the "banned without a reason" issue

[Polarbear]

i keep reading, that members get banned on trackers "without any reason".
i can really imagine that this is quite frustrating and makes you very angry.

so i asked myself some questions:

is it really true that some tracker don't give you a reason, when they ban you?
isn't the least that staff could do to tell you: "your account has been disabled, because ..."
do staff members earn respect from their "bosses" when they find bad users and ban them? (in a sense of: "this staff member is a devoted hardliner - he does a brilliant job in protecting our tracker.")
are we sometimes a little gleeful if somebody is banned from a rare tracker that we are a oh so proud member of?

OR

are these people just talking bullshit because they fucked up on the tracker and want their account back?

[Beenieman]

Well it just so happends I logged into my account over at Bitmetv tonight and discovered it to be disabled!

I'm pissed off about it because they havent said why, it can't be my ratio because I had a large buffer and it aint lack of activity because I just recently done the latest Heroes and seeded for min 48hours so I havent a clue. Only thing I did different today was swap from XP to Vista.

Wonder which nice person I need to ask around here to find out why

[briand5379]

I think there's some bs going on but I also think there's alot of truth involved. So it goes both ways. I can tell you if I was a member of a site such as BMTV or whatever and came on to find out they banned me cause someone invited someone who broke the rules I'd be a little pissed too.

[Beenieman]

Well I've heard of collactral damage but they do take the pee when disabling a whole tree based on one persons actions, especially since it's one account per lifetime so it don't make it very fair for the innocent ones who get disabled within that tree of invites.

[seanbee]

It seems these horror stories have been very prominent these days. My stance though has always been that individuals know what they are getting into before hand when they elect to join a tracker but that is not to say that some amount of decency can't be exercised by the tracker.

It appears evident though that adjustments may need to be made by BitMeTv in the way they apply the iron hand.

I sincerely hope that some good soul in BMTV has been reading these stories and will at least take note of them and where applicable seek to make the necessary changes to promote a fair balance of respecting your members while at the same time protecting your tracker.

[briand5379]

Everyone makes mistakes and that's something that should be recognized by the staff.

[rvt]

isn't the least that staff could do to tell you: "your account has been disabled, because ..."

The only way to do that would be either to not ban the person and send them a PM instead, or ban them and email.
The first is otherwise known as a warning. Having a banning policy that includes not actually banning someone would be a bit pointless.
The second wont work, because if you've pissed of a staff member enough to be banned they are not going to take time out to write you an email.
I'd specifically recommend against staffers sending emails to banned members unless they know their email service is totally anonymous. The last thing they want is to hand their IP to someone wth a grudge.

[TheFoX]

Don't forget that staff from all the communities talk to each other. At TPG they even have a comm staff area for torrent staff to discuss such issues.

A case to note that happened about two years ago, when a certain cretin told the owner of a tracker that he had reported him to the MPAA. He even provided a copy of the email he sent, detailing torrents etc.

What happened?

Later that day, the cretin discovered that all his accounts at all his favourite haunts were disabled. He asked why, and was told he was considered a danger to torrent communities due to his threats against one community.

See how the word spreads. Flame the staff at one community, and you risk losing more than that single account.

Anyone who thinks that each community is segregated, is a fool.

[0Ri0N]

Everyone makes mistakes and that's something that should be recognized by the staff.

Some staff members don't care if they are wrong or not, they have suspections, they ban, and don't even think try to defend yourself cause you will be banned from IRC. There are great staff members tho. I already was in both sides.

[briand5379]

Well we can't all be perfect like those staff members. Perhaps the world should be relieved of people who aren't like them.