Is There An Unknown 11th Commandment Here?

The curiosity of this kills me too. I know the old saying about "curiosity killed the cat". Sometimes I go to bed after posting in a thread and going back and forth with a member only to wake up and find the notorious ~ glaring at me from the screen. I turn into Sherlock Holmes.

I go to their profile, look at other threads and posts and can find nothing. I am only left with my imaginings of late night debauchery draped in veiled threats of knocking over a Burger King or a White Castle just for the lulz.

I understand why it is done this way... but man... it's like a dog with a bone for someone with a doub;e dose of curiosity.

reply to post by uesvaje


AHHH...it is happening! Right here in this thread!

Sorry, back on topic, I agree that there is the curiosity factor that eats away at you. You feel like you just have to know. If it is someone you respect and have seen floating the boards for awhile it is even worse.

I wanted to say thanks to the "big guys" for letting this thread stay opened. I know you guys are human (at least that is what I have been told) and I often wonder how much the job can get to you. So since everyone is being open here - my question is.....can a mod get banned?

ETA - Also, as another aside, since I can't star you all, I will send you each 1000 good internet blessings. There is some good discussion and answers going on here that I wish I could star.

A couple of things that might have been missed. First, PM's are subject to the T&C just as posts are. If a member is sending abusive PM's, members won't see that. If we get a complaint that someone is being harassed via PM Admin will look into that. If it's egregious that member, no matter of tenure, will be banned.

Plagiarism. BIG no no. If you are going to source someone you MUST give credit to the person/site that the info comes from. How would you like your work to be stolen? Those discussions take place away from the board as well.

It was mentioned before but it can be rehashed. Sometimes there is a member that thinks that by their contribution they are above the T&C. That's the D-ego. We have in the past removed Admin's from the site when they let their D-ego get the better of themselves.

I understand that the paranoid members would like an open book. I wasn't paranoid until I got here. Thanks ATS. We can not discuss bannings because of our Privacy Policy. That's works for ALL members. Makes a pantload of work for the staff though. See this thread. No offense.

Well there are some that I will miss. I found some of their threads, uhm.....well......

Entertaining! yah! That's the ticket!

Seriously, even if I really disagree with someone, I do enjoy a well thought out new thread. There have been many times that I'll start to butt heads with them and find myself pounding on the keyboard with a seriously flaming retort, but thankfully I don't click on that reply button, but get up and walk away first.

I've preached that to a lot of people in the past: No one is forcing you to click on that Post or Reply button right away. If something angers you: get up, walk away for a while. But never click that reply button until you are sure you have calmed down.

Oh, and I agree: I wasn't paranoid about anything......even when I was in the Navy. Now? Heh, ATS has me looking under my bed at night before I go to bed! Hehehehe

Originally posted by eriktheawful
Several of us here on ATS have been wondering if there is some sort of unknown rule here on ATS that can get one banned. A rule that you either violate one too many times, or even once is enough, and no mater what your standing here, it automatically gets you banned.

ATS'ers are curious people. We tend to be very intelligent and do not accept everything at face value (it's a conspiracy site after all).

The problem is, we see someone banned from the site. On the surface this is not unusual. Spammers and Spambots get banned all the time. People with obvious violations of the T&C's, especially repeat offenders, and many other reasons that are very obvious and can be seen just by looking at the banned member's profile and at their posting history.

But then we see long time members with very good standing with ATS become banned. And we are curious people (Deny Ignorance), but there is no obvious reason for it.

We also understand that the T&C's allow the site owners to reserve the right to ban anyone they so choose. It's their site.

However the problem is we can't even ask: why? It's against the T&C's to discuss this and those threads get locked quickly of course.

This tends to drive us ATS'ers just a bit insane. As I said, we're a curious bunch. Many of us tend to be just a bit paranoid (some a LOT), and when we see long standing members, some who have been here for many years, suddenly get banned for no obvious reason we can see, it makes us go kind of batty.

In a lot of ways this is like walking up to someone that we know is very, very paranoid, and whispering in their ears: "They are coming." just for fun and watch the guy freak out.

Worse: we have no recourse to find out the "why" of it most of the times. Some of us try contacting the banned member, but they act just as clueless, with no idea of why it happened.

This makes some of us start wondering if there is some sort of "hidden" rule, an 11th commandment so to speak, that we're not aware of that can get you banned, without notice. And if there is such a rule......then how do we avoid breaking it?

This reminds me of someone being grabbed off the street and thrown in jail, but are not told what law it was that they broke. People around them also are not allowed to know what law they broke.

I know ATS is not a public street. It's more of a house party with the site owners being the owners of the house and all of us members are guests. Owners of the house reserve the right to toss any guest they want out on their ear if they feel like it, and do not have to tell the rest of the guests why.

But a good host to a party would explain why, especially if it was not obvious at all.

So I guess what some of us are wondering is this: we're guests at your party, and for the most part try to make sure we remain civil and follow the party rules. But we're seeing other guests that seem to be both civil and following the party rules, suddenly grabbed and thrown out the door.

The rest of the guests are starting to get rather paranoid and worried: what if I'm next? Should I stop posting and just lurk? Will my next post get me thrown out because I have NO idea what it was that Johnny (made up name) who just got escorted out the front door did so I can avoid doing it too?

Would it be possible to have things change so that if someone is banned, instead of seeing just "Banned" under their profile name, we see "Banned XX, X" where "X" is simply the rule number or numbers that they violated?

I'm not asking that we be allowed to discuss it, or pester the staff about it. Simply that it allows the rest of us terrified guests to see what rule it was that got them tossed out the door.

___________

Note: because talking about people who have been banned is against the T&C's I have made sure NOT to mention or hint at any banned member's names in this post.

Kind of like asking: "I wonder what happens when we die?"....

I guess we'll never know!

Originally posted by Doodle19815
So since everyone is being open here - my question is.....can a mod get banned?

Yes. At one time, we even had a site administrator banned.

reply to post by eriktheawful

Yes, it's called: "Thou shalt not violate the T&C!". It's as simple as that. I trust that the moderators and administrators are handling things perfectly reasonable.

wasnt there something like 300 original commandments in the bible? howd it get wittled down to just 10?

Originally posted by DaveNorris
wasnt there something like 300 original commandments in the bible? howd it get wittled down to just 10?

Good question... you should start a thread about it.

reply to post by Maxmars


unfortunately i dont have that much interest in religion, i just remember seeing it on an episode of QI

The mystery to the 11th commandment here is there are some brownshirt tattle tails on this forum that can get ya into some hot water .

God consciousness (1000 times more powerful than military grade remote viewing) tells me that this is a truth