Banned From the Warrior Forum…Disgrace or Badge of Honor?
If it were not that this incident would eventually be discovered by someone and would ultimately come to the attention of my readers, I wouldn’t even dignify it with an acknowledgement. However, my readers and friends deserve more.
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oops! Must have been a computer glitch…log in again. oops!
My stomach began to churn, and I could feel my face burning! This can’t be!
How do you get banned for spamming when your best effort at marketing is a timid little line in your signature, when your blog is probably the worst monetized on the web, and my mailing list members can certainly verify that I have never attempted to sell them anything that had a dollar sign attached to it–not even in a P.S. or in a one-liner under my signature?
If you think I’m going to tell you the answer, you’re wrong, because I don’t know myself. When I was banned, I wasn’t even shown the courtesy of citing the forum post that caused the ban. The screen shot you see above just flashed on my screen when I tried to resume posting after having gone to my control panel for a few minutes.
I’m sorry that I can’t be fair and tell you both sides of the story, and I do think I know the REAL reason, but I’ll get to that later. I’ve been around long enough to know what spam is, so there’s no possibility that I did it accidentally–and I have zero tolerance for spam, myself.
There’s another thing I have zero tolerance for, too. That’s having my integrity questioned. False accusations do just that. Unsubstantiated ones do, too. Those Terms of Service in ALL forums state that they can throw you out at any time for any or no reason…no explanation or justification required. Rather un-American, isn’t it, repudiating the tenets of that justice system we’re so proud of? You know: innocent until proven guilty, the right to confront your accuser, the right to freedom of speech… That kind of banning sounds like what goes on in the third world dictatorships.
Even so, those Terms of Service are both understandable and justifiable. Forums couldn’t operate if black-hat marketers, smart-alecks, and other assorted weirdoes who demanded a ‘hearing’ or explanation as to why they were banned–or sued or threatened to sue the forum–were catered to. But, members who have been around a while, who have made positive contributions to the forum, and have had no serious issues previously (I throw that last one in because I once had a thread deleted by what I assumed to be a wannabe moderator, even though I explained in the new thread why I was starting it when a relevant thread already existed) don’t deserve the same treatment.
After rounding up and discounting the usual suspects–someone stole my username, a moderator hit the wrong button , or I was mistaken for another member with a similar username–I headed for the internet to see what I could learn. I was astonished–as in ASTONISHED!–by what I found, both in quantity and content.
- The Warrior Forum’s policy of indiscriminate banning has been drawing fire for more than a year.
- There are several blogs generated by banned members.
- This 4-page thread at Anthony Blake Online forum. A real eye-opener!
I’m getting a little ahead of myself here, but none of the people I found posting on forums or commenting on blog posts reported being banned for anything other than spamming. That has made me suspect that that is the only occasion for a permanent ban, suggesting it is what they use when they need an excuse to get rid of someone they simply don’t like.
For clarification, here’s my side of the story:
A thread had been started about the deterioration of the War Room since it was opened to the public with the subject “What happened to theWar Room?” I replied, “Excuse me for laughing, but couldn’t you see it coming from a mile away? I saved my $37 dollars.” Someone replied to me with “*Note to self…Pass over any WSO’s or skip getting on any mailing list from this one…That’s a ***poor attitude to have.” (Isn’t that cute?) I suspect that that is the origin of the ban.
This entire site (and I am the entire site) emphasizes that integrity, honesty, and openness are its foundation, and if you can genuinely challenge that, you are welcome to post a comment to that effect. (NB: Don’t try to be cute or confrontational; I’ll delete your comment.) Not surprisingly, then, I can hardly regret an incident that revealed I was associated with and participating in an organization that I consider not in accord with my own standards.
A final comment: The Warrior Forum belongs to Allen Says, and he (along with any Warrior Forum member – there’s a sticky on the forum explaining that policy) can ban anyone for any reason that suits his fancy. In the end, all of this indiscriminate and unwarranted banning says a lot more about Allen Says than it does about me and the rest his innocent victims. I fully support justifiable bans.
