http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/

john@alltp.com
John Hill

So I started thinking that maybe I need a tablet & since I don’t know much about tablets, I went searching for a forum where I could ask questions.

The minute I signed up with this forum there were problems. Their system wouldn’t let me access my profile, then I realized they wouldn’t let me post either, so I wrote them asking what the problem is, I sign up & you won’t even let me access my profile?

Since I’m a member of probably around 50 forums, I know this isn’t normal practice online.

The next day I get an e-mail from this control freak John Hill who says… “You are banned from our site.”

No explanation, hell, they didn’t even communicate with me, but bullies & control freaks usually don’t. They have to control everything in their path & try to put people down to show THEM who’s the boss.

I’m all for controlling your site & forum. I have many myself, so I know how it is, but I did absolutely nothing wrong. I was simply trying to get information on tablets.

Be careful when signing up with forums like this, you say one thing they don’t like even if there’s nothing wrong with what you said, & they will pummel you.

Thank gawd John Hill’s behavior is not the norm with forums on the Internet, which is why you don’t see many forums on this blog. Most forums are run by nice mature people.

Michelle

http://www.digitalhome.ca

Digital Home

At first I thought this message board was a really good one with a lot of good information, but after posting on here a few times, I came to the conclusion that the owners & moderators are control freaks, or at least one of them is.

They deleted one of my posts asking why someone’s post was deleted. OMG, I asked a simple question, so they gave me a warning LOL, can you believe that??? And you know why I was warned? Because we shouldn’t DARE question why a post has been deleted. Yup, LOL, that’s what I was told. I continued to use the forum & then today I posted something & 3 people put me down making fun of me (yes, that’s called bullying people, people who are 25, 35, 45 years old are still little babies going around bullying people like they did in high school.)

I doubt they will get reprimanded, because if the owners & moderators are that nasty, that’s why they allow such people on their board. I mean these people like:

XM4243
Crawler
jshel101

have over 400-600 posts, & I’m sure I’m not the only one they bully.

So if you want to be bullied, just go & post on that forum.

In typical fashion, all the bullying came from the Toronto area & also from someone in Calgary.

Toronto has some of the meanest people I’ve ever come across. I knew they were nasty, I just didn’t realize how mean spirited they were until after I moved from there.

http://www.desktoppublishingforum.com

Tried to sign up to join so I could post a hiring ad looking for a desktop publisher, & the owner or whomever denied me access for no reason.

When I e-mailed to find out why, I was ignored.

Rude owner

1. http://www.ablakeforum.com – the owner Anthony Blake banned me (my first time ever being banned after being on forums for over 4 years), because I was very angry at being ripped off by a graphic web designer who was paid for a design we never received. I posted an angry post on his forum under his section to “out” people who rip people off. I wasn’t nasty, just angry & I told the truth.The person who ripped me off is his friend (maybe even a lover) Lisa Preston. In fact I found her through his forum.

   So while others are allowed to out people who rip them off, Anthony doesn’t allow you to out his friends when they rip you off.

2. http://www.wickedfire.com/ – one day I was on the board hiring writers, the next time I went on there, I was banned. No contact from the owner or moderator as to why. I think it was because I posted on a graphic web designer’s thread that he said he would do work for me after he was done another project, we were supposed to finalize the details, but instead he strung me along for a week with no end in sight to make sure everything was finalized so he could start the work.

   When I called him on it, he told me to go elsewhere & I got pissed that he wasted my time.

   He then proceeded to lie on the thread saying he never told me to go elsewhere.

   Since other should know what kind of a worker he is, I put him on on my other site that outs unethical, unprofessional, unskilled, uncommunicative independent contractors.

   That is THE only reason I can guess I was banned since I did nothing wrong on the board. I never do, it’s just not in my nature to make up problems.

I’ve been a member of forums (I call them message boards – MBs) since around 2004 & I love them.

They are a great way to get fast answers to questions you have regarding any topic known to man/woman, assuming there is a forum for that topic.

In fact I love them so much, I’ve started two forums of my own.

What I don’t like about forums, is the odd one out there is run by a control freak.

There’s no other word for them & here’s why:

1. In all my years, only one forum has EVER required that they approve your membership. In the last few months, I’ve had to add 2 to that list.While I understand that owners don’t want to deal with spammers, 90% of all forums do NOT require that memberships be approved.

   I wouldn’t have such a problem about this screening process, if the owners or moderators actually did their job & approved or rejected people who were actual spammers, but a lot of them don’t. Either they don’t do anything, or they reject innocent people like myself, OR, they accuse you of being a spammer without even asking sensible questions.

   They don’t even respond back to my e-mails or e-mail messages through their contact form.

2. Banning people.I’m all for banning people who have done something serious or haven’t followed the most important rules, but to ban someone who hasn’t done anything wrong, or they are unaware that they did anything wrong, or to listen to one person’s side of the story & NOT the other, that’s just plain controlling. It’s like an insecure child who throws down the gauntlet & says “off with their head”. They don’t mediate to find out what the problem is, they just ban for no reason.

Message boards used to be a fun place to go, but in the last 2 years, I’ve noticed a steep decline in me feeling comfortable being on a forum.

On some forums, you can get a group of close minded, negative, bad mouthing immature children, who can run one or several people off the forum with their mean spirited words.

On most forums people don’t even sign their name at the bottom of their post (I do) which to me means they aren’t very friendly.

I’ve heard these complaints from other people too, & how they stopped going to the XYZ forum because of how mean the people on the board were.

So, before you join a forum, I think you should find out what type of community the forum has to offer. What types of people hang out there.

Are they mature, or do they have nothing better to do with their lives then sit around, judge, critisize etc., because they are unhappy with life.

Is the forum going to be useful to you in getting quality information, or does anyone with an opinion post with no actual skill or knowledge about the subject at hand, and lastly, are the owners or moderators going to ignore your requests to talk to them, or ban you for no reason other than they can?

You shouldn’t have to watch every move you make for fear of pissing off either a moderator, or the person who has no life & sits on the forum all day waiting to respond to every post. Not unless you yourself are mean spirited should you feel like you are in a communist environment.

So I will start making a list, & if you wish to add to that list with your specific comments about what happened, please feel free.

Thank you

Michelle