Do It With Feeling.

There are many times in history where one person steps up to be the voice of the people and point out the wrong-doings of their governing powers. They know the negative consequences but hope to ignite a spark within everyone and bring out a change.

And I have never seen it put into an online form until I gazed upon this thread. There is something almost satirical about about their reasoning for doing what they did. I mean, there's blatant trolling but I've never seen someone so... passionate about their reasoning. A part of it is funny to me while it also makes me think on a semi-serious level. Like, 'Oh wow, this guy is serious. I think he's honestly expecting a revolution from this.'

I don't believe I have seen anyone "play Messiah" so well before.

Strange Behavior

Personal story time. It's a bit away from the blog's purpose, but I think that it can still fit here.



This was around April and May when I was thinking about buying a doll from someone on Den of Angels. I kept looking back to their sales thread and the doll always got to me so I decided to talk to the seller and ask about buying her. I believe we set up a short layaway (Which I do a lot when purchasing dolls) and went on from there.

One day I decided to look at her feedback out of curiosity and saw that it was positive for the most part but there were a few negative transactions. It looked like the seller would 'pull a disappearing act' and visit distant family which would delay communications and shipping times. I knew it had been some time since I had talked to her but I didn't think anything of it.

Then... things started to get weird. We started talking again after she visited distant relatives, and we discussed a bump up in shipping price and what would come with the doll. In my mind I really hoped she wasn't trying to pull something but I agreed with her though out the revised choices. I really wanted to keep faith.

After another small delay the doll was shipped and reached me in amazing condition. We left each other good feedback and we even connected on other networks like Flickr. She even sent me more small gifts in the mail. I reevaluated the situation as her hitting some rough patches in life; she was a single parent with new love and was moving quite a bit.

So we talked on and off and I found that she was selling some more of her dolls. I kept a bit of a check on the situation and I saw it turn from normal to not so good. Two (or three) buyers said that she wasn't contacting/ignoring them and the terms they were agreeing on were changing. All parties were obviously not in agreement.

I think the situation calmed down, but I know that her account from Den of Angels was banned, her Flickr was closed, and I just haven't seen any activity of her. Personally I was hoping that the situations would have ended on lighter terms.


I've learned that in buying and selling online, you have to have good behaviour and keep on your toes with contacts. Having flakey/unreliable behaviour and not keeping your emotions in check can lead to negative turns near the end of the deal. I know that all of the sellers I've dealt with were very nice people, but most of them have strict rules after poor transactions or dealing with flakey buyers.

I guess this is one of those things to keep in mind and to check your ethics once in awhile.

Our Bad, Sorry.

It's good to see a company be the 'bigger man' and admit something they've done wrong and fix it. Like accidentally banning about 12,000 players or not believing someone's actual location.


(Short, yes, but I think the articles make up for it.) 

It's Pretty Mutual.

I know that where ever you go online, each website or community has some sort of 'air' about it that can make first time users/visitors uneasy. The 'veteran' and general users are so use to it that their behaviour there is second nature, but they still keep their own quirks in doing things.


When I'm browsing around a website that I'm not familiar with, I usually don't join right away because I'm afraid of posting something that could have already been discussed or off-topic. It's things like that that new users, I think, should be cautious of.


One forum I'm fond of checking is the WBO: the World Beyblade Organization. There is a thread here that caught my attention about the staff being strict or not. Some staff members commented that they were strict within reason, and tried their best to give enough warnings before banning people & some regular members said how they thought the staff was being hard on them, but after some time realized that what they had been doing was silly and changed their tune.


All a matter of net perception and acceptance. It's not always the site, but sometimes the user.

Banning Yourself?

Mentioned in the previous post, there are some people that are willing to ban themselves either to find a solution to something they accidentally did or to ignore part of a website (As a form of self control.)


