Well i'm just back after my ban. i basically feel like i was bullied. All i was was a new person that read the rules and started posting in some threads. AFter receiving short PMs that called me a "spammer" which i couldn't reply to i came on this thread asking how i can PM someone to engage in a dialogue to ascertain what i had done wrong; this in itself irritated someone because next time i tried to log on there was a message saying i had been banned for a week for "spamming". I feel like i can do nothing right and am treading on eggshells. I see threads where people are posting profanity and being argumentative and that seems to be allowed whereas being new is not. I feel bemused to say the least.
I do understand the frustration without being able to PM back when you have received an infraction. The reason we disabled PM's is because a lot of bots where coming on and sending out PM advertisements, so that was the only way to nullify that problem. It's a difficult situation that we haven't been able to fix.
As far as the spamming though, we're not out to get new posters in anyway. There are a lot of posters that come out and get exactly what it is we do here. I saw a few of the post you were given infractions for. If you go back and read the depth and detail of your post compared to some of the others, your infractions were justified.
You've done a good job with your explanation and complaint in here. That is a good post you've written. That's all we're asking on here is a little depth and detail so people can dissect your post, and give an opposite opinion if they wish. We allow argumentative and profane post to go on. It's a discussion forum, and that is away some people express themselves. The only issue is when personal attacks or flaming come up, and that's when we will either hand out a warning or infraction.
Most people need to realize, and I understand it's hard to when your new, that this board was destroyed once by spammers. Destroyed as in shut down. The forums have been open a long time, but if you look, you'll never see an account older then June of 2006. The boards were shut down due to the spam, and since it's been re-opened, persons on the mod staff understand how to enforce the spamming rule and not allow that to happen to these boards again.