Thursday, May 6, 2010

My new account was banned! LOL *updated again :-)*

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Interesting that the use of “temporarily” was quite incorrect. They wiped that account off the face of the earth.


I had responded to a truly obnoxious post insulting half the forum made by Greg Photo Sydney. And I'm thinking that this joke in my initial reply might have tipped the scales to the ban:
Q: How do we know when Greg Photo Sydney is insulting someone?
A: He’s typing.
(Update: GPS was permanently banned later on for persistent extremely bad behavior. I feel vindicated :-)

Note, this ban is DPReview-wide … that account cannot log in.

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*Update: Duh … I had forgotten to check that email account (kdletkeman) and of course the notification of the permanent ban was sitting right there :-)

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Update: Obviously it is bad form to create an account to get around a permanent ban, although people do it all the time. But in this case I felt justified as my ban was not.

So, to recount the history here:
  • I took a 3 month break, largely because I was tired of seeing the same stupid comments from the same *experienced* posters and then getting into the same arguments
  • I came back to test the waters
  • I responded to a particularly obnoxious post by GPS
  • Dave the weasel ostentatiously announced that he had pressed the complaint button (no reason given)
  • One presumes that his cronies did the same
  • I was permanently banned only from the FTF with no explanation at all. None.
  • After a few days, I created a second account.
  • History repeated itself
  • I was told by DPReview in an email that I must resolve the first ban through the feedback mechanism.
So … what will I gain if I speak with the moderators? Well, they will repeat what they told me last year when they permanently banned me unjustly and then reversed it after checking out the facts.

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That came directly from one of their moderators in a statement telling me that they were reversing a lifetime ban.

Basically, they are saying here that some people press the complaint button a lot and that makes too much work for them so I need to stop being a lightning rod. They suggested in a later email that I should put them in my ignore list.

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What that says is that I am allowed to post so long as I put D, G, P and a few others on my ignore list and never respond to them. That way, they have no reason to push the button (although they have proven they do it anyway.)

Obviously, I did not do that and I was banned within 48 hours of returning after my sabbatical. That tells you how easily the undue use of the complaint button can be used these days to change the face of the forums.
**Update**
Read this obnoxious and rather neurotic response from Dave to Velvet Anty, and of course to this article. You will laugh your ass off if you try to hear it in a hysterical, shrieking voice … 

A few points of explanation from points in Dave’s diatribe:
  1. Dave did have a comment removed from this blog under threat of legal action. (Update: When he annoys me, I think of him as "threatens-a-lawsuit.") The comment was not defamatory, and certainly not actionable in my opinion. But I removed it as a favor to the fellow who left it. He said he didn’t need that shit in his life, and who can argue? And by the way Dave … it is *not* illegal to write the truth. One need only look at your gallery and one would have no issue with the wording of the comment that was removed. To repeat … it did not defame …. it simply commented on an observable fact based on *dozens* of images on your own gallery. An observed fact that is trivially verifiable is *not* actionable.
  2. If there was a part of the removed comment that slammed some new FTF poster, it had nothing to do with them not posting any more. That kind of thinking is moronic. How would that person even see a comment buried inside a blog that Dave says is not even read by the majority on FTF :-)
  3. Dave is quite correct that my accounts are both banned from the FTF at this time. Dave even alludes to some other account that he alleges is also banned, although one wonders how he would know that. Interesting that Dave is essentially admitting to hammering on anyone who even writes like me.
  4. Dave comments “In reality, that blog contains some of the most slanderous, and libelous, comments about individuals, which I have ever read.” This is, of course, utter bull shit. I would never write something that I thought could be actionable. And by the way Dave, slander is defamation by oral utterance. Not the sharpest tool in the shed I’m thinking.
  5. An interesting and truly disingenuous comment Dave made is “Crikey ! I have not responded to them for months. Again, fully documented. I don't care if they are here, or not.” He somehow thinks using “them” distances him from his own comments. Silly boy. Anyway, he had not responded to me for months because I was abesnt from the forum for *3* months. And if he did not care if I was on DPReview, he would not be able to name every ban and some that have not even happened. He would not be intimately familiar with the content of this blog and with the comments on that content. He would not be accusing random people of being me. He’s simply obsessed. Nice to have fans though :-)
Dave’s diatribe indicates that he has extremely intimate knowledge of this blog and its content. And the comments about its content. I wonder how he came by that … :-)

18 comments:

Unknown said...

Amazing. What will they think of next. Maybe there is a mole in our midst.

Lawn Vultures said...

I don't know about a mole, but there are plenty Mole Rats over there in the Land of the Lloydians.

