Enough of the BS.

Some of you won't have a clue what I'm talking about here. If that's the case, don't worry about it. If it doesn't apply to you, go about your business and have fun.

I just read through a 4-page thread bashing someone, and when another person jumped in with an offer to help, HE got bashed. Curiously, the people doing the bashing were almost universally anonymous, and posting under new accounts.

Some of the IP addresses used carried posts from more than one such "user."

By the way: Do not reference the person or product in question in this thread unless you want an enforced vacation from this forum. This will not be allowed to be an excuse for re-starting that garbage.

Here's the deal on that: If you don't have something obvious to lose by saying something mean or stupid, you don't get to post criticisms of people or products at all. Something to lose means, at least, a reputation. That translates to either a real name that matches a domain registration for a site that sells something, or a history of posting sensibly that covers hundreds, not dozens, of posts.

Push it the way some of the folks in that thread did and it won't matter if you've got a real name associated with an account that's 2 or more years old. Well, it might. You might just get 3 or 4 months off, rather than going away completely. Maybe.

Clarification for the newer folks...

Understand this: You don't walk in here and have rights or privileges, especially if you're anonymous. No name, new account, you're not harmed in the least if you get deleted. Do the usual stupid stuff and you will be, with no explanation and no sleep lost by the moderators.

That includes bashing, making lots of pointless one-line posts to drive up your post count, "asking for opinions" on a program after you've already signed up as an affiliate, or even looking like you might be thinking about the possibility of one day considering the option of advertising (outright or sneakily) in your posts.

It also includes political harping, from any ideological perspective. And re-posting a thread that's been deleted. Or yelling that your post (or previous user account) got deleted because one or more moderators has it in for you, or is trying to keep out the competition. Or claiming that the mods "have their noses up some guru's butt." Or being abusive in any way, shape or form to the folks handling the help desk.

Especially that last one. Just don't do it.

Or refusing to honor refund requests when they were offered and asked for. Or posting scammy WSOs or offers that endorse breaking the rules of this or any other site. Or trying to get someone to give you an illegal or unauthorized copy of any file, commercial or otherwise.

Or anything else that the moderators deem to be jerk behavior.

The majority of the problems are handled by the members. Understand, though, that there are individual moderators who can yank you at a moment's notice if you cross certain lines. And they have a reasonable amount of room for discretion in those judgments.

Nobody likes to do that. You can see from the free-for-alls that come up regularly that there's no need to walk around on eggshells or get paranoid.

Avoiding the specifics listed above is an excellent start. But don't push it, and don't try to use this as a be-all-and-end-all of what you can get nuked for. It's not.

Go ahead. Rant away.


Paul