THIS SITE HAS BEEN RIPPED

[Griselda]

May I ask a question in all innocence?  What did the poster do to get banned?  I understand that once the mods know the link to said website, they can deal with it as needed, without a link to the site.  But what was wrong about him blowing the whistle on it?  Was it felt that he was attempting to lead people to the site?  If you don't mind I'd appreciate a quick explanation, just to clarify.  I trust the mod team we have here very much, I'm just trying to understand!

Cheers,

Munk

Ps.  Feel free to edit my post if you send by PM.
[right][snapback]84121[/snapback][/right]

Actually, thanks for pointing this out. I have been in a bit of a daze today. Let me walk you through how this happened.

I get an email every time a new user registers. This is often my first warning that something is up, because I can often spot problems right there. When soomeone registers as "BOLTYH8ER" or "FREEHACKSNWAREZ", I know about it right away, even if I haven't checked the forums yet.

In today's case, I saw that someone had registered two almost identical usernames back-to-back. That's a red flag- usually it means that somebody has tried to register with a fake email address. That's not necessarily trouble, but that person bears watching for a little bit.

I checked out this user's profile, and saw that they had one post- a thread they'd created in the Lounge. When someone registers and immediately creates a thread in the Lounge, that's also a red flag. Most "legit" members read threads, post replies, or at least post in a gaming forum first.

So, I wanted to see Andrew's thread. The title was in all caps (also usually not a good sign), it contained a link (uh oh), and had something to do with something being ripped.

Most of the people who get banned from here have every one of those warning signs. I must have turned the auto-moderator on at this point.

I did follow the link in Andrew's post to see what the thread was about, but by the time I got there, it seemed to be down. All I got was a SQL error, even when I went to the site's root.

For some reason, I was thinking it was an ad for a site that has "ripped" files. In fact, it wasn't until Munkay's post that I realized it must have been referring to a "rip" of the Lounge itself. (Yes, I saw DeeBee's post, but my brain was off).

I have gone ahead an unbanned Andrew. He is welcome to come back and speak for himself if he chooses (most banned users can read the Lounge forum but not post here), or just come back and be a "regular" member. It looks like I never did have a cause to ban him, although I do think he could have been more clear in his post.

I made a mistake. Thanks for being polite in your response to me.