I am sure there is dancing and celebrations burning up the internet in their private emails...

Truly sad.

Adam-T said...

I thought you were being very restrained and diplomatic to be honest Kim - Greg`s inane Pretentiousness is irritating in the extreme and I found it very hard not to post a reply....

Andreas said...

Oh crikey! If DPR banned all the people who are REALLY behaving unacceptably, FTF would be a delightfully airy place to be... Give me a break... Ridiculous!

Andreas

Kim Letkeman said...

Thanks guys ... this ban is like the one last October ... I really have no idea what it was for. And they sent nothing to explain this time. Maybe it was my two complaint presses when Jimbo baited Bill and I with that book on winning friends etc. But I'm betting on my response to Greg, although which joke was unacceptable is beyond me.

Giorgio said...

I was wondering what happened to you Kim. With three ridiculous threads started by GPS he surely had only one goal and from my point of view you handled yourself well.

Hope to see you back soon.

Kim Letkeman said...

Thanks GD. I really was surprised.

Unknown said...

Holy moly! That image is the gift that keeps on giving. I've seen it three times now (at least), all here on your blog. That is great.

Paul said...

Enough is enough. Just stop contributing, that's what I did years ago on the DPR forum. After you pointing out you ban I scanned the current Fuji forum there; what a bunch of back slapping cretins some of them are. I have all but decided against an S200EXR just because of the samples that some of the posters boast about on the forum; I'm talking well below P&S quality acceptability. I'm hoping that someone will come along and prove it is a decent camera that is worth a try. Only $361 right now in Bangkok!

Kim Letkeman said...

I do like that image ... little walking phallus's :-)

Kim Letkeman said...

Paul, the F200 is a pretty good cam, although I much prefer the feature set of the F70, despite the slight reduction in image quality. I did stop contributing for 3 months there, and I think I need to take the hint :-)

Paul said...

Kim, I love my F70, especially considering the low price. Just a bit disappointed in some of the samples I've seen from the S200. I was expecting more, I guess from the superior optics and larger sensor. Maybe it was just some bad photography from the users that posted samples.

Kim Letkeman said...

Sorry Paul, I was confused. I read F200, not S200. Oops :-) ...

Unknown said...

I am just now catching up on all this.
Sorry this happened again, I think you were being quite laid back about responding to some rather childish behavior by certain parties.
I wonder if they get a Time Out too.
Since the S200EXR is discontinued I may, after yours tests and some excellent OOC samples on FTF, pull the trigger on the HS10.
Frankly I need the reach and silence.
In re the F70, the IQ is indeed just a bit less crisp than the F200, but the color and exposures OOC as well as MUCH better Macro leave me far preferring it, less post processing work is a godsend!
This shot
http://www.flickr.com/photos/colette_noir/4588023036/sizes/l/
was rotated only in silkypic, otherwise as shot.
The corresponding F200 shots is washed out and blueish even after firmware update.
I think the F70 is the best Vacation-Lite-Camera ever!

Coolsiggy said...

Hang in there Kim, it's amazing Greg is still there. I recently priced some gear at a certain web store and had a good laugh.

Kim Letkeman said...

Lili: Thanks for the kind words. I like that cat shot. I think the HS10 can be shot very well in jpeg, and is fast enough most of the time in that mode. I agree that the F70 is the premiere vacation cam right now.

Coolsiggy: I too am amazed. But it is no longer my concern as I am banned permanently. I'm sorry, try as I might I just can't get that joke about a certain web store. I must be dense :-)

Unknown said...

Sounds like the new username is permanently banned b/c you were supposed to wait out your forum ban on your original username.

If you give feedback, they should consider that even if you put others on your ignore list it doesn't mean they will ignore your comments.

Given their spite, they will do the opposite (not ignore) and try to manipulate the forum via the complaint button.

DPR, at some point, instead of simply trying to remove the 'lighting rod' aspect, should consider the context of what is really going on, i.e., the statements (misleading, not factual), situations (baiting) and agenda (willful and conspiratorial efforts to ban) of the complainants.

Kim Letkeman said...

r: The new username is permanently banned from logging in. The original one can log in and post in any forum except FTF. And that forum is a permanent exception. What they want me to do is to resolve the issue with them. There is nothing to resolve, though, since these people will press the button wantonly whenever challenged, simply because they can and it works. I agree with you that DPR are making a mistake by granting that much power to people willing to use it just to carry out their temper tantrums. I have asked for reinstatement on the promise that I will never again respond to DL, GPS, S, Z, P/TB and anyone else who habitually argues with me. That's my only defense.