other members. This type of description after the fact only brings down the credibility of the board.

This community has lost a lot of great members due to disagreements with administrators. Most are likely the members fault, but others could have been prevented by using a little more courtesy. The result of these losses is that I do not believe we have had a net "knowledge" gain in this community even though many members have grown as aquarists. Currently I believe that our forum is stronger than BCAquaria because of the knowledge that our members have and their willingness to share that knowledge. If we could improve in one way, I would like to see us reduce the number of experienced aquarists that are turned off of the forum.

A positive step would be to find and eliminate these negative "Banned for..." references. These references only serve to remind us of the negative. Negative that I cannot always be sure was the banned members fault because we only ever see the moderators point of view.

I do not write this post with any moderator in mind, I appreciate all of the hard work that you put in. I would just like to point out a facet of the board that does not make me proud to be a member. It disturbed me to the point that I considered ending my relationship with the board. If you have taken this personally, which I don't want, please PM me and I will be happy to call you and discuss this privately. Otherwise I would appreciate a public post supporting these negative statements and why they will maintain a part of the board, or a note to say that they will be changed.

If you would like I will volunteer to review members profiles for more of these items if admin cannot just pull up banned members to review.

Thank you for considering my input,

Kevin

[Slough Shark]

I'm almost positive the the user who has "I was banned for having a too big a set of balls." typed tha there himself. If you look at the rest of his profile, it was his own attitude that clearly caused his banning.

I guess some of the comments on the user's profile isn't necessary, but it tells us the reason why they were banned (in some cases), warns us not to make deals with them, etc. If the person is banned, I trust the mod/admin team that it was for a good reason.

Edited January 26, 2008 by Slough Shark

[Tanker]

Really? I was not aware of any of this... but barring a response from anyone else, I can look into it but it's going to take me some time before I have time - just being completely honest, here. I am up to my own 'fair-sized set' in a paramedic course right now and don't have time to think about anything that isn't bleeding or falling off - but I did want you to know that I have seen this, and will respond properly in time.

If no other Mod/Admin/etc puts in a word here for the next week or so, I'll then have a chance to go back and look at a few and see what I can on both sides of the coin.

Thanks.

[Nandopsis]

Please send me a list of people who have these type of things in their sig or otherwise.

I will edit as i find them.

Also there might be a way to take a banned members options to edit their account away, After they are banned.

We'll have to look into that.

[Sam Chicklets]

I know of the member whom Slough Shark is referring to, I had very politely via pm asked him to read through his posts before submitting them. This individual was being abrassive and insulted a number of members. His first response can't be posted here due to the content, and his second response was no better. I will see if I can fix the problem. As for the baned for not paying his debts, this can be useful if you come accross this person on other boards.

[Sam Chicklets]

The statements were made by the member himself. on that particular member, it will no longer appear that way.

[Kevin]

Thank you all for being so prompt to reply to this.

Nandopsis - I have PMd you the other member that was "Banned for not paying his debts", this was the member that really raised my concern. Regarding the person with big ones, I had no idea that people could modify their accounts after they were banned.

Sam, the contents about turning members away was not focused on any particular case. I can see the the guy with "big ones" was not contributing to the community in a positive way. Those comments refer to some situations that took place over a year ago. I thought that those comments may have been relics of those disagreements. Regarding the person who did not pay his debts, I took a look for his website and it does not appear that he is in business any more. I don't feel with different user names on different boards this description gives much protection to others, it only presents a risk for libel when only a few people (possibly only the 2 involved) know the whole story.

Tanker - good luck on your course. I hope that your fish keeping is a release from that pressure and not an extra burden.

Thank you all for being so receptive. I am going away for the weekend but I will keep an eye out for any more of these items. In my mind the matter has been resolved.

Kevin

Edited January 26, 2008 by Kevin