Banned for Linking

Sonnenblumen

Without warning I have received a 7 day ban for apparently breaking the rules (including an external link). According to the Mod, I should know better, but I didn't know! Yes I've posted 2 links, but also 2000+ posts mainly in garden forum. Yes I am not as familiar with the rules and having checked the charter I cannot honestly see any clear guidelines.

Also external links feature regularly in the forum, in fact the thread contains links to an external non-member site. My crime was including links (an efficient use of time and space) to objective and informative content to novice gardeners seeking info on composting and growing your own.

No sales promo, no pitching, on the contrary I would be really surprised why anyone would object.

Also Photos are posted in the forum, by all including members, mods etc , never seems to cause any trouble. What's the harm in linking? Links are in many sigs etc etc and why the inconsistent approach within the garden forum, in direct contrast to other areas on boards?

Perhaps the mod was on an 'off day'?

First; It would help if you posted the link to the post you got banned for

And, secondly, and more importantly, have you PM'd the mod in question?

Orion

I'd like to see the post that caused it.

But based on my past interactions with Sonnenblumen I'd be amazed if he did anything to warrant a forum ban from Gardening. I don't post much in that forum but I do read it - and he's always had excellent advice and doesn't pimp his own business - which is one reason I will probably be buying a particular item from him this summer.

This is the guy that gave away a lot of tickets to Bloom last year.

Sonnenblumen

Papa Smut wrote: »

First; It would help if you posted the link to the post you got banned for

And, secondly, and more importantly, have you PM'd the mod in question?

I have not pm'd the Mod and my posts (2) have been deleted. I'm happy to post the'offending' links here, but will I get an extended ban?

This is the pm notice I receive from Mod:

"Hi Sonnenblumen,

You have been banned from Gardening for the following duration:

7 Day(s)

for the following reason:

Linking to your site in a number of posts. Your around long enough to know how things work, so this is resulting in a temp ban from the forum.

Providing your ban is not permanent, it will be lifted automatically after 7 Day(s). You will get an automatic message informing you that the ban is lifted. If you do not receive this message after the alloted time, please PM a moderator to clarify.
Also, please be aware that an abusive response to this automated message may result in an extension of your ban, or in extreme cases, being banned from the entire site.

Thanks,

Forum Moderator."

Sonnenblumen

One post contained a link to my gardening Blogs, one on Composting:

GREEN ZONE: Garden Composting and all you need to know.

Why should I compost?

Organic matter improves soil structure and gives life. It opens up heavy soils, aids drainage and provides good growing conditions. Light or sandy soils benefit from its moisture retentive properties.
It provides nutrients for plants. The nutrients in your compost depend on what has been put in your bin, but will always contain a wide range of trace elements and plant foods.
It is a completely natural product. In nature, all living things eventually decay; composting simply speeds up the process.
It is free and environmentally friendly. Up to 30% of household waste is organic and can be converted into compost for use in the garden. Composting is good for plants, good for the environment and good for us.
Where should I locate my Composter?

Preferably in a warm or sheltered position, but this is not essential.
Position composter unit on bare soil. This will aid drainage and allow worms and bacteria to enter and aid breakdown of the raw material.
What can I put in it?

Garden Waste: All types of garden waste including annual weeds, grass cuttings, fallen fruit and old vegetable plants, bedding plants, chopped prunings, hedge clippings, horse and poultry manure and urine, straw, feathers, dried fallen leaves, sawdust and wood shavings, shredded wood and twigs, seaweed, spent compost.
Household Waste: Teabags/leaves, egg shells, coffee grounds, fruit and vegetable waste, human and animal hair, feathers, shredded and soaked cardboard, paper, wood ash.
Avoid placing any cooked food including meat as this is likely to attract rodents.
How to Make the Best Compost?

The composting process requires raw material, water and air. Good compost comprises a balance of as many ingredients as possible. Too much grass will create a slimy mess; too much woody material will create a dry heap, which decomposes very slowly. Chopping and cutting ingredients into small pieces before adding to the composter will facilitate faster decomposition.

The most important balance to achieve is the proportion of woody, high carbon material (e.g. dried leaves, straw, paper, twigs, hedge clippings) to sappy, high nitrogen material (e.g. plants, weeds, vegetables & fruit, grass, manure). The woody material keeps the compost open and aerated, preventing the soggy mass that results from composting too much nitrogen-rich material (such as grass cuttings). However, it provides little or no nutrients for the bacteria in the heap, which creates the heat required for good composition. Soft material contains the nitrogen needed by bacteria, plus water. During colder months a piece of polystyrene or old carpet placed in the bin on top of the compost will prevent heat loss.

