Write Bans (Again) - a Response From Carson

blog cover image
60
18K followers
Updated

So, following much discussion here recently, a member asked Carson for his views on the subject of write bans. I see no reason as to why this shouldn't be shared, as presumably, this is the definitive answer.

I won't be commenting further on any replies, I don't have any more information to add. I have simply included the full response below for your interest.

"A write ban here at WA can happen in a number of ways.

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

2 - 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.

Here's our "Spam is a NO NO" post that you can read if you're not already familiar:

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/wealthy-affiliate-t...

If you get a write ban, you can contact Kyle or Myself via the contact form on WA.com

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/contact

Or send one of us an email:

kyle@wealthyaffiliate.com
carson@wealthyaffiliate.com

We can then look into why the ban happened. In many cases we will remove the ban after we explain why it happened.

Hope this helps,

Carson"

Login
Create Your Free Wealthy Affiliate Account Today!
icon
4-Steps to Success Class
icon
One Profit Ready Website
icon
Market Research & Analysis Tools
icon
Millionaire Mentorship
icon
Core “Business Start Up” Training

Recent Comments

58

Featured Comment

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

Love this
Thank you

Can't help but like this...

You nailed it, Partha. Unfortunately, this is how it is and I doubt there would be any change regarding the bans.
Lenka

Love your response, as always, and believe we should told who, why and what we did so as to avoid a repeat offense. In my case I did nothing wrong the first time and definitely do anything to those who caused the first one, the second time..........never spoke to them!!!!!!!!!!

I agree with Partha. Moving forward if someone reports spam - then I feel that they should be forced to leave an explanation as to why they felt the post was considered spam.

Some justification why - not just click "report spam"

It might help.

Alex

Parthab, you are correct in that is a reactive ban , enough complaints, the ban is applied and then it is put to the tribunal.
It should first go to the tribunal and if considered bad enough then it is a fair decision.

I had one in the early days as most of us.

Peter H

I missed Partha's "books in blogs" 🤣 replies. Very good one here as well. Accountability on both sides indeed- is my creed.

Wise words Partha, I agree and hear what you're saying!

After receiving a writing ban on Friday, was back writing by Sunday evening. However, by late Monday afternoon, I had another writing ban! The good news is that the ban only lasted 24 hours and apparently my spam filter hadn't been reset?

Have a great day.

Roy

❤️

Nothing positive is going to happen. They are tone deaf.

Comments were deleted from my post that were NOT in violation of any rules here at WA and they were not deleted by their author.

One of them has now gone dark on WA.

I will be leaving WA soon. Censorship is never acceptable.

Farewell my friends!

Mel

Don't leave us, you're an invaluable asset!!

Mel are you absolutely serious!
You sure you don't need time out to think?

I understand where you're coming from Mel, but I think you have too much to offer to just leave! I believe that the issues will be ironed out in time.

Catch you soon.

Roy

Really?
I was promised that 6 months ago

Hello Simone,

I hope you're doing well, thank you for your reply, it's appreciated.

I always like to look on the positive side! I believe that Wealthy Affiliate has a huge amount of traffic and members, I'm guessing that there are always things going wrong! However, this is something that needs to be fixed, I sincerely hope that some action is taken. I really hope that this issue is being worked on.

I appreciate that six months is a long time to fix a problem, let's see what happens.

Have a great evening,

Roy

Let me wait with you Roy

The issues could be resolved in less than 24 hours and that a long time ago. Its a lack of responsibility and leadership.

Yes, I am serious Simone. This has been thought out for some time now. Write Bans are nothing new here. Losing great members is nothing new here.

Mel

Thanks for your encouragement Joe. The community was the primary reason for staying, but I simply will not sit idly by while this nonsense continues ad infinitum.

Mel

What about your referrals?
So sad!

You can't pay me enough to stay in a broken system. Only 1 referral "might" renew. So not a loss.

I will miss the community the most.

Mel

I will miss you, Mel
So very much

Simone, you should add your sites or contact in you WA profile.

:-)

Mel

Ok
I will do

You're always straight forward in your opinion. I love it.

Have you had a change of mind?

Sorry, no Simone. :-)

I am just blogging things that I wanted to say to help the community before I go off into the sunset.

Mel

I was just hoping :)

To back up your point the comment I posted yesterday was deleted as was my entire profile. I've reposted it above with this new profile.

I think for Mel it is about the principle, I disagree with censorship too. See my comment on this blog, I posted it yesterday but the entire profile was deleted within five minutes so I have had to repost it.

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.

As you can guess I got a write ban, hence why I have only just been able to reply to this.

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.

I agree! Shouldn't be taken down in the first place.

Correct, unless it is definitely spam as I feel it is not fair to write a great post that the majority like and have commented all to be taken down due to some certain individuals who are trigger happy and have no life apart from upsetting good people.

See more comments

Login
Create Your Free Wealthy Affiliate Account Today!
icon
4-Steps to Success Class
icon
One Profit Ready Website
icon
Market Research & Analysis Tools
icon
Millionaire Mentorship
icon
Core “Business Start Up” Training