Hi.
This is Neo of
www.unix.com the founder and lead admin at unix.com since 1993.
Sorry, I am not a regular member here, but as you know, a busy forum is a full time job, especially coding. But I wanted to take the time to register and reply.
You surely didn't get banned for posting a tech question in a PM.
Actually, the user in question was a brand new registered user and he was asking technical information via PM and it was reported to me. I issued a small infraction for breaking the forum rules and the user responded by a flaming attack against the moderators for "reading his PMs" so he was banned for violating the rules by attacking our mods, not for breaking the rules (which he did) about technical questions via PMs.
Well was it in the rules for the site if it was
maybe the member you were PMing reported it..
Yes, exactly.
Many sites do this. For good reason! If asking technical questions privately weren't disallowed, the whole forum would be devoid of valuable information, rendering it useless.
Yes, exactly.
You should probably assume that the moderators of any site that uses some type of forum software can see anything you do. You can also realize that any emails sent via any email provider that do not use some form of strong encryption can be read by anyone along the path the message takes.
Yes, exactly. We also run software to scan for terrorist activity and misuse and abuse of the PM system, for example soliciting malware, soliciting pirated software, or other illegal activity. A forum owner would be total irresponsible if their forum was used a covert channel by anyone or group conducting illegal activity.
However, in this case, it was simple. A new user registered, agreed with the rules to not ask technical questions via PM (and not to attack moderators, etc), then within a few days of being a new member, sent one of our members a PM asking a technical question.
That user's PM was flagged and reported to me, as mentioned earlier.
I issued a gentle infraction with a note to the user not to contact our members and ask for technical information: There is the exact infraction message:
Dear marcopolo,
You have received a reminder from UNIX and Linux Forums.
Reason:
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Technical Question via email or PM
Hi,
The rules of this forum is that you must post your technical questions in the forums, not via PM.
This includes asking other about where to get information, etc.
Please follow forum rules which you agreed to when you clicked the "I agreed to comply with the rules" button.
Thanks.
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Reminders serve to help you abide by the forum's rules, which you are expected to understand and follow as a community member.
Thank you!
All the best,
UNIX and Linux Forums
Then after the user received the reminder above; the user posted a strong attack again our moderation policy and our moderators, which is another major rule violation, and here is that exact message:
Dear marcopolo,
This is a reminder from the moderators at UNIX and Linux Forums.
Reason: Flagrant Disregard of the Rules
-------
-------
This reminder is worth 30 point(s) and may result in restricted access until it expires. Please reread the forum rules if you have forgotten or neglected to read them. The forum rules are important for the entire community.
When a user is "reminded" (our kind words for an infraction) for a flagrant rule violation, they are banned, which is standard procedure at all forums, as it is here, I assume; especially when a user violates community standards and then launches an attack against the moderators who work hard to keep the community going strong.
After reading this thread at vcfed.org, it sounded to me like most of the replies were very knowledgable and the members here understood the situation. That is when I decided to register and post the facts to the good members here.
I hope this helps.
PS: After the abuse we just received from this user, we reverted back to an older forum policy where users cannot send PMs until they have a least 10 posts. As someone mentioned earlier, we have a lot of great moderators and they are really great people who work hard to help others and it is a burden on them when they receive PMs against the rules by users who do not care about community standards and think they can just "do as they please" . it is sad when once in every two or three years, when someone violates community standard and then decides to launch an attack against our mods. It happens rarely, but it does happen, unfortunately.
It is my duty as the lead admin to our moderators to insure they are not abused by anyone. There is something very wrong, at least in my view, when someone joins a community, asked a question and gets and answer (the help they want from a volunteer community), and then starts violating rules, asking questions via PMs, and attacking moderators to enforce community standards.
I consider the matter closed and am pleased to have responded to this attack against our great moderators and our excellent site.
Best of luck to all at vcfed.org. Looks like a cool forum! I like green
Neo
www.unix.com
