Why were you banned?

[NyxDarklore 92]

I've never actually been banned from a site intentionally (I was banned from one by accident because they did an IP ban that wasn't an exact IP and I got caught up in it because they only banned the first six digits), but I have left several sites or been as good as forced out of a few. One that comes to mind is going back several years now and to this day, I still can't believe how petty the administrators were.

 

There's a member on the site with whom I have plots; our characters are ex-partners who are navigating the world of coparenting a child when they don't want to be together themselves. Fine. However, I was on another site at the time and had the audacity (please note the sarcasm here) to use pictures of these two characters' playbys in a wanted ad (they were together IRL and I had another character using one of their faces) because I wanted a picture to make it look good.

 

The person playing the other character lost their mind to the point that she and all the other staff pulled all plots from me and I got a message that essentially said "I mean, you can stay, but because X won't plot with you, the rest of us can't because we're so wound up in plots with them." I just laughed, took my apps, and said bye to the site. The kicker for me in all of this was that a/ nobody has a monopoly on faces and b/ it was literally just a picture to make the ad look good.

 

In fact, the playby didn't end up getting used for the plot because the person who picked it up went an entirely different route.

[River 57]

I had a character who was nearly 200 years old and had been raised in a community where certain problematic views were the norm. As, you know, most views were problematic 200 years ago.

 

Got a message saying that it didn't matter if the character in question's views had changed, that his existence made the site "unsafe". I kind of went off about how it doesn't do anyone any good to pretend that these views and issues never existed, and that admins should trust their players to be able to have characters that address sensitive topics with nuance (especially if, like I said, it's been 200 years and the character in question had changed!)

 

Tried to go onto the site the next day to grab my things and found that I'd been IP banned. Okay then.

 

Honestly, it bothered me more than it should have not because I was banned (clearly that wasn't an environment I wanted to stay in) but because, if you don't believe someone can change over the course of centuries, then what about people who grew up in insular communities IRL and had to un-learn some of their views? Just say screw 'em?

[Mayu 12]

I have probably have been removed from a couple of site Discords for joining but never getting around to making a character, but I cannot think of a site where I have been banned, fortunately.

Let's hope I am not tempting fate with this post.

[Alea 6]

I was once preemptively banned from a board (that I had no intention of joining) because the creator of the board didn't like me from a previous site. It's okay, I didn't like them either. Thing was, though, that particular member didn't (or shouldn't have, based on their role on the board) have access to me IP address, so they would have had to have gotten it from one of the admins. The level of passive aggression there was both astounding and hilarious. 

[kevin pearson 3]

Truthfully? I'm still not sure why I was banned. The day I was banned, I made "member of the week" (big whoop, lmao) and I'd only had two topics of conversation. One involved the members' refusal to plot, to which the admin agreed. The other involved how I hated mechanics like featured member/OTM/etc. The admin tried to explain that, as long as everyone was actively participating, everyone would have a chance to be featured. I then explained that I'd had bad experiences with such mechanics in the past and that the only reason I hadn't gone to the admins sooner about such feelings was because I knew how much it meant to them to use such methods to encourage their member base. The funny thing was, as soon as I felt brave enough to disclose how I felt, that was when they elected to ban me. Must be they can't take criticism. I went offline for a while to think about possible upcoming surgery and which option I might go with that Medicaid pays for and, when I came back online, with no prior warning or explanation, the server was gone from my list. I tried accessing the site, only to discover I was banned. I tried adding the admin I'd talked to previously, only to find out I'd been blocked. I wasn't allowed to retrieve my intellectual property from the site. What made it even richer was the fact the same day I'd been banned, the admin had praised me for how active I was and how well I tried to engage others outside of my romantic plots. Is that... Not the point of RP? Supposedly, the admin and the rest of the team was impressed and yet... I got banned? Because they couldn't handle some minor criticism? Well, okay then.

[Faie 5]

They asked if I would make them a skin for free. I said no. Next day, I was banned from the site and the discord. 

[britata 6]

I was kinda banned from two sites, but also mostly left before then both times? For the first one, a group of people I kind of liked decided to leave the site I was on to create their own version. I was starting to get annoyed with some of the restrictions from the first site, so I joined. The only issue is that one of the admins was a person who just randomly decided they didn't like me. We had been friends in the past, but for whatever reason, she just determined that I was annoying and dropped me (turns out she did this with a LOT of people). I made due on this new site. I enjoy drama. I know not everyone does, so if someone wasn't interested in my character's drama, I just wouldn't post with them. No harm, no foul, right? I was also always down with my character facing the consequences of their actions. The problem came in where this admin told me to stop or my character would be deleted. I didn't think this was fair, so I talked to the other admins about it. Most of them agreed with me and it caused a lot of ooc drama. I ended up getting mad and just deleting that character because the consensus became that my character wouldn't be able to really advance in this world. When I went to create a new character, they were denied by that admin. I still had one other character there, but I just deleted them and left the site. The site folded soon afterwards. 

 

The second one once again involved conflict between admins. The site was closed by the root admin and a large chunk of the members with some of the old admins created a new site. When the root admin opened the site back up, everyone that had joined the other site was automatically banned. But all my favorite people were at the new site, so no real loss there. Miss a few people though.

[VVitch 8]

In my 20 years online I haven't been banned from roleplay forums/rooms until very recently. I was banned via "guilty by association" from a room (I play in chat rooms) because I was "friends" with someone who was banned from that same room. I have never interacted with admin or characters in that space in any capacity, ever. Somehow I still got whacked with that ban stick.

