why do people ban themselves or revoke their membership?

multiple

multiple

Account Closed
from this board? I have noticed a lot of members that were once active have had their accounts changed so that they are a guest? did they ask to have this done? or was it done to their accounts because they broke the rules? i'm pretty sure not all of them had broke the rules!... which makes me wonder why someone would ask to have this done to their account.
the only other place I have seen such a thing happen is on a mental health board where people ask to have their accounts banned due to their ongoing presence on the board being a trigger for their own mental health issues.
I have considered it myself but this ties into my own mental health problems, I do consider it a bit strange that people I would consider "normal" to have their accounts altered, as a presence or active membership on a web discussion board seems to be something of little concern to most regular people.

I also noticed a lot of deletion of messages, and the only other place I see this is on forums specifically for people with mental health problems.
 
Bunraku

Bunraku

Well-known member
Yeah I was wondering about that too! And there's a sticky on the feedback section from an admin saying no deleted accounts.

I wonder what happened.. hm....
 
Z

Zarathu

Account Closed
Bunraku said:
Yeah I was wondering about that too! And there's a sticky on the feedback section from an admin saying no deleted accounts.

I wonder what happened.. hm....
Click to expand...

Previous management did not permit it. Current owner does permit it, but its permanent. Once you do it, its forever. Some people voluntarily want out so that they don't get tempted to come back. There are many reasons besides being a nut case.

You could have simply gotten fundamentalist religion. You could have found that you were addicted to the service, and not being retired, are spending way too much time here. You could find that certain people really rub you the wrong way, and since they are prominent posters, that you just can't seem to stay away from them no matt how much you want to.

As to the deletion of posts, there are benefits. For example, I will often post information for someone that is kind of proprietary: I've spent a life time to learn it, and I don't want it out there in cyberland forever. Other times I will be in a thread that goes badly south, and I don't want to be associated with it. Sometime even the best of us will say something we realized we should not have said, or post some frivolous comment just doesn't fit. Sometimes I will post a comment astrologically and the conversation in the thread will go a complete different direction, and I will remove my post.

Sometime I will post one of my extremely complicated astrology posts in a thread of a beginner, and realize that I have thoroughly confused the beginner. I am not a beginner(I have an educational astrology website listed in my signature), and am writing a Tome on Counseling Astrology that is more complex than any volume I know of anywhere(and I know a lot of volumes and a lot of people in astrology). In this case I will remove the post if the beginner is clearly confused by it.

Being able to remove posts is a wonderful thing for many reasons and none of them have to be a sign of mental illness.
 
multiple

multiple

Account Closed
I agree that it's a wonderful thing to edit and delete posts. I just find it interesting that it seems so prevalent on this board... I have been part of many online communities over the years most of which are to do with hobbies, music, videogames, film cinema and entertainment. most of these communities also contain user tools for members to alter all their own posts and threads, yet it is very rare that people do. or that a member asks to have their membership status changed. I have seen people talk about very personal things on these other boards too, there is a whole thread on a music board asking people to admit something personal. yet when looking back through it I see no revisions to their posts.
it seems to me that this community is unique in how self conscious users feel about posting their thoughts within a sample of forums I frequent, for the reasons you describe.
 
Z

Zarathu

Account Closed
multiple said:
I agree that it's a wonderful thing to edit and delete posts. I just find it interesting that it seems so prevalent on this board... I have been part of many online communities over the years most of which are to do with hobbies, music, videogames, film cinema and entertainment. most of these communities also contain user tools for members to alter all their own posts and threads, yet it is very rare that people do. or that a member asks to have their membership status changed. I have seen people talk about very personal things on these other boards too, there is a whole thread on a music board asking people to admit something personal. yet when looking back through it I see no revisions to their posts.
it seems to me that this community is unique in how self conscious users feel about posting their thoughts within a sample of forums I frequent, for the reasons you describe.
Click to expand...

You are free to go to some other board where people don't delete their posts, but suggesting that people who do make deletions to have mental problems, is not a good way to make friends on any forum.
 
multiple

multiple

Account Closed
you are putting words in my mouth there. I simply found a correllation, I didn't draw a conclusion that people have mental health problems. I simply found it interesting that the two communities were similar in regards to this matter. it is notable that people on both communities feel self conscious about publishing their thoughts (you have declared this yourself) whereas in most other communities people place little to no censorship upon themselves and simply do not worry about control over what is written by themselves.they don't take themselves so seriously in regards to these matters. this does not mean people who are members of astrology forums have mental health problems and I do not believe that to be the case, sure there is a chance that someone may have mental health problems on here (just by law of averages), just as there is a chance someone may have any other health problem. I could have noted the only other forum where people wish to revoke membership or edit their posts was a sports forum, would we then conclude that the people of the astrology forum are into sports? not necessarily.
by the way, its a not particularly good way to make friends by calling people with mental health problems "nut cases" ;)
 
Z

Zarathu

Account Closed
multiple said:
by the way, its a not particularly good way to make friends by calling people with mental health problems "nut cases" ;)
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I don't believe that you and I are going to become friends.

