Oh Diane,

Do I say what I actually think or simply nod, agree, and move on?

Hahaha.

Nope, it's me - I LOVE causing trouble and creating controversy.

Firstly, I find this repsonse fairly ambiguous and it doesn't really address the issues that came up in Mel's post, and especially my response.

To quote:

"Admin (Kyle or Myself) can issue a write ban if someone has broken "the rules" or spamming"

I begrudgingly accept, but I would still want to know why.

AND

"The community can cause a write ban as well when numerous different PREMIUM or PREMIUM PLUS+ members "report spam" on a post or comment. This takes quite a few people, so if you're getting write bans then you would want to have a look at what might be causing that."

I'm sorry, an equivocal answer and open to abuse - I have trouble in accepting this as a reason for being banned, and I would definitely want to know how, why, and by who.

My point being is there is the "Spam - No No" Rules.

Not everyone will be aware of these when they first join and I also think that everyone should be given an opportunity and a first free chance,

In fact, I have often see you do this yourself.

Far too often, someone new will arrive and create a blog post promoting something or filled with affiliate links.

If they aren't a paid member then we can't PM them, but I see nothing wrong with a nice, gentle word on the thread, pointing out the error of their ways, and asking them to kindly remove said post (or comment).

If someone is a paid member, or even if they have been here a while, and they contravene a "rule", I still see nothing wrong with the "friendly approach", e.g. PM or a polite request to remove the offending post/comment.

If someone continues along the same lines, as far as I'm concerned, you've had fair warning, you deserve everything you're going to get - Report Spam.

However, this WAS NOT WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT YESTERDAY and I know this is NOT what the spate of 2021 write bans have been about.

We are in effect self-policing, and therefore the system is open to abuse.

My whole point in Mel's post was that if someone doesn't like you, if they don't like the way you talk, look, act, speak, they dislike you for being happy, sad, angry, intelligent, lacking intelligence, whatever their reasons - I Strongly Believe there are those who are hitting the "Report Spam" more on a personal level than due to actual spam.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, we are a diverse community, so not everyone is going to agree with each other.

However, I don't see this as a reason to become "Trigger Happy" with the Report Spam button.

Our whole business is based around the ability to communicate, and to get people to like, trust, and believe in us.

If we can't act this way on the very platform that helped start our businesses, I see no way that we can be successful on our websites (and potentially our outside lives either).

For me, there needs to be more accountability for the person hitting the Report Spam button.

How that is done is down to our esteemed owners, not me.

Just be aware that the current system is open to abuse and I firmly believe it is being abused.

Right, after this response, I'll probably see you in about a month.

Partha

Just as evidence that comments get deleted I posted this yesterday under a different profile, but within five minutes my entire profile and this comment was deleted:

-----------------------

I was a member here a number of years back (I am sure some of the longer term members here will know who I am!).

I too had write bans when I was here. Although I was not given a specific reason for them I know why they occurred, and this is my story (that sounds slightly over dramatic...).

I started to experience major problems with one of my WA hosted sites continually breaking and going down. I spent many hours trying to resolve it with Site Support, and they were not much help. I got so bad that I had to move my site to a new host, as soon as I did all the issues disappeared and my site ran perfectly. I didn't realise at the time WA was using a hugely outdated version of PHP which was causing the problem.

After that I saw a few people posting questions or blogs hinting at the same issues I was having with my site and I always backed them up and spoke quite freely about my bad experience with Site Support and how they had mislead me and how since I had moved my site to a new host I had had no problems. I was never rude, never abusive, just honest about my own experiences, but I soon found myself write banned.

Now for me that wasn't a major problem, I could handle not being able to help in Live Chat or answer questions, what I didn't realise was that a write ban also meant I had no way of contacting Site Support. At that time I still had three other sites hosted at WA and when one of them went down I had literally no way of telling Site Support this. I believe that is still the case and think it is appalling. Effectively a few members could group together to get another member banned and that member then has no access to technical help - something they are paying for.

