Does DU Ban long-time users for no good reason????

[Tamyrlin79]

A friend of mine, Melodybe, has been a longtime user/post at this board with several thousand posts under her belt. She just called and said that she had been banned here because of something she said to a moderator. She admitted that she was mad about something (she was kinda hysterical about getting banned so I didn't quite follow the back and forth). But, even if she was vehement about what she was talking about, I hardly think that that warrants banning a person who has been a consistent user, supporter, and even DONOR of this site for a very long time.

But the question still remains: short of being an offensive Freeper (as someone with 1000s of posts here clearly isn't), why would ANY moderator ban such a user? If the post was offensive, delete the post. If she was offensive, give a time-out or something for crying out loud. But banning a long-time supporter, someone who posts and talks up this site ALL THE FRIGGIN' TIME, and has even donated to this site to keep it going??? She even marched for a while under the Democratic Underground banner at the recent anti-war march, for goodness sake. Give me a break. We on the Left need all the allies we can get and banning clear supporters here is not the way to build a coalition.

The one thing I have always liked about this site was its freedom of thought (as compared with freeperville, where any thing that doesn't toe the party line is deleted and the user banned immediately). Has this site really devolved into this, or is this just a case of an overzealous moderator??? Even if the moderator was offended by what she said, they should have been a little less trigger happy because NOBODY is going to be perfect all the time and EVERYBODY will no doubt be offended some of the time at something here.

I see that this site has been asking for moderators. Maybe this moderator was a new moderator who is a little to quick with the "smite" button? If so, maybe DU should consider some moderator training.

[Mr_Spock]

1. I am sympathetic to your issue, but this needs to be taken offline

IMHO it will get locked quickly...

[Tamyrlin79]

4. Why? you don't think users here deserve to know?

I would want to know if they were banning people like this. Its just not good policy

[WiseButAngrySara]

17. Where offline? I agree with the original poster, as I've read MANY of

Mel's threads. Curious minds want to know!

:wtf:

[ClassWarrior]

2. I agree.

NGU.

[meganmonkey]

3. This will be locked

per DU rules, just a heads up. But if she crossed a line with a mod and it wasn't an ongoing problem she may be able to resolve it with the admin.

[Tamyrlin79]

8. what rule?

Is there a "thou shalt not post anything about the mods" rule or something?

[Lex]

10. These rules:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/forums/rules.html

[Lex]

5. I saw most of it unfold.

She kept starting threads about how DU'ers were a bunch of defeatists and really kind of flame-baity stuff.

Earl_G himself even locked one her threads and ask her stop posting that kind of non-sense.

Lo and behold, after a few minutes, she starts another thread of the exact same type. It got locked AGAIN (of course).

Her very last thread was basically daring DU to ban her.

And that's exactly what I observed.

[Scout1071]

22. Thanks for the recap.

Before this thread gets locked!

[LiberalVoice]

6. I dont htink Mod's have the power to ban people people.

I thought only the Admins could. :shrug:

[xultar]

7. She seemed to be having a bad day

I could tell by her responses to my posts from today. She seemed to have a little chip on the shoulder issue.

Sorry she got banned but if you're angry don't post. I've learned that myself.

[ClassWarrior]

9. We've all had those. I hope cooler head prevail.

NGU.

[Tamyrlin79]

12. So, is there not a "timeout" funtction?

You'd think that would be better suited to people having a bad day than outright banning.

[Lex]

16. I think it's up to the THE PERSON to remove themselves from the computer

if their threads keep getting locked.

DU Mods are nearly always fair in my opinion.

Her last thread was basically a dare to ban her. Not smart.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

13. People can get "unbanned" if they apologize to the admins and

promise to mend their ways.

[Jersey Devil]

20. Yep, but some seem to want to burn bridges instead of taking a deep breath

Best thing to do is to be quiet for a while and then talk it out civily via email. No need to double dare an admin. It is not a winner.

[Richard Steele]

11. NO. Not without a good reason.

As you may soon discover.

[Tamyrlin79]

19. why do you say that?

I've not posted anything inflammatory or offensive... just questioning what happened to a good friend of mine who called me very upset that she'd been banned.

[LoZoccolo]

14. Not usually.

If you post abrasive things, sometimes posting two threads, the second of which is to call attention to the first and/or nominate the other thread, I imagine that's grounds for dismissal.

[johnnie]

18. You're right

[LoZoccolo]

15. Dupe, self-deleting. n/t

[mistertrickster]

21. I agree. I made a tongue-in-cheek comment to a former

Marine who had posted here to the effect that "isn't being Republican a prerequist for joining the Corps?" I was just making the dead obvious comment that military types in general and Marines in particular tend to lean to the conservative side of the political spectrum.

In fact, a soldier who recently returned from Iraq and had written a book said the same thing on Al Franken the other day.

You would have thought I called the guy a stupid Freeper from the way people reacted. I got incredibly nasty comments directed at me, and then the Mod pulls MY POST, not the vicious retorts.

Management needs to lighten up around here. It's going to turn into PC Land where everybody parrots the party line if we're not careful.

[Extend a Hand]

23. oh nooooo

I really enjoyed Melodybe's posts.

Melodybe if you see this, please try and work it out with the mods.

:cry: :cry: :cry:

[Midlodemocrat]

24. Locking.

Please address all concerns about DU policies and rules to the administrators of this site.

Thank you.