I would differentiate between emotional issues, mental issues, and nutcases.

Nut cases are not people with mental health problems. They are people who show up on a forum and make obnoxious statements about the people on the forum, about the subjects of the forum, or about the viewpoints or choices made by people who use the forum. We have more than a normal number of those on the forum because the subject matter does not fit into the reductionist Scientism or fundamental religious views that are everywhere today. Fortunately they don't last long and if they persist, moderation bans them.
 
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Bunraku

Bunraku

Well-known member
Story time!

I visited a forum once and it stressed me out. I asked to be banned because it was causing more problems than not.
Eventually I did return, but they welcomed me back instead of keeping me banned.

There's more than one reason why a person wants their account to be closed, and "mental issues" would be on the bottom of the list.


People here have to preserve the effort of being kind and to build a welcoming community VS some other forum where it has no greater purpose like say discussing about celebrities, or gaming, etc.
 
W

Wrendryge

Member
As a lurker who generally sees no need to post in these forums, I would also say I notice there is a sensitivity to the posts on this forums I'm not sure if this sensitivity comes from the age group which is much older than most forums I frequent and thus have established their own internet rules over what is correct/proper or if it's just the group it attracts. Either way, I think this account deactivation comes from a believed forum etiquette in here about what to do when one feels the account is now useless/the drama is terrible. (Digital native me says that one should just leave the forum flat-out and never log in, change the password and email or something instead of going the hard way through administration.)
Either way, I chalk it up to the atmosphere and the people. Different forums for different people hehe.
 
TamaraL

TamaraL

Well-known member
Overall I think in this forum people deal with sensitive material & often feel safe to ask very personal questions, fears e.t.c. Its normal to delete things if you don't want them out there anymore. I am in the forum exactly 1 year & 1 month & I 've observed many members leave but I find it normal, its part of life to reconsider your choices (even the final choice of permanently canceling your account)

& As a beginner I often asked (maybe still do) really vague questions or very personal questions in horary & later decided to delete some of the content..I always take into consideration many parameters before deleting something. Its not random.
 
R

rahu

Banned
multiple said:
from this board? I have noticed a lot of members that were once active have had their accounts changed so that they are a guest? did they ask to have this done? or was it done to their accounts because they broke the rules? i'm pretty sure not all of them had broke the rules!... which makes me wonder why someone would ask to have this done to their account.
the only other place I have seen such a thing happen is on a mental health board where people ask to have their accounts banned due to their ongoing presence on the board being a trigger for their own mental health issues.
I have considered it myself but this ties into my own mental health problems, I do consider it a bit strange that people I would consider "normal" to have their accounts altered, as a presence or active membership on a web discussion board seems to be something of little concern to most regular people.

I also noticed a lot of deletion of messages, and the only other place I see this is on forums specifically for people with mental health problems.
Click to expand...

this is a interesting issue. I think there is more to than it seems. for one, it is somehow possible to change your status to guest from member. this is very annoying because when you are a guest, your past post history is blocked. no one can see what else the guest has posted. also, it seems as a guest ,you can not be put on the ignore list. I place one member ,katydidit , on my ignore list. but she/he changed their status to guest and was able to get off my ignore list .when I noticed this ,I put him/she back on my ignore list, but his/her post continued to show up. so I don't understand how this guest status should confer supra forum powers.

rahu
 
M

muchacho

Well-known member
Zarathu said:
Previous management did not permit it. Current owner does permit it, but its permanent. Once you do it, its forever. Some people voluntarily want out so that they don't get tempted to come back. There are many reasons besides being a nut case.

You could have simply gotten fundamentalist religion. You could have found that you were addicted to the service, and not being retired, are spending way too much time here. You could find that certain people really rub you the wrong way, and since they are prominent posters, that you just can't seem to stay away from them no matt how much you want to.

As to the deletion of posts, there are benefits. For example, I will often post information for someone that is kind of proprietary: I've spent a life time to learn it, and I don't want it out there in cyberland forever. Other times I will be in a thread that goes badly south, and I don't want to be associated with it. Sometime even the best of us will say something we realized we should not have said, or post some frivolous comment just doesn't fit. Sometimes I will post a comment astrologically and the conversation in the thread will go a complete different direction, and I will remove my post.

Sometime I will post one of my extremely complicated astrology posts in a thread of a beginner, and realize that I have thoroughly confused the beginner. I am not a beginner(I have an educational astrology website listed in my signature), and am writing a Tome on Counseling Astrology that is more complex than any volume I know of anywhere(and I know a lot of volumes and a lot of people in astrology). In this case I will remove the post if the beginner is clearly confused by it.

Being able to remove posts is a wonderful thing for many reasons and none of them have to be a sign of mental illness.
Click to expand...
But if someone has already quoted your post, it's not in your control anymore. So, if one is very concerned about their reputation or self-image, it's probably best to think twice before they post when they are in a bad mood or even better, only post when they are in a good mood. :happy:
 
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