Even more disappointing for me was that I emailed Kyle, copying in Carson and the generic WA email address 27 times (that is no lie - I still have all the emails in my sent folder) and did not get one reply. When I eventually did get the write ban overturned, Kyle claimed he never received the messages. He also claimed to a couple of members who had help get the write ban overturned, that it was because I was being abusive or something along those lines. Forthright and honest yes, but I would never be abusive to anyone in anyway.

I know certain WA members won't believe what I am saying and will report this profile and I will soon be banned, but I hope the recent goings on regarding write bans and a refusal to take responsibility for the issue have at least caused some members to rethink their views on certain aspects of the platform.

Hello everyone. I'm with Partha on this, after reading all of the responses. And thanks Diane for putting this post up for discussion.
People who push the bad button should immediately go to a review system process.
Remember the old fire alarms? The glass case had to be broken into first , and a stiff fine for a prank.
Fire is no joke. Wolf crying wolf is not even funny.

The button should be in Kyle's office, so to speak.
It's too easy for cowards to push it, and where is fair court for us because of them?

Atleast in a court of law you can face to face see your accuser.

I think things would really change if all but the "button in Kyle's office" were removed.

Meaning ,a face to face with Kyle on a issue. That would cut the cowardly HIT and RUN abuse.

Nobody in our modern society seems to confronts face to face anymore! Where is courtesy, it is given a free pass via anonymity!

But open rebuke remains better in our society for thousands of years than secret love, or secret hate, since some people's idea of love certainly is hateful, and they get a sick power kick out of inflicting pain and suffering.

Is perpetrator protection the correct way, or WAy to go?

Do they know, or knowingly understand the results of their actions on the receiver? The suffering? Do they?
Can't answer these rhetorical questions, rather
I can't give an answer because I don't know.

Power balance on this is on what side?Is the power balanced? Who has more power now if ONE PERSON can pull the Trip Switch?

Is it good to punish harmless doves, when some one else maybe drags the dove;s post into the muck, because they are "triggered"?

Partha is right, the system is open to abuse. And is abused.

"If someone doesn't like you, if they don't like the way you talk, look, act, speak, they dislike you for being happy, sad, angry, intelligent, lacking intelligence, whatever their reasons -
I Strongly Believe there are those who are hitting the "Report Spam" more on a personal level than due to actual spam....

However, I don't see this as a reason to become "Trigger Happy" with the Report Spam button."


How about a Spam Button Pusher Filter?

Time for Cool, Calm Transparency-Ombudsman.
Who is the accuser, why did they accuse? Is it personal? Is it relevant to the COmmunity?
Is it Professionally based to make something, someone better?
How's about human to human gentle warning first like Partha shared?
Do they need a Psych Eval?

Do I need a Psych Eval? Well WA is not the place for that, is it?

To quote in part another beloved, wonderful member, "Keep your finger off that spam button if you feel you want to click that button,
then you need a life."

Just Zaying and my WA weigh in on this,somber topic.
Suzay
( I do not mean to off end anyone. Please forgive me if YOU came into today upset.)

Hello Diane,

I hope you're doing well. Thank you for clarifying what Carson said.

I have had two writing bans this week, however, they were both quite short-lived. One was approximately 48 hours the other around 24 hours. Apparently, the second one happened due to my spam monitor not being reset!

I have to say I tend to agree with what Partha commented; members shouldn't just be able to use the spam button if they don't like you or don't like what you said!

Have a great day.

Roy

Thanks Dianne

I noticed there wasn't a mention of how many community members create a written ban that needs to be known as well.

I know it used to be 10 then I heard it was 5 or 3 depends on who stated this.

I would also like to know if a post was removed or taken down due to spam being pressed that if nothing was wrong with it and only because of these trigger happy people then that post should be able to be put back for others to see.

i have yet to see a post come back when nothing was wrong which I feel is unfair.

If the post was spam then fair enough.

This is only when nothing was wrong as they deserve to have their post reinstated back when it belongs for others to continue to read and enjoy.