Getting Banned !!!!

Dreal1 wrote:

I see expat members getting banned periodically!
Can someone explain to me why a member would get banned?
And are they banned for life or just for a short period?

Please wait patiently until a Team member will contact you soon.
Regards
Mal

Hi Dreal1,

While I'm not in the Administration of Expat-blog I can tell you from my experience that many members who get banned do so for SPAMMING and trying to send out floods of COPY & PASTE private messages. Others get banned because they're reported for rules violations like postings or unsolicited private messages that seek or offer personal relationships. Some for making abusive comments on the forums. There are a vast number of reasons why members get banned.

Just as there are many reasons, there are also many different bans - some temporary and others permanent. The length of the ban really depends on the nature of the violation.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, Expat-blog Experts Team

As correctly explained by wjwoodward, there are indeed many reasons (but there is always one) ... it can be spam, harassment, violation of our terms and conditions...

depending on the reason of the ban, it can be temporary or definitive

Thank you James and Julien for clearing that up for me.

Hi Brigitte.Aust,

You got that right! There's always a reason and it's always a violation of one of our rules or another. This is why ALL members (instead of just checking off the box that says you have) should actually read the Expat-blog Terms & Conditions of Use  as well as their local forum's CODE OF CONDUCT. These are the rules that all members of Expat-blog are expected to follow and the things that get people banned.

wjwoodward wrote:

There's always a reason and it's always a violation of one of our rules or another.

Well, yes and no, James. This section is called "Help us improve the website". If - If - that is a sincere request, the administrators should be willing to exercise a bit more flexibility than they do. As you know one of my recent posts was censored because it included an unflattering reference to some national politicians. That was a high-handed action, and an overly strict interpretation of the rules, in my opinion. Perhaps the rules should spell out exactly how much respect for national politicians is required of subscribers by the administrators. I make that suggestion is the spirit of helping them to improve the website, and I hope it will be taken in that spirit.

Peace and love!

Why should you talk about politics on an expat site?
That's totally irrelevant.
If you want discuss politics, I suggest that you go to political forums where you spread your opinion unsencored.

Being an expat is often an exercise in political diplomacy.

This thread is about banned users.

There is obviously always a reason : non respect of our code of conduct or violation of our terms and conditions.

Regarding politics, well, two subjects are not welcome on Expat.com. Politics, and religion. These are personal matters, we are not skilled for these and don't want to exchange about these matters here.

Hi Gordon,

While I certainly don't buy into the particularly "Brazilian" attitude that we expats don't even have a right to form an opinion (good or bad) about this country and its politics; I firmly agree that Expat-blog IS NOT the place where one should try to make their "political statement". Even the EB moto says it all.... share your expat experience!

Political and religious discussions always degenerate into heated arguments. No matter how most members try to keep things on track, try to avoid becoming personal, somebody always pipes in with personal attacks, name calling and destroys any meaninful chance of dialogue on a political or religious issue; so here is REALLY not the place for such discussions at all. I say this because I clearly make a big distinction between the "bureaucratic machinery" as it refers to immigration issues and processes and a country's POLITICS. They are quite different.

Anyway, we are really taking about moderation now - which is at the sole discretion of the blog owner, something we've all agreed to in registering as members. This topic is really about banning members, a different issue and it is always because of a rules violation even in the unlikely event that the rule violation stems from a political discussion thread, it is the rule they broke that gets them banned and not the political topic itself.

I'm of the opinion that there is no room on this kind of blog for political or religious debates, they're not relevant to what we're trying to do here and they are too divisive and generate hard feelings and disputes between our members. Much better to keep them out in the first place than to try and patch up the damage that they can do afterward.

Since I'm just an ordinary member like everybody else, this is just my two cents worth.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, EB Experts Team

I always get banned for my posts and replies and it is so annoying, but I won't give up. This is just the beginning

Hi pauldanielseliron,

Abiding by the forum rules won't get you into trouble obvioulsy and you must certainly have a hint on why you have been banned before.

Regards
Armand
Expat.com Team

pauldanielseliron wrote:

I always get banned for my posts and replies and it is so annoying, but I won't give up. This is just the beginning

Well, wouldn't it just be easier to follow the RULES you agree to abide by when you registered??? If you don't do that then you can hardly complain about getting banned!

Perhaps the next ban, since you've kind of issued a challenge here by posting this, will block your IP address and you won't be able to ever sign up again using a different username. We can hope!

you may have abused the blog, to warrant a ban

Hi--I just joined and to my shock have already received two "private" e-mail messages that I have deleted but how do I block my membership address from this sort of thing? I am not comfortable with this as I do not in anyway know these people .

please report these msgs, so that we'll get a copy, and intervene if needed.

thanks

Hi--yes one was from alshannaq ???? but I deleted it ight away and the other I can't remember. But it does bother me as I didn't think people would start mailing you private messages. I am on here for information and culture, etc--not for 'meet-up' stuff--and I am a grandmother no less! If they were women, maybe??? But young men?????

