I was curious as to why it seems that so many users are frequently banned from HydrogenAudio.org. There are many people who seem intelligent, articulate, and helpful, and then all of a sudden disappear.

I see quite a few posts where the users discussing them are in the banned group.

Obviously some TOS violations get people banned, but I was interested in knowing what the major reasons for this profuse banning is. Are there usually no warnings issued before banning users?

It kinda makes me feel like I'm in a movie where people around me are disappearing for no apparent reason! Just curious, so I don't end up being one of them

Ooooo... conspiracy theory...

That's a good question. I just want to be a member, man, I never did nothing wrong I swear!

What would make me nervous is that it seems necessary that so many users get banned. Conspiracy theory #2: The hordes of trolls are waiting outside the safe haven of ha.org, planning for the takeover.

Did you see Aeon Flux? We are they.

No, seriously, it's just "cleansing" taking place -- the people who leave might have left because they insulted a mod or admin, or because they were warned quite a few times prior...

I actually was quite lucky not being banned, after the mega-fight I got in with Gambit, a few months ago. He seems to have a soft spot for me, now, though (thanks to the OT forum post I made, probably)

I don't think serious members risk anything. As long as you are able to present good arguments for your discussions and the points you make, you should be all right. Even if you slightly 'circumvent' the TOSs. guruboolez did so, himself, to question the way topics were being closed...

(note, I'm not trying to start a revolution, only stating a few facts)

Ah yes I saw that movie... unfortunately I'm too busy... um, ogling at the main character I don't really follow the story... what's it all about?

Edit: Shade, yer screenname again - without fail - confunds da IPB tag... bleh

One way to not get banned is to not post.

Actually first post I ever made a few folks jumped all over me and I really felt so comfortable I just have not bothered posting again.

It was a discussion about gapless playback of mp3 files and apps that were able to do that. I mentioned 1by1 and it was like all hell broke loose.

It does gapless playback but according to some people here it did not. They said some mumbo jumbo that technically disqualified it but in fact it does the job, but according to people who went apewired, actually what it did was something else. All I know is it plays mp3's gapless and technical mumbo jumbo or not it does it and does it well.


Thats my last post for another 4 years I suppose. I don't wanna get banned hehehe

Actually, if the player only does crossfading without taking into account gapless info from the bla bla...

Just kidding

I didn't think the admins and mods here were that petty, they seemed quite mature to me. I mostly lurk though, so I've never faced their wrath...

For everyone screwing up, when they quote my name : you can replace the ] bracket with :

(just remove the space between the amperstand (&) and the pound sign (#)

Or just post within the terms of service; it's not that hard to do. Some of us have been here 4 or 5 years and don't seem to have a problem with this.

I've yet to break the TOS so far (or at least no one's pointed it out), it doesn't seem too hard. Just don't claim stuff about quality you can't back up. And I've never made a thread, so I can't break that rule either!

The mods/admins here seem to be reasonable, personally.

Actually, if you do, do that, make sure people know you're not sure. You can specify so by using acronyms like IIRC (if I recall correctly).
If you want to bring up a personal belief, make sure people know you are. IMO, or IMHO (in my (humble) opinion) says it all.

And, if all else fails, you can always help others by suggesting them a more concise search query.

On that note, I've always had a very hard time searching here, it seems nearly impossible to get results actually related to what I'm looking for... maybe I'm doing something wrong.

I would imagine it's for going against the TOS, and/or rules in general and continuously violating them after being warned, or even after posts have been moved into the Recycle Bin.

People getting instantly banned would probably be those whom spam, or like previously those who f'd with or spammed the Wiki - for those particular assclowns that have been banned good riddens to them.

I've found http://www.google.com/search?q=Query+site%...drogenaudio.org to be more effective.

Most times. If you know exactly what topic title you're looking for, use the internal search -- it's better. But for body text, google does its job well.

^ I spy with my little eye something beginning with TOS #5...

I can only think of one of these off the top of my head, and I raised the issue with Peter, who explained the situation. That one is also only a temporary ban.

IMHO Andavari has summised the general reasons well. Instant bans are generally spammers or advertisers. A surprising amount seem to be for TOS #12. Eventual bans would be for persistant TOS violation. NB: this is only MHO as I cannot ban people, you'll be pleased to know. And no, you do not necessarily get to 100% on your warnometer before being banned, it is discretionary and a member with a warning level of 33% could still be banned if their behaviour warrants it.

