For a couple of years, I was a GM for a online game called Asheron's Call

 

The fee-paying part of that makes all the difference here. Look Muggaz had a tried and true history here. Consistent personal attacks on the admins and others. When called on it he would refuse to apologize and just lay low for a few days and the cycle would start over again. Like many here Muggaz never grasped that he was not a customer. He was a guest on Brad Wardell's blog. No one here is entitled to sqat yet despite that Brad and crew will bend over backwards to try and help people here.

Muggaz was a personal issue because he liked to make it that way on other peoples blogs. SPM is another classic example of this and he was even more egregious than Muggaz.

Ask Dan K and Myrrander about Brad's leniency. He certainly has shown more forgiveness than I would have had our positions been switched.

JU is a wicked place to be, and is full of some very talented writer. Who often get ignored because of these flame wars and so on. I would say to you, don't worry about what has gone on. It was a number of issues, that got people wound up, and were never really resolved, but that is over now, and we all need to move on. Enjoy your writing, and enjoy JU. It is full of lovely people who will be more than happy to welcome you.

Amitty,

If you read the JoeUser Terms of Service, you'll find it says things like:

You agree to not use the Service to:
(a) upload, post or otherwise transmit any Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, pornographic, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
[...]
(c) impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited to, a Stardock official, forum leader, guide, moderator or host, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;
[...]
(m) Interfere with another member's use and enjoyment of the Service or another entity's use and enjoyment of similar services.

As I stated on your original thread, I don't believe that SPM was really "impersonating" some other individual, but he definitely DID:
- post hateful, harmful, abusive, defamatory, vulgar, and libelous material (See the article that got him banned for an obvious example);
- falsely state or otherwise misrepresent his affiliations with various entities (again for me this is pushing it a bit, but he clearly claimed to be ex-RAF, and to have many awards and titles);
- interfere with many peoples' enjoyment of the Service due to his commentary (as evidenced by the regular outcry for his removal by many people).

Muggaz, as I understand it, sent an e-mail to the admins where he specifically threatened to:

(i) "stalk" or otherwise harass another;

This, along with his well-known history of making statements that were ill-thought-out and his tendency to let his emotions run off at the mouth, got him confined to his own blog (i.e. could not comment on other peoples' articles at all). He then chose to leave of his own accord. (But not before he misrepresented the confinement as "Permanent" when it was intended, as most blacklistings are, as a temporary cooling-off measure.)

(But not before he misrepresented the confinement as "Permanent" when it was intended, as most blacklistings are, as a temporary cooling-off measure.)

hear hear well spoken Bruce.

Who is this 'Bruce" of whom you speak? Certainly not I.

wow, this is more than i expected, thank you guys!

The fastest way to get banned, the path that SPM took is to antagonize the owners/admins of the site.

We don't charge a cent for this site. It's free. It's something we do largely because we enjoy it.

The business case was that we wanted to create a site where various Stardock people could post articles that would then be syndicated to our other sites. Once we had done that, we realized it would be trivial to open it up to everyone at very little extra cost. Then we could do for others what we were doing for ourselves - helping get other bloggers read.

We don't ask for anything in return except some civility and respect. Some people can't even manage that.

Those who follow my posts know I have very little tolerance for people who seemingly try to get on my nerves. They feel that if I say things that annoy them or offend them that they have the same right to say the same back. But that's really not the case because we're not a public service. We're a private site. The admins don't have to be fair. I TRY not to write things that get people mad or offended but inevitably some % of what I write will offend people. So they have the temptation to return the favor. Except I won't put up with it. I don't have to since I pay the bills and at the end of the day, I don't *care* if people create blogs here or not.

The lack of "politics" in the site I think is one of the reasons the site has become so popular. Because we ultimately don't care if someone creates a blog it provides an environment where people are free to rise as high as their talent permits them. We don't go and try very much to recruit people (other than making people aware that this free service exists). Some people thrive in such an environment, others don't.

We don't charge a cent for this site. It's free. It's something we do largely because we enjoy it.

Thanks

We don't go and try very much to recruit people

Well I sort of pimp the site out whenever I can.

 

Lastly my own personal anecdote would be a blogger wishing that the Mullahs would issue a fatwa against me:) That was plenty for me.

Well I sort of pimp the site out whenever I can

And you do so very successfully, I might add! 

A person really has to push to get exiled, from what i have seen.  We're not talking about one or two incidents, we're talking a continuous concerted effort to piss people off.

I don't have to since I pay the bills and at the end of the day, I don't *care* if people create blogs here or not.

Very, very well said...

cool, and I thank you for the use of your site also. Thank you for the explanation. I feel a lot better

I don't *care* if people create blogs here or not.

Some people, that is; there are others I do think you care about.