Why are forums so difficult?

I have been posting on Windows forums recently.But I have also had a lot of bad experiences with forums.

Last October I was banned for life from Seven Forums for doing nothing wrong. And then a few hours later I was banned for life from Expert Law Forums for posting about my ban from Seven Forums.And back April this year I was banned for life from Windows 7 Forums and Windows 8 Forums. But a few weeks ago the ban on me was lifted and I am now back on Windows 7 Forums and Windows 8 Forums.

But as you may guess I have had more problems with forums. And I find a lot of forums difficult to get on with. And a lot of my experiences with forums have been bad ones.

The recent forum that has been a pain in the neck is Neowin Forums.Neowin Forums are strict in a lot of ways. Not as strict as Seven Forums, but they are strict.

Last October after I was banned from Seven Forums, I was very upset and I had reason to be. On Seven Forums a member posted off topic on a thread that was about Windows Movie Maker 6 on Windows 7.He made a comment on that thread saying that he had liked one of my You Tube videos he had seen. And out of good manners I thanked him on the thread for liking my video. Thinking that he had payed me a compliment.

But about twenty minutes later I got this horrible ban message when I tried to log on Seven Forums.

"Seven Forums ban message-

You have been banned for the following reason:

Persona non grata.

date the ban will be lifted: Never."

And not only did they ban me.They deleted all of my posts as well.Persona non grata means person not welcome. If that's not nasty,I don't know what is.And it isn't enough that Seven Forums give me that horrible ban message every time I try to log into my account. But they have deleted all of my posts as well.

But I am not the only one who has been banned from Seven Forums, a lot of people have been banned from that forum for no real reason, or no reason at all.When they have done nothing wrong.

And I started my own thread on Neowin Forums about my being wrongly banned from Seven Forums. Because like a lot of people,I wanted to rant about it.

My thread was indexed in search engines withing an hour or so of me posting. But then the moderators of Neowin Forums changed my thread from pubic view to private view. So it was no longer visible on the web and could not be indexed in search engines.And only the members of Neowin Forums could read it. But they had to log in to the forum to read my thread.

I was very unhappy about this. Because I wanted my thread to be public view and visible on the web, not private view. But the moderators would not change my thread back to public view.

I got a few replies from the members of Neowin Forums on my thread. But then a moderator came along and locked my thread with the words.

"Moderator of Neowin Forums-

THREAD CLEANED.

THREAD CLOSED.

Thread is also under review as I am not sure this is the place to be talking about other forums.

If this turns out to be the case, the thread will also be closed.

Actually, this is a clear violation of the following rules and terms of service.

THREAD LOCKED."

 And the moderator gave me a link to the terms of service for reference.Which I read. And indeed it is against the rules of Neowin Forums to talk about other forums or talk about being banned from other forums,even if you were wrongly banned.But I did not know that at the time because I was a new member.

But most forums don't mind you starting a thread and posting about being banned from other forums.

And the moderators on Neowin Forums had already changed my thread from pubic view to private view. So nobody could see it anyway. So locking my thread was pointless.

But what is so different about my story about my being wrongly banned from Seven Forums,for doing absolutely nothing wrong? That would make the moderators of Neowin Forums change my thread from public view to private view, and lock my thread?I think it is stupid of Neowin Forums, and any other forum to be like that.

I was reading a thread over on Techspot Forums started by some else who was very upset. Because he had been a long time member of Seven Forums and had written some very good tutorials. But now Seven Forums have banned him for life for no reason.And they even banned his IP address,so he cannot even view the site.And he was very upset. So that's why he started the thread I assume.And I replied to him on his thread at Techspot Forums.And I told him my story.

Most forums Windows,Linux, or other forums don't mind if you want to start a thread about being banned from another forum. Except the odd few like Neowin Forums, that is.But that's not the only problem I had with Neowin Forums.

Neowin Forums very strict. If you write a post on a thread that a moderator does not like or agree with.They will delete it. For example when I posted on a thread about Windows 8 Release Preview.That the new version of Classic Shell now lets you boot straight to the desktop.A moderator deleted it saying that it did not fit the discussion,as the topic was about Windows 8 Release Preview.