I cannot recall what the thread was about, but on a forum I am part of called Den of Angels (A forum for doll collectors) I remember someone saying how they had gotten banned from the Marketplace section. I assume they were part of a not-so-smooth transaction and were not allowed to view the Marketplace for a certain amount of time.
The thing I remember from their post was how they felt not as tempted to visit that section of the forum. They said that while they were banned, they felt more in control with their decisions and did not feel the need to impulsively buy items.


I remember another user saying how they wanted to ask a moderator to ban them from the Marketplace so they wouldn't roam it for long periods of time. A good idea, but it wasn't going to happen.


I can understand where they're coming from. I like to look around online shops, especially created by regular users, but there's always an underlying urge to buy everything in sight. Something like a  short-time ban from those places is good for people.


In some cases banning/blocking can be a good thing.

Not A Troll

I know that trolling, or posting something just to get a [bad] reaction from it, is a good way for users to get banned. Though I wonder about people who have been banned for supposedly trolling... I did a web search and found some results.


In this first thread I found, the user had written a story about a past experience in being banned. ...Actually they reported them self for having an inappropriate username (Without knowing it was), but since the story had content that was inappropriate for the forum that user was banned for a short amount of time.


This thread shows that a member with a Paid account had been banned for a short amount of time as well, but this was spread to other users as the admin team was cracking down on a specific person.
I know that sometimes it can't be helped, but when something like that happens then I think that there should be a more stable plan to confront a user instead of banning every other account (Unless this user was swift on their 'net feet.)


I found a thread not related to gaming, but music. In this thread, the user has been banned for trolling but simply asked for suggestions in what type of amp to buy.
Although it does look like they were 'spamming' their thread in other user's thread to get attention, but I'm unsure if that was the case or not.


Obvious trolling is easy to find, but accidental cases are harder to deal with and analyze, in my opinion.

That TOS...

I'm wondering if anyone reads the Terms of Service for websites they join. ...I know I don't, but I can usually imagine what they talk about: What can(not) be displayed, What the user is all-around agreeing to be joining, general disclaimers, etc.


I actually looked at the ToS for a website I'm apart of called Gaia Online and took a peek at what they have about banning users:


 Violations; Termination. You agree that Gaia, in its sole discretion and for any or no reason, may terminate any account (or any part thereof) you may have with Gaia or your use of Gaia Online and remove and discard all or any part of your account including its inventory of any virtual items, Gaia Gold, Gaia Cash Member profile, or any Member Submission, at any time. As all items, Gaia Gold, Gaia Cash, and other aspects of your account are considered to be licensed to you for your use while your account is in good standing, all of the previous are considered to be forfeit when the account is banned or otherwise terminated. Any fees paid hereunder are non-refundable. Gaia may also in its sole discretion and at any time discontinue providing access to Gaia Online, or any part thereof, with or without notice. You agree that any termination of your access to Gaia Online or any account you may have or portion thereof may be effected without prior notice, and you agree that Gaia shall not be liable to you or any third party for any such termination. As discussed herein, Gaia does not permit copyright infringing activities on Gaia Online, and reserves the right to terminate access to Gaia Online, and remove all content submitted, by any Members who are found to be repeat infringers. Any suspected fraudulent, abusive or illegal activity that may be grounds for termination of your use of Gaia Online may be referred to appropriate law enforcement authorities. These remedies are in addition to any other remedies Gaia may have at law or in equity.


Something makes me wish that I had read this when I joined the sight back in... 2004~ 2005. I must be too use the the 'Three Strikes and You're Out' system.

From Experience

I, myself, have never been banned from a website but I know some people who have been. Sometimes it's because they were obviously breaking the rules and 'trolling' but other times they have no clue what they could have possibly done to have deserved it and get their privileges taken away.


Sometimes I wonder about others that fit in that latter situation. I know that some people will have friends talk to moderators and/or an admin , or even petition, to get their account back. And I know others might ignore it or make a new account.


I guess I'll look into this more later. It's getting my interest now.