I really don’t get it, but so it goes:
Your forum account is currently banned.
Ban Reason: unauthorized promotional activity
Ban will be lifted: Never
What I did: I had decided to disengage somewhat from Wicked Edge, and join in the conversation at Shave Nook. I wanted more discussion, less drama.
I posted a couple of things—a post on using the two dimensions of comfort and efficiency to describe razor feel and performance, and yesterday a post about Ginger’s Garden aftershave, since it was new to me and impressive.
I found a post about how, with the weak Euro, the Plisson Synthetic with an acetate handle could be ordered directly from Plisson for €33, a bargain, and the post included a link. So I ordered one, now on the way. (Their web site has an English-language option right up to check out, then it’s French all the way.)
To return the favor, I thought I would tell about Shaver Heaven, my own recent discovery. I described the soap and the lather quality, quoted the ingredients and noted it was vegan, and provided links to sources: first Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements, where I had discovered it, and then also to Shave Revolution (US) and Italian Barber (Canada), both of which also carry it. (I figured that since some don’t want to buy from PAA, I would provide a US alternative.)
The post was immediately pulled because it was deemed by the mods to be “advertising,” and the mod sending it thanked me for understanding—a thanks that was premature, since I didn’t understand at all.
I asked why my post was “advertising.” Since I linked to multiple vendors, I clearly wasn’t advertising a vendor, and I made the post in the first place to point out an excellent soap, and I thought part of the idea of the forum was to discuss new product discoveries: describe them, say where they could be found, etc.
I got a reply that emphasized that the decision of the mods is final, and that the rule I violated is that a post can have only one link to a vendor. I did read the rules for posting, and that rule is definitely not included—and it seems an odd rule. If I am talking about some great product, providing three links (US, Canada, and UK) seems totally reasonable to me, but that would violate this secret rule.
Also there is another rule that you cannot link to a banned vendor—but you are not told which vendors are banned, so I have no idea how you’re to follow that rule. I didn’t know that PAA was a banned vendor, and I did not know that one could not link to banned vendors. And that rule also is not in the published list of rules: a second secret rule that I had violated.
This made no sense to me, so I sent a private message to a mod who had welcomed me back, asking for some guidance. I was uneasy about sudden new (and unpublished) rules springing out of the woodwork, and feared that I was violating some other secret rule simply in trying to understand what the rules are.
Apparently I did. A lifetime ban for one post in which I expressed my enthusiasm for a new soap I discovered, and unfortunately provided the reader with links to a choice of vendors.
I truly do not get it, and I am surprised that secret (unpublished and unmentioned) rules can be used so drastically.
So it goes. And, of course, I never received a response to my private message sent in an effort to understand what was required. I did mention a couple of other vendors I might link to and ask whether they were banned (and how was I to know whether a vendor was banned or not?), and I also asked whether it is okay to name several vendors of a product, providing that I linked to only one (because of the US/Canada/UK situation). And whether a banned vendor could be named or whether that, too, was not allowed.
Now I see (in the ban message quoted above) that I could have somehow secured authorization to mention products (I assume that’s what is meant by “promotional activity”), but how I would know that such authorization is needed, much less how to secure it, is completely unclear to me.
I was a little shocked to see the ban message when I went to check my private messages for a response from Johnny, and I will never know whether I got one.
On the whole, a board that is so hair-trigger to impose lifetime bans (after welcoming my new participation), particularly for breaking rules that they keep a secret, is probably better avoided in any event. But I am saddened a bit. I had thought Shave Nook would be a place for drama-free discussion. Obviously not.
I thought I would document this since when I mentioned I am banned for life from B&B people want to know why. Well, I’m now banned for life from Shave Nook for one post that violated rules that were never published (and thus secret) and that, to my mind, don’t make much sense.
Weird.
Filed under: Shaving