But that is stupid,because most Windows 8 RP users,including me,ARE using Classic Shell. And it is just a part of Windows 8 as Internet Explorer is.If you install Classic Shell. So where does it not fit the topic?

And I have had my posts on threads deleted by moderators on Neowin forums,simply because,they don't like what I say.And also other peoples posts have been deleted and threads have been locked.

It was just last week that I started a really good thread,a tutorial, on Neowin Forums about how to avoid the mandatory July update by Microsoft from Windows Live Essentials 2009 to Windows Live Essentials 2011.Simply by changing the program compatibility mode on Windows Live Messenger 2009, to compatibility mode for Windows XP.

But it was spoiled by some stupid comments by some of the other forum members.And some other members were insulting me. And so a moderator locked my thread.With the words.

"Moderator of Neowin Forums-

This thread has lost it's usefulness.

THREAD CLOSED.

THREAD LOCKED."

And if a thread is locked on a forum,you cannot rate it or vote for it. And nobody can post on it anymore. And so I could not post on my thread. Or even edit my posts because my thread was locked. Because if a thread is locked you cannot do anything.

And if you start another thread,they lock that as well. One member of Neowin Forums was having problems with Windows Live Messenger 2009. And he had started a new thread about it on Monday. And I replied to him on that thread telling him,I had started a thread on Neowin Forums on how to fix his problem.

But no sooner had I replied to him that a moderator came along and locked that thread as well.With the words.

"Moderator of Neowin Forums-

Please do not post topics that have already been discussed before.

THREAD LOCKED."

But the member who started the thread was having problem using Windows Live Messenger 2009 on Windows 7. And did not want to upgrade to 2011 version. But he could not post on my thread or the other threads about it because they were all locked. So he started his own thread.Only for that to get locked as well.

But Neowin Forums is not the only forum that I have had problems with.

Expert Law Forums banned me for life and they were very very nasty to me on the threads.You can read more about what happened to me on Expert Law Forums in my earlier post on this site. At the link at the bottom of the page.

From reading posts from other people on the web, a lot of other people have been banned from Expert Law Forums.And have had nasty things said to them on threads at Expert Law Forums. So it seems that a lot of other members of Expert Law Forums like to upset other members and wind people up. Like they upset me and wound me up.It's their thing.

But I have had my threads locked on other forums. And other threads I have posted on have also been locked. Sometimes if a forum does not like you,they can make life uncomfortable for you on the forum. And if your threads or the threads you are posting on keep getting locked. Locking the threads is another way of saying "you are not welcome."

I have also had my threads that I have started changed from public view to private view. And I have also had my threads deleted.It is very annoying to have your threads locked,or changed from pubic view to private view. Or even deleted,when you have put in a lot of time and hard work into them.

Another forum I had a bad experience with is So Femmine Forums. I started my own thread on there about my ban from Seven Forums. And the funny thing was I never got any replies until two months after I posted the thread. But two forum members replied. But a week later when I looked for my thread on the web,it had gone.And I could not find my thread on the forum. I found out that the moderators had deleted my thread.

And one of my friends, a friend from New York USA, started his own thread on So Femmine Forums. About his being treated badly by the New York police. He got several replies. But the moderators deleted his thread.

But surely if someone has been treated badly by an authority,police or other, people have a right to know about it. There was nothing offensive about my friends thread. And there was nothing offensive about my thread. But So Femmine Forums deleted my thread and they deleted my friends thread. And I have noticed that other people have posted on there. And their threads have also been deleted.

And I was so angry that So Femmine Forums had deleted my thread. That I closed my account there in disgust. So Femmine is another forum that is a waste of time joining.

But you have absolutely no control over the forums.I have said this before,but I will say it again. They can delete your posts,they can change your threads from public view to private view. They can lock your threads or the threads you are posting on. They can delete your threads. And they can ban you from the forum. And they can even ban your IP address. And banning someones IP address is a violation of human rights.

So the only place where you have full control over your posts is on your own blog or website. Then no one can take your posts down except you.

Links-Post about my ban from Expert Law Forums-

http://andreaborman2.blogspot.com/2011/10/banned-from-forum-again.html

Post about my ban from Seven Forums-

http://andreaborman2.blogspot.com/2011/10/banned-from-another-forum-without.html