An essential ingredient for composting is air. The best way to introduce air into the composter is to fork up the contents and turn it over. It is a good idea to do this on a regular (monthly) basis.

When will the compost be ready to use?

Shredded material that has been kept moist and turned several times can be ready for use in the garden in just a few months but six months is more typical. The length of time really depends on the mixture of ingredients, air temperature, size of coarser material and how quickly the composter unit was filled. Compost at the bottom will always be ready first, so always remove from the bottom first.

If a finer texture is preferred, sieve out the coarse material; this can be used as mulch around the garden or in the base of planters/garden pots to provide drainage and nutrients, or simply replace in the bin for further breakdown. Finally do not use garden compost for delicate seedlings because it is not sterile.

and another post had a link to this blog entry about 'Grow it Yourself':

GREEN ZONE: Grow It Yourself – where to start?

It does seem amazing how quickly DIY gardening appears to have been overtaken by GIY (grow it yourself) gardening! Not so long ago, growing your own vegetables, was seen by many to be a popular past time for a few old gardeners lucky to have a large site or allotment. These days with large sites hard to come by and allotments much in demand, old gardeners or gardening junkies are no longer the sole exponents of GIY, no, many new entrants are young professionals, nature enthusiasts, people who are genuinely interested in getting closer to nature or reducing their dependency on mass market produce. Others wish to experiment and growing their own vegetables, almost like micro farmers or even environmentalists, taking positive steps to reduce carbon footprint or better still growing for organic consumption and self satisfaction. Not surprising therefore to see reports about the sale of vegetable seed overtaking the sale of flower seed. So if you are a potential GIYer and do intend starting a programme or project of growing your own vegetables, some tips might helpful during the early planning or implementation stage So whether your stimulation is reduce air miles or taste organic food, there are some important points to consider when planning to start a vegetable garden.

Does size matter? No – not really, whether you have a pot, an old kitchen sink, a window sill or a sprawling site, growing your own vegetables is not only easy and exciting, it is also very rewarding.

Location – unless of course you enjoy longer walks through your garden, for practical reasons, the vegetable plot or kitchen garden should ideally be positioned nearer the house. More importantly best to choose a position which permits the vegetable plot to enjoy a sunny aspect for much of the day. Although some vegetable produce will tolerate some shade (for example lettuce, runner beans etc), most won’t, so pick the site very carefully, pick a sunny and a sheltered position, avoid exposed windy sites. Other site aspects worth considering include picking a site where the prevailing ground conditions are level and free draining. Finally do bear in mind that good soil conditions will also be required, whether you prepare the ground by digging or mix in new soil or soil conditioners, most vegetables will require a growing depth of at least 300mm.

What to grow? Some might have favourites, some might stick with old reliable:

Potatoes are good, and probably one of the easiest to grow, they are also great at breaking down heavy soils. But do remember to give them plenty of water.
Leeks – easy to grow from seed and young leek tastes wonderful
Broad beans – very tasty when young but are very easy to grow
Sweetcorn – harvest when tassels are brown and boil in salted water
Radishes – many different varieties to choose from, but an ideal and fast growing crop from which to teach the children GIY
Runner Beans – quick growing, plentiful and pick and with lots of pick’n’grow fun
Deciding on the Layout – is important especially where space might be limited. For example you can grow some varieties at ground level whilst others such as French and Runner Beans can be trained to grow very effectively up trellising or bamboo canes. In larger sites, plan a series of long narrow beds which are easily accessible from both sides, but do remember to leave plenty of space between the growing beds, for example you should be able to move along pathways between beds with a wheelbarrow or more importantly if you like to get down on your hand and knees and get dirty, you’ll need at least 900mm – 1200mm spacing between the beds. Growing beds can be ground level on larger sites or raised on smaller sites or where soil conditions are poor. Raised beds can be developed using soil from other sites and mixing with compost, manures, soil conditioners etc. Also because they are raised you can ensure that drainage is good. As stated earlier, most vegetables prefer to grow in sunny areas, therefore it make sense to orientate beds on a north south axis, this ensures that all vegetable get sun each day. Be generous on spacing between beds, and consider a surface material so that all weather access is possible.

Cabaal

While I'm not the gardening mod that banned you; having looked at the posts in questions, first off you started a whole new thread just to post

Here's a useful intro to garden composting:

http://www.owenchubblandscapers.com/...-need-to-know/

So affectively a whole thread just to pimp out your blog..the thread lacks content and its sole purpose is to drive traffic to your site...also its not just a blog its your company website so your also pimping your company so overall this imho breaks the forum rules.

