Write Ban is Off, Back on the Horn for Now

Just when I had lost all hope, I've been resurrected from the dead! Today when I was checking some other’s posts, I was absolutely shell-shocked to see that my write-ban was lifted.

To my dear friends at WA who have wondered what happened to me, my write access was revoked by WA on September 17 after posting something several others perceived they had taken exception to as a political post. The truth of the matter is the post was meant to be anything but a political post.

For those who've never seen what a write-ban “looks like”, here is a screenshot:

And here’s another look, when you try to PM someone:

Yesterday was October 17 – exactly one month after the write-ban was imposed. Coincidence? I think not.

During this write-ban period, my ranking has fallen from 14 to 44. When once I was an ambassador, now I am not. It will continue to fall as my prediction is I will remain less active.

But MANY GOOD things have come of this that I have learned on my own by doing:

• I have optimized my e-commerce store and made a boatload of new sales
• I have learned how to craft effective Facebook Ads using precise targeting toward my niche
• I have learned how to implement email marketing campaigns using Mail Chimp.
• I continue to build my email list and retarget my list with campaigns at least 2x per week
• I went back and re-focused on the WA training

My Apology

Let me first apologize if I offended anyone in the community by my last post “Keep Taiwan Free”. I do apologize if I hurt anyone, however I don’t apologize for my true intention.

In hindsight after re-reading the post, I can now certainly understand how this post could have been taken.

First, if I had a strong political view let me say I would certainly publicly own up to it; however in this case I assure everyone I am not political, and whenever I participate in this type of activity it is solely for the experience, as I often like to put myself in “someone else’s shoes” so I can empathize and assimilate a valuable life or business lesson from the experience.

Even the last paragraph of the post parlays the lesson in business I received from my experience and how I thought it would be very helpful to share this special experience and lesson with the community.

The Sequence

I emailed WA the day after on September 18 asking why this happened and when my write access could be restored, and I received a nebulous and anonymous message that it was already “turned back on”, but it never was.

A week later on September 25, I enquired via email once more, and received a curt response question from WA “What is your username?” I provided the correct information, but yet nothing further happened. I now understand from reading a few others posts they shared a similar experience.

Finally, last week I wrote a third email asking for a status update but no response at all. Apparently it was already decided all along that the write-ban would last exactly one month.

Funny, other than seeing the “Reply” link in comments, there would be no way I would know I could write again, as there wasn’t any notification given whatsoever.

My Swan Song

As for my last post before the ban, I will elaborate in more detail about this subject matter in my next post. That is hopefully if I am not write-banned once again for writing this post.

In case you don’t hear from me again, I’m sure you will forgive me and understand why my friends, and in case this post gets taken down, I’ve already made a copy.

Be responsible and accountable, but always share helpful knowledge and denounce censorship my friends, it is the foundation of what makes democracy great.

Feel free to share a comment. I am going to bed now, let’s see if this post survives the night before I can respond to any of your comments.

Cheers,

Kaju