Tiggerone wrote:

Hi--yes one was from alshannaq ???? but I deleted it ight away and the other I can't remember. But it does bother me as I didn't think people would start mailing you private messages. I am on here for information and culture, etc--not for 'meet-up' stuff--and I am a grandmother no less! If they were women, maybe??? But young men?????

Don't worry, I receive the same messages like you, they don't even bother to read my profile.
If they did, they didn't sent me invitations. I ignore them.

I've gotten a ban and not able to respond to two people who helped me. I find this to be disrespectful to people who took the time to help me but now they think I have ignored there mail. I want to thank them for there advice. I still don't know why cutting off a response route to return mail is appropriate, I don't know what I done wrong.
Something to do with cut and paste posting?
Anyone out there know what this is about?

Copy & paste private messages are the very definition of SPAM and aren't permitted here. You send out the same message to several people and your mailbox gets automatically loced out.

Fair enough.....I think what your are writing should be the reason for a ban. I was not aware of the copy and paste ban, I felt to be told that it is not permitted would have been sufficient as nothing I said was offensive or inappropriate. But rules are rules and I understand. As I said, I would like to have thanked the people who offered to assist me but this was not available to me and I think out of curtesy that the banning policy is not the right way to deal with this but these are the rules and I respect that.
Thank you, Glen

Hi Glen,

The ban is automatic, generated by our Automated Anti-Spam System. It kicks in all by itself and nobody has to activate it in any way...... it detects copy & paste and it goes into overdrive.

You can send a couple, and it also allows for composing in MS Word and then copying over into your PM to one or two members, but other than that you get kicked, so be careful on that.

Mr. W.J. Woodward,
Thank you very much for the explanation ,it is very much appreciated. I'm just very happy to be back on track on the site as I find it very helpful. It is an excellent website.
Glen.

Hi Mr. J Woodward,

I would be in the same boat as Keliam up there. I basically think this site is really great for establishing connections and getting good information prior to my move to France. I also sent copy paste greetings to no more than 10 people before being informed that my account was locked.... I'm not sure if i'm kicked or my account is temporarily locked or...? and i'm wondering if you could please tell me.

I agree with you that it is spamming but I mean in a very small way... I was reaching out to people who were in my exact situation and firing off a quick few emails is a good way to get some quick contacts... surely there is some middle ground here?

Anyway, just wanted to say again that it's a great website and a great resource. I would be grateful if you could unlock my account I assure you I would not copy paste messages again.

Here is a tip for you and all others:

If you want to send the same messages to more people, send a message to the team with your text and the names of the members and they will send it for you. Or  you have to do it by yourself: with a maximum of twenty people you have to fill each name in the sent to box. Each name separated with a ",".

Primadonna wrote:

Here is a tip for you and all others:

If you want to send the same messages to more people, send a message to the team with your text and the names of the members and they will send it for you. Or  you have to do it by yourself: with a maximum of twenty people you have to fill each name in the sent to box. Each name separated with a ",".

Don't forget that the second method, doing it yourself - those 20 (max.) people you send the same message to MUST already be on your list of contacts. If you try and send out 20 copy & paste messages to people you don't know you're going to get locked out.

Donel, frankly it is hard to feel sorry for you in your situation. Life has rules, you sign up for membership and state you've read the rules and will abide by them. If you didn't read them then is that an excuse?

Should Expat-blog simply throw the doors wide open, let all of our mailboxes get filled to overflowing with the useless, unsolicited crap that some members send out before they get caught and in most cases banned? Sorry, but that doesn't work for me! I've been here a long time and I am very active. I don't have the time to keep emptying my mailboxes of all the garbage just so I can receive "real" messages from people who are important.

Thank you Primadona.
Happy to abide by the rules.
My situation was that there are maybe fifty or so Irish members and as I am Irish, I felt this was my best chance of getting genuine help with less chance of getting scammed. I send a message to twenty people and without warning my account was suspended. I was told that was an automated response to copy and paste.
Great site all the same.
Glen.

Keliam & Donal:
If you had first looked at the contacted member's profile and then sent them individualised messaged with something like "I see you are interested in ..., just like me. Maybe we can meet and talk about it when I move to your city?" you would not habe been banned - AND you would have a much greater chance of actually getting in contact.
I personally am always annoyed by those "instant friendship" messages from people who didn't even bother to read the little bit of information available about me!

What Beppi wrote is so true: nothing worse (alright there are other things which are more worse) is to get an impersonal standard message which had been send to many others too. In that way that is scam.
Better to open an thread on the forum so everyone can participate.