What happens when your account gets deactivated or you are banned from here? Do you get an email or an orgnote? What does it say?

How are you able to join again? Are you deactivated for a certain period, or banned for life? Does it depend on what you've done?

Why have you been banned or deactivated? Did you agree with the decision? How naughty were you? Were you as bad as you wished you'd been, given you'd been banned?

Is it frustrating not being able to come back?

These and many more questions have crossed my mind this morning ... I'm not expecting a huge response - the only orger I can think of who's been banned and still visits the forums is Aaron. I guess he wins the prize for "Naughtiest Boy on the Org" .. unless anyone can tell me different ...?

I'll answer this for ya Raspberry.

No one is ever deactivated without some warnings beforehand. Sometimes you'll get an email telling you why the account was deactivated, but not everyone has up-to-date email addresses on their profiles. And, we don't always have time to email people.

As for the duration, permanency and other details of the deactivation - that is very much the decision of the moderator, and often depends on how reasonable and cooperative the user is in getting the issue resolved with the mod in question.

The thing to remember is that we don't ban accounts as "punishment" - we do it to stop people posting. People who have ignored moderator warnings and continue to post abusive messages, flames etc - we need to have a way to prevent these people causing further problems. We have to take action to keep the peace and provide the best Org experience we can for the vast majority of our users.

Thanks Ian ... I have to say that I think the policy's working.

I have started visiting the discussion forums again and found it a far more pleasant experience than it used to be. There seems to be a general level of respect for one another amongst most users now, and the mindless threads have reduced in number (albeit not completely - and I'm just as guilty of posting some of them now, because there's more of an element of fun on the forums).

Keep up the good work.

Now ... will anyone tell me what it feels like to be deactivated, cos I'm an and have never been banned

Raspberry said:

Thank you!!

It's been my goal all along, ever since I started moderating the site way back when, to work towards creating a more positive experience here for our users. My focus in moderating has been mainly divided between two key issues:

• Keeping the peace; keeping our language civil, respectful and peaceful.
  
• Promoting good discussion, fun chat, and interesting debates.
  

I'd like to think that Prince.org indulges more diversity of opinions and views than some other sites... we welcome all opinions that are expressed with civility and intelligence.

I've said this before - the overwhelming majority of people on Prince.org are nice, friendly, intelligent people who come here for chat, socialising, laughs, news, and discussion. These are the "real" Org community, and the people who we are providing this service for. 99.999% of our members conduct themselves well and just focus on enjoying their time on the site. It is unfortunate that at times a very vocal 0.001% can ruin threads by flaming and causing problems - that is what we try to limit by deactivating certain accounts.

In terms of the users that get deactivated - there are two kinds. For most it only happens to them once (usually a case of learning to live with our rules regarding flaming etc), and it bugs them enough that they usually behave themselves once they are welcomed back The other kind is a bunch of usual suspects who get deactivated time and time again and who are more focused on asserting their egos than being considerate towards other people here. It's a shame, but there's only so much we can do - moderation is essentially reactive. If someone really wants to access our site, it is hard for us to stop them, but we can react to problems as they arise of course.

In an ideal world, everyone would act like adults and we'd never have to prevent anyone from posting. We wouldn't even need moderators and I could go back to just posting and chatting! Alas, the internet is not like that

Uhmm, here comes the Queen of all deactivations! LOL

Honey, it's not nice to be banned, but as Ian said, it's happening for a reason. One day u try to log on and then it just says Sorry, Ur account has been deactivated. It's the worst feeling of all!!

BUT! At least U can argue with moderators and get it back, sometimes they like to punish U and see U suffer when U cannot post right, Ian? (Sorry, just jokin!)

It happens for a reason, and if U behave, they might let U back in!

HerRoyalBadness said:

sorry, that's me!

Aaron

... and thank you all for your input on this thread.

AaronMaximus said:

u got that shit right

AaronMaximus said:

Wanna fight about it?!

Ive got two strikes against my Prince.org account, mainly due to Handsclaps provocations, although that resolved now and yet i am clear in the NPGMC. Usually its the other way around LOL, but then again i wouldnt dare fight in the NPGMC, (apart from the forever irritating Unique) after all it may be P whos talking LOL

Freaker said:

unique? i've met unique in the flesh and have known 'im since i started up on the org...it ain't princey (thank gawd!)

No i didnt mean Uni was Prince..NO WAY! I meant that he is the one i find annoying in the NPGMC
Hes a nutcase!

Freaker said:

i know what you meant...and yeah, he's a bit bonkers thankfully he ain't like that in real life...

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

he and lib should do one of those "Road To..." pictures, like Bob & Bing did in the old days