The problems with a forum.

Last week I told readers how I was given a warning by Linux Mint forums telling me that I will be banned from their forum.If I continue,what they call hijacking topics on their threads. Which I did not do.

Well it happened again,on Saturday,I got another warning, my second one, from a moderator of Linux Mint forums.The offense-I just posted in a thread about Thunderbird on Linux Mint. And I answered another post about anti-virus software on Linux. That's all.


But because of that, I was called a troll, a hijacker of threads, and insulted by some of the other forum members. And I got another warning from the moderator of the forum.

Here is the warning I got-

Andrea Borman,This is the second time you have hijacked someone else's topic,to spout your idiotic drivel. Next time I find you doing this,you will be banned from this forum for a month. If you persist after that,the ban will be made permanent. In this forum,no one is above or outside the rules. I am locking this thread,as it has been idle,before you came looking for a soapbox to broadcast your ignorance. If you wish to say something other than a direct topic,to answer to another post. Open a new topic to do so.

But I did not do anything wrong, except to answer to someone's post in a thread about email clients. And I answered to another post about anti virus on Linux.In which other members, including me, were referring to Windows as an example. And I merely wrote, that I have Windows 7, and that I don't use any anti-virus software on my computer. And that you don't need anti-virus software on Windows. I was just giving my answer to someone else's post.

But I have been branded a troll just because of it. It is impossible to stick to one sole subject in a computer software forum. It is not the same as a sports or cookery forum,for example. To refer to one software problem,you have to mention another software issue. But if you do that on a computer software forum,in their eyes,you are a troll,a hijacker, and all things bad,it seems.

You have no control over a forum,they can delete your account and ban you at anytime.So if you are posting on a forum,I hope you have copied your posts to your website. Because one day you might be told that you are trolling, or writing too many posts, and you could be banned from a forum for no reason. Maybe you have had the same experience and have been wrongly banned from a forum.