 

I was banned from two other rooms for being 'mouthy' and confronting the bigoted individuals that owned the rooms and who were harassing players and generally making roleplay unappealing to a lot of us. The site admins were super slow to confront these individuals and it led to a lot of really unpleasant exchanges on discussion forums. I am not sorry for being unpleasant towards bigots though. Fuck em.

Edited December 21, 2021 by VVitch

[Lorelai 6]

I wasn't necessarily banned (that I know of), but I definitely was pushed off. I joined a site, finished a character that got accepted, and was in the midst of plotting things. Then the next day, my character is suddenly just gone. When I asked about it, I was told that I wasn't writing the character up to the staff's expectations and that the character didn't 'make sense' (for context it was a site where you played a mythological god/goddess/etc from Norse or Greek mythology,etc.) 

 

This would be fine (almost, I still feel like a chat should be the first reaction not just deleting the character), but I hadn't even started writing with the character yet, so I'm not sure how I wasn't meeting expectations or playing them 'wrong'. I then noticed that the canon was reserved by one of the head admins friends and just decided to take my leave after that. 

[Lost Boy 18]

I was recently (a few months ago) banned from one RP because I posted about the admin making a racist comment to me over my face claim choice for a character. It was on a resource forum and I only mentioned the situation no names or even genre the RP itself was in. However, for three weeks immediately following that post I was told the admin was telling other people I was bad mouthing them, the site, and lying about the admin as well as obsessing over her since you know, I made one vague thread on a site about the situation. Then was kicked and banned with a message sent about how I was bad mouthing the staff and site. Ironically, half the RP asked me what happened which is how I know what was being said and linked them to the thread I made. Those people aren't on that RP anymore as well.

[ragnarokkva 7]

I once got banned — for a couple of years — for having 2 characters in the same user group.

Edited June 20, 2022 by ragnarokkva

[Lost Boy 18]

Let's revisit this haha. I have so many stories from my tumblr days. I remember this one because I recently ran into the admin an they did that 'if it offended you' kind of apologize.

 

A few years back I was banned on an roleplay because the admin's friend wanted to ship with the face claim (not the actual character just the face that was used) that my RP buddy was using. Wasn't even a planned ship, went from our characters hating each other to tolerating each other to frenemies to boinking then 'this is MY MAN' within a span of five or so months and posting multiple times a day. He was asked to drop the ship in favor of one with the admin's friend, he said no. They came to me saying I had to drop the ship as my buddy's character had a lot more chemistry with this other character (who they had one unfinished thread that had a max of three posts in it and my buddy said the other character gave a 'creepy stalker vibe'). I didn't so the next day I found I was kicked out of the discord, an unfollow was posted for my character's blog, and told in the OOC they posted I was underage even though my facebook and insta were linked a few times showing just random albums/pics of my work craziness. They tried to force my buddy into threads but he just ignored the other character, stayed a few weeks to wrap up his other ongoing plots then left and joined another roleplay with me.

 

In case anyone was asking, it our ship was a male to male one between a Stephen Amell Fc and DJ Cotrona. The admin's friend was using Madison Davenport. That admin recently saw me on another group discord OOC and did that half arse apology then ranted at how crazy and into smut that ex friend was. I made a sandwich and enjoyed the show til bored.

[Endy 5]

I've been banned a few times from places. But the most recent one was about 2 years ago - yes, at the height of the pandemic - and more importantly, the lockdowns. I guess I'll preface this by being open about my situation; I have severe physical anxiety so I can't wear a face covering, neuromuscular issues so I can't drive, depression, and a rage issue as well. That's all relevant because as the lockdowns were really kicking in, and the buses weren't running, I couldn't go anywhere. I couldn't do anything. I was trapped in my home. My entire world fell apart very suddenly. I had an episode where the rage just wouldn't fade, and it's affected my memory badly.

 

I don't know what I said exactly. In fact, it's in the middle of about 6-8 months that are just a blur to me due to just having no memories formed. I remember big events like both of my parents being in the hospital, and the power outage during that. That's the only thing I have any detail on. I know that what I said rightly upset a lot of people, and that I was far overboard. That's all I need to remember; I lost some good friends over it. My situation was bad and I took it out on others who didn't deserve it. Even though I can't remember what I said, I know I deserved the ban. I mean the site and the people on it no ill will, and I've sent people to them and told them it's a good group with a good game.

 

So in answer to the basic question, why was I banned? Because I mistreated people in the middle of a mental breakdown that I didn't fully realize I was having. And I agree that the latter does not justify the former.

[Nalaea 0]

I got banned, quite literally, because my daughter was playing around on my computer, and accidentally left a discord server. Got an email, not 10 minutes later, stating that I was banned from the site and the discord because "they were tired of playing this game with me".

 

I had quite literally left 1 time before, and it was because 1) I had no muse and 2) my daughter comes before roleplaying, both of which were explained to the admins. I had been gone for a literal year, before I rejoined them, only to get banned because my daughter was playing on my computer.

[FaR0E 2]

I have only ever been banned once and it was only a couple of months ago. And the reason: I mentioned I was enjoying playing Hogwarts Legacy. 

 

That was literally all I said and then a week later I was banned. The conversation topic was stopped almost immediately in the chat because someone brought up it made them uncomfortable, which yeah fine, never mentioned it again. At the time it wasn't a banned topic to talk about and all I literally said was I was enjoying the game. It still makes me mad thinking about it.