Don't like spam? Be careful...

[East Hill]

Yesterday I was banned from another bike forum. Why? Because apparently, I had REPORTED a spammer, and the moderator thought I WAS the spammer. This is what being banned looks like:

You have been banned for the following reason:
spammer

Date the ban will be lifted: Never

The moderator didn't bother to notice that I had been a member for 2 years. The moderator didn't care that I was a paid member. All the moderator did was click a button TWICE without thinking, even though all moderator functions ask "are you sure?".

When you are banned you discover that you can't send a message to anyone to ask WHY, WHAT, and HOW can you restore your good name and access.

So, what's the point of this story? Simple. Don't bother flagging spam, no matter how offensive. Don't worry about children looking at disgusting stuff on the computer. There's no way I can contact anyone on the other forum, but in the meantime my user name is emblazoned with the scarlet letters BANNED.

Just warning all of you even though I believe the moderators on this forum pay more attention than the moderators on the other forum, you need to be careful with what you do.

By the way, I am a moderator on a genealogy forum, so I know what it's like. I know that if I saw a member who posts almost daily was tagged as a spammer I would be sending a question via pm to that member, at least to see if his or her computer had gotten infected with a virus. It's one thing to shut down a spammer who has never posted before, but that's not true in this case.

Any one have a similar experience, and how did you go about solving it?

East Hill

[mimitabby]

well, do you know anyone else on that forum?
if you do write to them.
if you don't, get on someone else's computer(library works) and rejoin with another name
and immediately write to the moderator.

[East Hill]

Actually I happen to have a couple of e-mail addresses (because you can't use the pm function when you've been banned!), but I haven't heard back from the one person to whom I wrote. I will give him the benefit of the doubt, and assume that he hasn't gotten the e-mail yet. But what happens if no one wants to help?

I realize that I can (and will) set up another account on a different machine to contact a moderator, but I just can't get over how appalling it is that someone would wipe out my good name WITHOUT bothering to LOOK at what they just did.

East Hill

[mimitabby]

hey, you live 10 miles from me

good luck. stuff happens. I would definitely track down the moderator.

[Dianyla]

There should be a link to contact site support or the administrator. I moderate on another forum and people who are banned or locked out for whatever reason can contact us that way.

[emily_in_nc]

On Team E, you can report spam without any fear of retribution. It just goes away, and they certainly don't disable your account! Yay Team E!!!

Sorry this happened to you, and hope you can get it taken care of. Sounds like the moderator was probably in a hurry and just not paying attention. Good luck!

Emily

[caligurl]

Yesterday I was banned from another bike forum. Why? Because apparently, I had REPORTED a spammer, and the moderator thought I WAS the spammer. This is what being banned looks like:

You have been banned for the following reason:
spammer

Date the ban will be lifted: Never

The moderator didn't bother to notice that I had been a member for 2 years. The moderator didn't care that I was a paid member. All the moderator did was click a button TWICE without thinking, even though all moderator functions ask "are you sure?".

When you are banned you discover that you can't send a message to anyone to ask WHY, WHAT, and HOW can you restore your good name and access.

So, what's the point of this story? Simple. Don't bother flagging spam, no matter how offensive. Don't worry about children looking at disgusting stuff on the computer. There's no way I can contact anyone on the other forum, but in the meantime my user name is emblazoned with the scarlet letters BANNED.

Just warning all of you even though I believe the moderators on this forum pay more attention than the moderators on the other forum, you need to be careful with what you do.

By the way, I am a moderator on a genealogy forum, so I know what it's like. I know that if I saw a member who posts almost daily was tagged as a spammer I would be sending a question via pm to that member, at least to see if his or her computer had gotten infected with a virus. It's one thing to shut down a spammer who has never posted before, but that's not true in this case.

Any one have a similar experience, and how did you go about solving it?

East Hill

wow! which forum? and do you know who the moderator was? can you have someone else write, on your behalf, to find out why and explain your case?

[East Hill]

Trek420--Mostly I've just lurked here (I joined up in July of this year, but had been reading at least for a year before joining) and enjoyed 'heaven for women cyclists'. It's definitely a different feel than other bike forums where there seems to be just WAY too much testosterone. I mean, who cares if you are wearing clothes (unisex, mind you) that have the zippers on 'the wrong side'. We've all dealt with that for years, because I know that all of us have worn at least one piece of so-called men's clothing in our life, if only because that's what's at the thrifts, eh?

KnottedYet--That's a good thought about posting in the PNW forum. I think the only reason I haven't done so is that I am so accustomed to riding by myself due to my work hours, plus sometimes Mr. East Hill comes with me. I'm not very fast either But I do love my bikes. By the way, your avatar is just gorgeous, it reminds me of my Nishiki Pro.

caligurl--I hate to say it, but it's BF. I don't know who the moderator is who banned me. I gave up hoping that the two members I contacted would assist (I'm going to be charitable and believe that my e-mails didn't get through the spam filters), but I set up another account and contacted 55/Rad. He is looking into the matter. I know that there are five new moderators and my guess would be that it was one of the new mods.

Anyway, I think I will have to go over to Introductions and properly introduce myself instead of whinging on.

East Hill

[East Hill]

Well, thanks to all of you who supported me, I have managed to be un-banned from the other forum.

But I think I need to start posting more here .

Cheers,

East Hill

[mimitabby]

Hey East Hill, I live on the South End of Beacon Hill in Seattle. I like the green river trail and the interurban trail too.
I like to get up early so maybe some time (not now, really!) when the weather improves and the days are longer we could meet in the morning.
and i am happy to hear you got un-banned, but how did you do it?

[East Hill]

Hey mimitabby, that would be great! It certainly would not be today (raining like cats and dogs), but I'll pm you later and see what we can come up with.

I have now been un-banned, but in order to restore myself I had to clear all the cookies identifying me as East Hill (I have the same user name) and register under a different name. I contacted one of the mods, who looked into it for me. The mod reported back that I had been banned by mistake by one of five brand new moderators. That moderator contacted me via the alternate username and apologized. I never did hear back from either of the two forum members whose e-mail addresses I had. Only caligurl offered any assistance! Sad...I don't think any of you on this forum would have hesitated to contact me to find out what had happened and offer assistance.

East Hill