Fedora Forum Corrupt?

[CompanionCube]

Being somebody who really wants to enjoy Linux, I decided to give Fedora a go. I joined the forums quickly, and like most newbies I setup my avatar and sig, then I immediately posted a topic asking what aspects of Fedora people enjoyed. First I got a PM from a moderator asking me to remove the links in my sig - so I did so right away. Then I found out the same moderator closed my topic for reasons "so many topics like this are out there" followed by a little warning. Frankly, I feel I should have known better. Looking on the bright side, I began to respond to a few topics - getting involved in the gallery by discussing desktops then talking about Linux apps. It was to my shock that when I returned I was banned - with no reason specified. I was confused to why I had been banned in the first place, considering I hadn't broken any rules - in fact, I never brake any forum rules on purpose. On a nicer note I only had around 5 days before the ban was lifted. But then today I returned and my ban had been extended - permanently.
In a nutshell, I was banned forever for posting a cliched topic. Does anybody else think this is a little wrong?

[brewbuck]

There are lots of idiots and antisocials in the world. My advice is to ignore them and move on...

[CompanionCube]

Yeah, but its hard to when I was so excited about getting involved with the Linux world.
If its any use, the mod or admin was named "Wayne".

[laserlight]

Contact an administrator of that forum. Or, if you are continually frustrated, move on to another Linux distro that perhaps comes with a more friendly community.

[brewbuck]

Originally Posted by CompanionCube

Yeah, but its hard to when I was so excited about getting involved with the Linux world.
If its any use, the mod or admin was named "Wayne".

I don't post there, but LinuxQuestions might be one place to check.

[CompanionCube]

Yes, more good advice. Honestly my experience has really put me off the Fedora community - and the distro because Fedora is fueled by the community itself. I might try OpenSuse, I had a go with them a while back and enjoyed it.

[CompanionCube]

Ah I see what happened here. I just found this email:

Because of the frequency of your new posts and the forums posted to, suspicions were aroused about your intentions and therefore your posting privileges were suspended temporarily.

Failure to respond to this message will result in permanent suspension.

Thank you

I responded:

Ah, I see. I got the wrong impression too. I simple joined because I wanted to be part of the community and get into Linux, but now I wonder if I even want to be a part a forum that bans people because they don't check their inbox regularly.

[CornedBee]

Because of the frequency of your new posts and the forums posted to, suspicions were aroused about your intentions

Wow.

Hey, I need to go ban Elysia.

[CompanionCube]

He he.
Anyway, I find it silly that 4 posts is suspicious.

[flatwombat]

Okay, let me respond, if you will. I'm an Administrator at FedoraForum.org and would like to give a bit of an explanation.

FedoraForum.org has over 136,000 members and apparently is a 'prize' for spammers. We normally have approximately 100 per day attacking/7 days a week. Actually the spammers outnumber the valid new members by about 2-1. Spammers have several ways of attacking. Many join and hope to post their porn or drug links to get them quickly seen before we can catch and ban them. Others register as multiple users, hoping one will get through or sometimes even carrying on a conversation with each other about their junk in a thread. Still others post innocuous questions and include spam links somewhere in their biography or signatures.

All new members are required to read and follow the Guidelines of the Forum, one of which says that you will not post advertising without the express written consent of the owner. Sadly, the quick series of posts from CompanionCube did have advertising and seemed to be the work of a spammer. Yes, he removed the ads, but we've had previous situations where a day or two later the ads reappeared, so we put the account into hiatus and asked for an email confirmation. Spammers don't bother with email responses, valid members do. Unfortunately, CompanionCube apparently didn't check his email and seemed to confirm our suspicions that he was there to spam. So, the account was banned.

Here's the thing. The 'staff' of a Forum is a bunch of linux users, just like you, unpaid and trying to do a difficult job to help keep things working. We sometimes make mistakes, but I'll bet you've made them too. We're all human and working with less-than-perfect tools in our free time.

CompanionCube, if you'd like to be a part of FedoraForum, I'd be happy to make sure your account is straightened out. Just post a response here. (BTW, my handle is "bob" on the Forum, but that one was taken here. Surprisingly, "flatwombat" was still open!...whodaguessed?) Linux is built on groups of interested people trying to help each other and to make the best OS in the world. Sometimes we miss a step, but we don't stop trying.

[sean]

Uh oh - looks like flatwombat is a spammer

Ditto to what he said, though. I can definitely sympathize - we recently had a similar "overrunning" by spam bots that seemed capable of keeping 3 of the mods busy at all times. I know there were some members that I almost banned on the spot because they just registered with a username like amagvasdg which looked exactly like a random string made up by a bot. Of course, further checking revealed they had a very normal email address, and they ended up posting real stuff.

[MK27]

Also, and for a fact, some of the mods at FedoraForum are contracted out from somewhere (flatwhoever is lying!) and do not conceal the fact that they are moderating other "computer user" forums at the same time and that some such actual moderators further do not conceal the fact that most of their real time is spent councilling windows general users on these other forums and that they do not operate a linux or fedora system and possess ABSOLUTELY NO KNOWLEDGE, nor even try to dispense any, but merely that it is their job to be moderating a computer user forum, which considering all the things they are then totally unqualified to do, probably only leaves the task of dealing with potential spam ("it's all goobly-gook to me") in a paranoid way.

Boo fedora. Even tho my primary OS is FC10.

[Akkernight]

flatwombat does a terrible thing there...
You just don't try to explain to someone who's been banned for something he/she obviously hasn't done, about why or how regular it is -.-
You commited a mistake which got a interested user banned, you suck, period!

[printg]

fedoraforum.org is one of the better forums out there, but they make mistakes.

I looked up your username CompanionCube and your 5 posts were pretty feeble, just re-register under a new name and put a bit more effort into your posts.

[CompanionCube]

Originally Posted by printg

fedoraforum.org is one of the better forums out there, but they make mistakes.

I looked up your username CompanionCube and your 5 posts were pretty feeble, just re-register under a new name and put a bit more effort into your posts.

Yeah dude, there is a lot to say when your a newbie on a forum. [/sarcasm]
What are you trying to say? Because my posts and opinions aren't dazzlingly exciting I should be banned? Your an idiot.

May I add, I am happy with the response I got from an admin and would like the ban to be lifted. I can understand how these things happen and I am extremely happy with the reply.