Banned from Rugby Forum

DerTierarzt

Dear Sir/Madam,

on 23/7/2012 I was banned by the mod justsomebloke from the Rugby forum for one month "for posting Spam". I would like to raise issue with this on a number of grounds:

1) I created one thread in a relevant forum with one link to my blog which is relevant and on topic. This is in keeping with the guidelines:

Pick a forum that is MOST suitable for your message and post it there.

2) Before I created that thread, I PM-ed one of the mods, RuggieBear, along the lines of telling him I was going to post this thread, and should it be unagreeable, please contact me and I would rectify the matter myself, i.e.: take the thread down. I received no response from RuggieBear.

3) Before even that, I PM-ed RuggieBear on more than one occasion asking what exactly entailed spamming, as I found it confusing how one blog/podcast was regularly creating threads with links to their website and was being encouraged by the mods. This "Talking Rugby" podcast was flagged by me, and RuggieBear said he'd get back to me, yet I have yet to receive correspondence on the issue.

4) When I sought clarification as to why I was banned from Rugby by justsomebloke, justsomebloke replied that:

a) I was repeatedly spamming. This is not the case. I created one thread, with a discrete and relevant link, in keeping with the guidelines.

b) justsomebloke states that

In relation to Talking Rugby the only reason they are allowed post is due to the fact that a good few of the people on it a regular and good contributors to the rugby forum here

This to me smacks of a very subjective way to go about one's business, and far be it from me to launch a personal attack, I just would like the same rules applied to all, as I believe is in keeping with the boards.ie guidelines.

c) justsomebloke states that I amn't

a regular good contributor to the forum

Again this is highly subjective, I have made 126 posts, and created some threads which are inventive and still receive regular attention such as "Rugby 2011 Video Games", "Odd Rugby Trivialities" and "What if 'Alive' Happened to the Irish Rugby Team", in which justsomebloke himself posts

the first thread in years to actually add something new to the sexton V o'gara debate

d) How is banning me for one month for posting conducive to allowing me contribute regularly to the forum?

I'm not trying to cause an argument for the sake of it here, I tried to PM RuggieBear before this event. I tried to reason with justsomebloke. I tried to PM both mods so that a less heavy handed solution could be worked out. I just feel that I was treated quite subjectively. I enjoy contributing and reading the Rugby forum, and this has left a sour taste in my mouth, as I would hate for this forum to become a kind of Boys Own club, whereby one or more posters can repeatedly link to their website, yet another who leaves one in accordance with the guidelines is immediately banned.

Beasty

Hi DerTierarzt

One of the Sports CMods will have a look at this and get back to you

Thanks

DerTierarzt

Resolved, please close this thread.