Your around long enough on boards.ie and the gardening forum to know the rules in fairness

Secondly, if you were unhappy with the ban you should have PM'd the mod in question Delly in this case (http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/member.php?u=27369), if you were unhappy with his response then you should contact a CMod and if your unhappy with the CMod response you should go to helpdesk.

Feedback is not the place for your complaint as it doesn't follow the boards esculation procedure.

delly

I'm sorry you feel hard done by Sonnenblumen, but I made the decision based on a number of reasons.

Firstly, a causal link can sometimes be acceptable, depending on if its a long term user or not. What you have done is post three links in one day to your website, one of which was a new thread just to do so. I have seen new users branded as spammers for doing similar and this is essentially what you have done.

Secondly, yes you have been around long enough to know what pimping is and how it works. You have criticised other users previously for doing the same thing.

Sonnenblumen wrote:

I have provided much advice where possible to many posters seeking help/advice, and dare I say it, apart from pimping a designer site, I don't recall any informed advice from yourself ? At least I am motivated to respond to or help a Poster and yes sometimes criticise but from what I can see your contributions are nothing short of any effort to pimp a website?

As you say, your advice is good and you have knowledge to bestow on other users, but this doesn't give you a free pass to advertise and on this day in particular you went too far resulting in the 7 day ban.

LoLth

Not to be pedantic but complaints etc should be posted in the helpdesk forum. This forum is for feedback on boards.ie policy , structure etc.

also, if you have an issue with a moderator decision, the current rpocess for dealing with this is to PM the mod in question for clarification, if still unhappy talk to the CMOD who can make an unbiased decision. Thise proocedure is up for review but for now its the most civil way we can think of for doing things.

moving to the Helpdesk and leaving a redirect for seven days.

thanks

LoLth

Sonnenblumen

Cabaal wrote: »

While I'm not the gardening mod that banned you; having looked at the posts in questions, first off you started a whole new thread just to post



So affectively a whole thread just to pimp out your blog..the thread lacks content and its sole purpose is to drive traffic to your site...also its not just a blog its your company website so your also pimping your company so overall this imho breaks the forum rules.

Your around long enough on boards.ie and the gardening forum to know the rules in fairness

Secondly, if you were unhappy with the ban you should have PM'd the mod in question Delly in this case (http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/member.php?u=27369), if you were unhappy with his response then you should contact a CMod and if your unhappy with the CMod response you should go to helpdesk.

Feedback is not the place for your complaint as it doesn't follow the boards esculation procedure.

If I was a pimp fan, I would like many members make sure to post link in sig everytime! Apologies for posting in wrong forum.

I've no intention of contacting the Mod, preferring instead to be less interested now in assisting other members search for useful info/guidelines.

Sonnenblumen

Cabaal wrote: »

While I'm not the gardening mod that banned you; having looked at the posts in questions, first off you started a whole new thread just to post



So affectively a whole thread just to pimp out your blog..the thread lacks content and its sole purpose is to drive traffic to your site...also its not just a blog its your company website so your also pimping your company so overall this imho breaks the forum rules.

Your around long enough on boards.ie and the gardening forum to know the rules in fairness

Secondly, if you were unhappy with the ban you should have PM'd the mod in question Delly in this case (http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/member.php?u=27369), if you were unhappy with his response then you should contact a CMod and if your unhappy with the CMod response you should go to helpdesk.

Feedback is not the place for your complaint as it doesn't follow the boards esculation procedure.

Ouch, lacking content! Thats harsh. The point is, if my sig contained the link, I would not have been banned, no matter what you think?

Sonnenblumen

delly wrote: »

I'm sorry you feel hard done by Sonnenblumen, but I made the decision based on a number of reasons.

Firstly, a causal link can sometimes be acceptable, depending on if its a long term user or not. What you have done is post three links in one day to your website, one of which was a new thread just to do so. I have seen new users branded as spammers for doing similar and this is essentially what you have done.

Secondly, yes you have been around long enough to know what pimping is and how it works. You have criticised other users previously for doing the same thing.

As you say, your advice is good and you have knowledge to bestow on other users, but this doesn't give you a free pass to advertise and on this day in particular you went too far resulting in the 7 day ban.

I'm not feeling sorry, I'm was simply surprised, but not enough to warrant any pm. Fear not, there will be no risk of me repeating any potential 'spamming'. I'm sure you can make up for my reduced future contributions by posting more pics of your land drains.

Good luck.