clarification on banning from forums

Hi,

I just got an email to the effect of being banned from the resident forum (for life) , for posting things off topic for that forum but the email was unclear and I would like a clarification on a few points:

- Even though the "offense" was the mentioned off-topic post, the email I recieved was kind of insulting, and took the time to accuse me of ranting and flaming as well, even though it did not reference a specific post or incident. Isn't this the same kind of behaviour that I am being accused of in a sense? It certainly seems a tad unprofessional.

- I once received a warning a long time ago for an entirely different situation where I insulted someone who had insulted and harrassed me in the forum but other than that I have a spotless record as far as I am aware. Wouldn't it be more in line with company policy to warn me first if it is believed I am making a post that is inflamatory, rant-filled etc. and then ban me only after I don't heed the warning? I know many others have had this courtesy extended to them in the past, so many in fact that it could almost be considered policy to do so.

- The banning email did not reference a particular post or incident, but it does mention that my "offense" happened on November 16th. Unfortunately, I did not post anything on November 16th, acording to the list of posts I can see, (maybe it was deleted?), so I have no idea what we are even talking about here.

On November 17th I made a thread for a feature suggestion, and posted twice to help out new users with information on building, but none of these were "rants" or "flames" to my knowledge.

The only thing I can think in this group of posts is that during the course of my feature suggestion thread I mentioned a well known griefer/hacker group in an unflattering light. This group being single-handedly responsible for grid attacks and various other things.

- Due to the great number of problems inflicted on Second Life users lately, the "Resident Answers" forum has gotten a bit out of hand. It has acted as the only pressure valve available to a lot of frustrated residents, but I am only one of the many many people that have posted things there that are perhaps not totally in line with LL's idea of what is appropriate topic matter (the "off-topic" argument). So my last question would be - am I the only one that has been banned? Or was this a "mass banning" of some kind?

Although I note that only 50% or so of posts to the Linden Answers forum ever get a response, and that many of those responses are "canned" PR type responses, I think as a long standing resident and contributor to Second Life and as someone that has donated a great deal of their own time and their own money towards the game and towards helping out players, being a greeter, a mentor, making large amounts of free items etc. that I deserve to get a real answer on these points.

Hi Dianne!

Resident Answers is an ongoing experiment which provides a friendly place to ask for help. While as I hope you'll understand, disciplinary matters can't be discussed here, describing "flaming" and "ranting" is not unprofessional. They're behaviors which don't contribute to productive discussions here, but rather, detract from them.

Here's the full text of the Resident Answers guidelines:

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Resident Answers is a simple, friendly place to ask your fellow Residents of Second Life for help. This forum came about after many suggestions dating back a long time, so in recognition of how many knowledgeable Residents we have who want to help others, we decided it's time to do something about it!

So here's what you need to know:


* Any Resident can post and reply here. You don't need to be in one of our Volunteer Groups, although volunteering is appreciated.

* You can ask about stuff like ways to earn L$, land management tips, and newcomer questions if you're new to Second Life! We also have specific Content Creation forums, Technical Talk for troubleshooting, and Classifieds.

* Please remember Resident answers aren't official, but may link to official sources like our Knowledge Base. Lindens do read this forum, but if you need an official answer and are sure it hasn't been answered before: (1) you can use Linden Answers, or (2) if it's account-specific, check out our Support page.

* In addition to the forum Guidelines, abusive behavior here will result in permanent removal of access to this forum. Making posts which are deliberately unhelpful or disruptively off-topic will lead to being banned from Resident Answers. This is not a place for rants and disputes. It's easy to be nice.


We want to encourage a comfortable space for getting the help you're looking for, so don't be shy—go ahead and ask, and make some new friends too!
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I'm sorry you feel this way — but this isn't accurate. I put my personality into answering appropriate posts with care, and I'm certainly not the only Linden who does this.

When "canned" responses are given, like redirects to support, it's because this forum isn't the right place for those posts either, as detailed in the Linden Answers Guidelines. We're redirecting Resis to the right place to ask.