Tags: banned, Warrior Forum
January 13th, 2010 at 6:46 am
[...] Banned From the Warrior Forum…Disgrace or Badge of Honor? [...]
January 13th, 2010 at 6:50 am
Sorry to hear that you got banned. It’s terrible when it happens. The thing with forums is that some moderators begin to act like power hungry dictators. They’ll shoot you at the knees if you dare to disagree – either with them or with one of their cronies.
If that moderator had any sense of decency he/she could have at least given you a warning with the right of response from you. To ban someone who has over time contributed to the forum for one infraction (if there was actually an infraction in the first place) is tells me the place is heartless and unethical.
Anyhow, there are better forums with less inclination to argue, and more inclination to share, experience, encourage and have fun.
January 13th, 2010 at 7:15 am
@Michelle. Thank you, Michelle. You certainly have a perfect understanding of the situation, and I deeply appreciate your support.
January 13th, 2010 at 8:29 am
Hi Jody…
Interesting scenario. I’ve personally never paid much attention to the “banning” going on myself, but in this instance it appears (by the info you are providing here) you were just offering your opinion.
Weird that WF would ban you for simply offering your opinion. Guess you struck a nerve eh, LOL?
January 13th, 2010 at 9:25 am
@Joseph Ratliff. Thanks for commenting, Joe. As I said in the post, I was astonished to discover the extent to which the banning is going on myself. And as I said, also, I’m only pretty sure that the reason was because of the opinion I expressed, but what I am ABSOLUTELY SURE OF is that I didn’t spam.
February 8th, 2010 at 2:11 am
BTW, after months of reading this blog, I just had to comment on this one. What’s up with that?
February 8th, 2010 at 7:54 am
The post says it all, nothing (printable) to add.
Thanks for commenting.
March 8th, 2010 at 9:32 am
Hi Jody,
I can relate and feel every emotion that you describe in this excellent blog post. I have just been banned for 6 months (although that may change to permanent if Allen Says sees what I’ve been saying about him and his poxy forum)
My crime was to ask too many questions after purchasing a WSO which was clearly a scam. I felt that her sales video had subliminal messages embeded to get Warriors to buy the product as that was what the product was *strongly suggesting* we do in order to make sales. I asked her twice and got banned. Both times she would not answer.
If someone asked me the question I would answer ‘no’ straight away and put their mind at ease, getting them banned is as good as a confession in my view.
The worst aspect of being banned is knowing that my photo, profile and name will still be displayed in the posts I have made with the word ‘banned’ replacing where it used to say ‘War Room Member’. I can’t even get on to delete my account – I just have to suffer the indignation!
I can’t appeal or plead my case as they have blocked my IP address. I wasn’t sent an email to say I’d been banned like they said they do – breaking the rules that are of their own making!
Meanwhile the scammer keeps pedling her wares and me, the good guy, the ethical marketer, is banned.
I would warn anyone thinking of joining the Warrior Forum to keep their posts to wishy washy lame comments such as, ‘excellent post’, totally agree’, ‘I wish I was as great as you’ and other servile banter that won’t offend even a lemon!
I’m now turning a negative situation to a positive and use this exerience to get the word out about the Warrior Forum and the WSO who scammed me.
The Warrior Forum should concider changing it’s name to Caveat Emptor – Buyer Beware!
Wear it as a badge of honor Jody, don’t let pond life tarnish your name!
All the best,
Nicola
March 8th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
Thank you for your support, Nicola, and for standing up and doing something. I haven’t said all I intend to, yet. I agree with you having your past activity on that forum still in place with ‘Banned’ beneath your avatar is terrible. People always tend to believe the worst and take a where there’s smoke attitude about things like that. That’s one reason we should continue to hammer away at the nutters. I don’t like risking the loss of friends, but when it comes to my integrity, it does take precedence over friendship.