Why was I banned for a week
 

I do try to be understanding, I believe that I am polite, I know that politics are not allowed. Unless the post is about politics I don’t think that I approach the politics of the post.
I was recently banned from TOTV for a week. I got an email and a message but there was no explanation as to why. There does not appear to be an administrator to contact or a “ContactUs” link to use.
So if I don’t know why or what post caused me to be banished, how can I keep from violating the rules again?
If I broke the rules, ok, but tell me what I did.

This won't last long.

Now that you are back on, look at your posting history and see if you can determine which post is not in your history...............you have very few posts.

:ho:

Sometimes the baby gets thrown out with the bathwater so a thread that turned political after you had posted may have resulted in all posters being banned, regardless of what they had said

if so, that thread would have been removed so you couldn't find out using the above suggestion - but worth trying it in case it throws up something that might have triggered their action

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Don't even attempt to PM the "moderator" for answers why a specific Thread was closed or postings deleted. It's like the Wizard of Oz behind their protective curtain. And these Threads or posting had NOTHING political. period.
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it appears that the moderator(s)tend to insert their own dislikes into interpreting posts and who posts them. they do a pretty fair job of monitoring the postings, but you'll never know the why. I find them a bit heavy handed at times, but it is their website so personal bias does come into play.

I am one post of away from a total ban. if/when it happens I'll move on to other things and I doubt anyone will notice and quite a few will be happy. *shrug* it is just another forum run by whoever rules interprets the rules to their liking.

One post away from a total ban. Were you warned or just an assumption?

Looking forward to the day - likely after 2024 when the Supreme Court will finally decide the "platform provider or publisher" question and Section 230 for all social media providers. They all appear to be controlled by one very biased political position

Contact us, at the bottom of every page.........

Somehow your narrative didn't coincide with their ideology
Been down that road several times myself

In addition, there is a link at the very bottom of most pages titled: Website Rules

If members would simply make the effort to read them, a lot of their problems would be explained. It's really not that hard, since one of those rules says -

Public Disagreements with Administration/Staff:

You agree that if you disagree with Talk of the Villages website policy or action of a staff member, you will not post public arguments or disagreements nor attempt to petition the owner/administration to change policy through posts, polls, email, PM or any other service found within the Talk of the Villages Website. If you disagree, you may respectfully email the ownership of Talk of the Villages.

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Oh, They've been contacted - just NEVER respond...
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The moderator of this site was just over to the house for Thanksgiving dinner and we watched football,
we danced and sang; he left a Thanksgiving card with a thousand dollars in it and really a great individual.

Now I'll be taken my dilutional meds with a nap

There appear to be various levels assigned to posters - everything from junior to senior to veteran to platinum to sage. Does anyone know the hierarchy and how one can climb the ladder? Is it posts, quality of posts (:bigbow:), amount of time on the site, or something else?

Number of posts

their sandbox, their rules

I can assure you it is not based upon quality.

Well that's good to hear.

There's still hope of reaching soaring seagull status.

:pray:

It is beyond human understanding. Do not attempt to reason this out.

Everyone believes they are "polite". Your definition of that and theirs may not coincide.

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Well THEIR definition of "polite" does not include responding to subscriber/user/customer PMs or emails. STILL waiting...
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Odd, I get private email telling me exactly what, why, and how long I was not allowed to post. I wasn’t banned I just could respond or post. I think it you go to upper right hand corner when logged in under private messages you will find all you’re answers to you’re questions. Plus you can contact the moderator by clicking on private message.

I usually don’t disagree with moderator, but once I was stumped why I way ban and responded and they (he, her, or who) reviewed and reversed it.

Q & a
 

Q: "why was I banned for a week."
A: Because!

Not the first. Won't be the last.
Let's move on to something scary, like "Ghost Ants", coming soon to a sink near you. Bwaaa ha ha ha😄😄😄😄

Maybe Jack Dorsey's (Twitter CEO) next job will be Moderator of Talk of the Villages. You think TOTV censors some posts? I find them to be mostly fair.

I too, received an e-mail saying why I was suspended. Unfortunately, the post they cited, and the reason they gave had nothing to do with each other.

Another time, the reason given was for "violation of XYZ, despite repeated warnings". Which was odd, because I had never been warned about XYZ...

I wrote back, asking for clarification. Still waiting for a reply...

Anyway, it's their sandbox. We're just the cats who crap in it on occasion...

Don’t feel Bad, Amazon has suspended me from Reviewing products! Evidently A Negative Review is not popular with their management!

I’ve been warned few times, guess it in the wording or way make comment. I guess I don’t beat around the bush enough?

Negatively never popular.

OP doesn't care..............she hasn't returned since the original post.

Just another troll.

Several people are so appalled that they actually received a "time out", that they take their ball and go home... Their sense of self importance was deflated, I guess...

I can think of several recent ones...

Could she have gotten a time out?

It is pretty subjective: not so much the rules but how people interpret those rules. What might seem relatively innocuous to some may be insulting, derogatory or out-of-bounds to others.

I was an online "sheriff" for AOL back when they were one of the bigger fish in the pond (you actually had to PAY for their service back then). I was one of five moderators who reviewed posts in one certain area, eventually becoming the supervisor. We had pretty definite rules but it was amazing how posters used various and sundry tricks to get around them. For instance, no personal insults. But what difference is there in "you are an idiot" and "don't be an idiot"? Not much. The point still gets across. We did a lot of reading between the lines for stuff just like that. Even trying to get the other moderators on the same page was a challenge.

One of the differences there was that as many posts as possible received a response from a moderator. Pretty challenging as AOL was huge back then and message boards in general received bushels of posts. This is something I wish moderators would do here as well. But in general, having been there myself, it is my opinion that the moderator(s) here do an excellent job. You have to be pretty far out of bounds, as far as I can see, before the axe comes down.

Truly enjoyed the old Igolf forum on AOL...we had many spirited discussions. :boxing2:

I hear ya'!

I've been a moderator on several music boards for over 20 years. I've seen every trick in the book.

I remember one member, actually was a good friend of mine, who was a member from day one. He has a MASSIVE # oof posts. Most were quite helpful. But when things got even close to political, he would jump in with both feet.

Most of the mods knew him personally, so they wanted to stay "hands off", and he knew it. But finally, he went too far and got a suspension. Only a few weeks, but he was incensed! He couldn't believe that he was expected to follow the same rules as everyone else.

Once his suspension was over he snubbed the forum for several months, until he finally came back. But he still couldn't understand why he was suspended. Even after several phone calls, he just didn't get it. He thought he was "special"...

After his second suspension, it began to sink in an he finally settled down...

The problem was, his posting crap with a perceived (and for a while actual) impunity caused others to try to do the same.

Did some of the mods go too far at times? Most probably. Did we listen when members pled their cases? Most certainly. Did we ever change our minds? Occasionally...

Communication was the key...