Sometimes what people have to say is not worth the tribute.

Yeps, that's a good time to skip the post.

Hi everyone!

I joined this forum a while back with the intention of waiting and seeing how it works before risking posting. I was banned from MWU for not listening, not being affectionate and being combative, not for any obvious breaches of the rules. Naturally these are very subjective grounds and as far as I could see I hadn't behaved in any way different from so many others and in most cases much better!

Its certainly a good idea with a discussion of what is acceptable and what isn't and clear guidelines with examples. If posts from those who get banned are allowed to stay on the forum I think the word "banned" should be added to the posters signature so that its clear the poster is unable to continue with the discussion. Thid would also give others an idea of how the rules are applied in practice.

I would like to know if a ban means that someone not knowing a poster has been banned, can send a PM mistakenly thinking that the banned person gets it? This is a problem I've run into on the MWU forum. I continually receive mail that there's a new PM in my postbox but since I've been banned I cannot access it. This is a pretty shabby way to treat users. Naturally it also means I cannot access any old PMs I might want to reference.

Personally I'm against banning in all cases except spamming so I couldn't vote here. I think most people are reasonable and can learn to ignore meaningless offensive posts. I'm on other forums where there are in effect no moderators at all and it works fine. Being banned on MWU was the first time I'd ever encountered any problems on any forum, so the mere possibility of being banned on this forum makes me very hesitant now. I feel I have to get to know the mods and try and see what goes and what doesn't and if its altogether worth it anyway.

As for a temporary ban, well for me I wouldn't be interested in a site once I'd been banned and quite frankly I don't understand why anyone else would be. What's the point of contributing to a forum where one is not appreciated let alone respected for what one has to say?