That'll be the random ban script tht runs each night. Actually, that might be a secret. Forget I mentioned it.

You get 3 warnings. The exceptions are 1) Duplicate accounts 2) Spamming which lead to an instant ban regardless of warning level.

(1) is becoming a bit more of a problem now that we allow free emails.




Use "+" if you have multiple search terms. This feature of IPB is a bit against the normal working of search engines.

And yes, google sitesearch works very well, because google has a direct feed of the current threads.

Naaaah, that was just a healthy discussion between two men.

But seriously, as long as people follow the TOS, they have no reason to be afraid to post. Even if you break the TOS, you get warned first (as long as it's not the stuff Garf mentioned). So if you get warned, just make sure you learn from it, and don't make the same mistake again.

Oh, and many of the offensive posts for which people get warned or banned are deleted and moved to the Limbo forum that only the mods/admins can see. So, you can't find those in the Recycle bin either. (I tell you, it's a lot of fun to browse the Limbo forum sometimes. )

I think this is a very good point to keep in mind.

A warning is simply that, a warning. If you learn from the experience it will be removed in a relatively short space of time. No harm done.

If you blow the warning out of proportion you run the risk of further violations, by either commiting the same crime, or violating TOS #7 (bitching about it in public). The ban I mentioned earlier happended this way, and I'm sure countless others. It's pointless, futile, and a shame.

If you really don't understand why you have been given a warning then PM a mod, don't go mental. It should, however, generally be obvious by looking at your warning record. If you violate TOS #8 other members will generally let you know pretty damn quickly. If you've called another member a "c***sucking s****bubble" because they didn't use the search, take it from me: that's TOS #2.

If you have a warning, don't worry. You are not the only one, and you're not being persecuted. Numerous members have warnings, or have had warnings (myself included). It's only a big deal if you make it, or don't learn from it.

The one that makes me chuckle is a member's profile with "Most active in: Limbo". That's not a good start to your membership...

I've received several warnings. I find myself treated fair, though I do not understand every single warning or do not agree in each case. And sure the warning/banning procedure is a must.

I also beleive that seing some members no more may be simply to the fact they don't want to actively contribute any more.
I am considering this too, not because I start to dislike HA (I do like it), but because I've found I spend too much time on HA. Once active in HA, I have got the habit not wanting to miss any relevant news.
Which is not very sound looking at it from a distance.

HA has given me a lot of stimulation, but the degree of further stimulation gets lower and lower having been here for a while. And I don't have so much to say and try to help other people that I should go on like that for a very long time.

From a distance IMO encoding quality isn't substantially improving any more except for the low bitrate end I'm not interested in. Same goes for compression ratio in the lossless field.
So I guess I collect all my open questions (there are one or two), try to find an answer here, and after a few weeks or so afterwards I'll be one of those persons suspected to be banned.

Guess I'll return to HA afterwards on a non-regular basis.

Read the Recycle Bin occasionally if you want to know why, it's quite entertaining actually.

Limbo forum, eh? That sounds like fun to read.

I can guess what c***sucking is, but I've been failing to find a satisfactory explanation of s****bubble. Are you sure it has 4 asterisks?

An Australian term for a handsome man. My definition is very British though.

fchax

lol. cultural differences in language usage always amaze me. in common american english, it generally means something like "the quality of mind enabling one to face danger or hardship resolutely." i never knew it could mean anything else...

Thanks, didn't know about that.
And I'm a bit upset looking at my deleted posts, cause essentially I can't find something wrong with them (looked only at the first page).
Shouldn't mind.

Wow. I agree with pretty much everything this guy said.

I certainly can get very "into" reading HA, and burning a good portion of the day away with it. I do like helping people wherever I can, and keeping up to date.

It's kind of addictive, I suppose like how a good T.V. show would be for some people.

Hi to all. I've been lurking here, looking generally at the foobar2000 subsection. However, I don't really know why, my IP adress is banned :/ I cannot access HA from my home, even though my account is not supended, and I didn't ever recieve a warning. What's wrong? I've tried PM to admins, but didn't recieve any response. :/ What should I do? I'm using fb2k so this site is somewhat essential.
Cheers

Protip: Thread resurrection of a topic talking about banned users to complain about an IP ban that really has no relation to the issue being discussed in the thread is unwise.

The ban has been narrowed. You should now be unaffected.