Banned from Tom's Hardware by moderator g-unit1111 who didn't like having his comment downvoted

[Pedro-NF]

Here's a little story for those of you who think The Sacred Emperor is authoritarian, despotic, tyrannical, etc.

I've had an account on Tom's Hardware since 2008. During all this time, I've published lots of comments on articles, shared articles, and even earned some of the site's "badges" for accomplishing stuff.

Then, yesterday, I saw this kinda ridiculous article by the site's editors - basically they tried to make a parody of the "Twas The Night Before Christmas" poem and I thought it sucked (but that's not the point). So I went and downvoted the comments praising the article.

Surprisingly, shortly after that, a moderator (username g-unit1111) sent me a private message asking me to "explain" why I had voted down the comments to the article. I replied asking if he didn't have anything more useful to do with his spare time. He then simply replied "goodbye" and banned me from posting on the site, voting or sending private messages - permanently, and there's no way to appeal the ban or anything.

Now seriously, a moderator sending a private message to a user asking him to EXPLAIN why he voted the way he did and then banning him because he was annoyed his comment was downvoted? And what's worse: Purch, the company that bought Tom's Hardware a few years ago, just acquired Anandtech, a much better technical portal. I can see Anandtech going down the same sinkhole very soon.

This is what happens when you delegate a site's administration to no lifer nerds:

From: Tom's Hardware <forums@tomshardware.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 19:59:06 +0100

Hello Ephebus,

Your account at Tom's Hardware has been banned by g-unit1111.

The following are the details of your ban -

"Forbid voting"
In
Until 12/26/14 10:58 AM"Forbid voting"
In
Until 12/26/14 10:58 AM"Forbid voting"
In
Until 12/26/14 10:58 AM"Forbid voting"
In
Until 12/26/14 10:58 AM"Forbid voting"
In
Until 12/26/14 10:58 AM

Reason for the Ban:

Trolling, being rude to moderators

Please be sure to review the reason you were banned, and double-check the Tom's Hardware Rules of Conduct and Terms of Use.

~ The Tom's Hardware Community Team

[Pedro-NF]

I've received this email today (20 April 2015) from an Assistant Community Manager at Tom's Hardware:

From: Kevin Ng <kng@purch.com>
To: "webmaster@portaldosgames.com" <webmaster@portaldosgames.com>
Subject: On the subject of your ban from Tom's Hardware
Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2015 14:05:58 +0000

Hello Ephebus,

My name is Kevin and I’m the Assistant Community Manager for Tom’s. I was alerted to the fact that you have been posting about your ban and am reaching out to you on behalf of the Community team. I hope that this email reaches you, as I noticed that it is not a personal email address.

I regret that this situation wasn’t brought to our attention sooner, as it could have easily been resolved. Our moderator was absolutely heavy-handed in this instance; our guidelines generally only call for warnings and short, temporary bans for most mundane offenses. A permanent ban was excessive, and had I known about this sooner, I would have rectified it immediately. G-unit1111 has since been spoken to, and even he admits that, in retrospect, he took it too far.

In any case, if you’d like to speak about this further in an attempt to reach some kind of resolution, I am more than happy to do so. Your ban will also be lifted upon request, if you so wish. You have my sincerest apologies for this whole incident.

Best regards,

Kevin Ng
Assistant Community Manager

[blaskattacks]

That i very nice sir, although a little late

[Pedro-NF]

That i very nice sir, although a little late

The guy sent me another email saying the account had been unbanned, but in the message's text he very subtly implied that downvoting the comments would be considered "light trolling" and would be subject to a temporary ban, so I asked him to keep the account banned and not to contact me again. Forgot to tell him to go to hell, though. Reports of users abused by Tom's Hardware's moderators abound all over the internet, so this is not an isolated case. Again, I just hope that AnandTech, a far superior site which was recently purchased by Purch - the same company that owns Tom's Hardware - manages to keep their incomparably higher management and editorial quality.