Today, MyBroadBand experienced a 5 year old member being banned for life from the website.
The administrators have managed to clean the threads up and remove most things linking to what happened, so finding a the scoop is proving to be really difficult.
An administrator, rpm, said this:
The mods are doing a great job policing the forum, and we certainly do our best to keep MyBroadband a great place to visit. This is not the first time that some members start to attack the forum and its moderators, and it inevitably ends in a few members being banned to bring things back to normal. We did discuss this issue with the member/s in question, but without success.
It is always sad for us to lose any members, but it is an unfortunate consequence of a large forum. I assure you that our decisions are made to protect MyBroadband and this forum and ensure that it benefit the members and visitors of the site.
The member goes by the alias of halicon, from what I’ve read, hailcon had a perfect track record for 5 years. It would appear that most members are saying that he did not deserve to be banned for life and if that’s what your members are saying, it’s normally a good plan to rethink things, before many more MyBroadBand members get upset and leave. It would appear that this comment is probably the most democratic approach.
It’s really interesting to see such a huge forum going through a sudden whirl wind like this!
Typical forum drama – a lot of drama over something very minimal.
This is why I avoid forums, shit like this happens far too often.
I see Debbie had now been banned too. Ahh the god-like actions of power-hungry moderators. The main reason to avoid forums.
I am not really surprised at this. This has happened before, but was quietened down alot more quickly.
I have encoutered this modus operandi from the mybroadBAD team before. Specificaly a matter where Antowan went around deleting threads and posts where SAOL were being questioned publicaly on some of their unethical practices. SAOL was at that time a big advertiser on the forum.
As I have witnessed this type of thing before whenever I hear comments such as “Rudolph you are a coward an a liar” then I tend to believe them
Have been a long time member on MBB and it is sad to see things transpire as they have.
With all the words that are being thrown around at the moment its difficult to know the extent of the issue. Most of us will never know the full details behind these events.
The mods are doing a really good job moderating as they should and sometimes find it difficult to manage some forumites and thus resulting in a ban.
In no way does MBB ever remove criticising information regarding companies that advertise on the site or anybody else. These things are assumed because all the info is not present and all we see is the deletion of a thread and not what happens via PM’s between the user and the mod.
Criticism is wanted on MBB and without it, the site wouldnt be where it is today. So saying the moderators ban users because they share opinions contrary to those of the company in question then you must be mistaken.
Yes emotions have come through where they shouldnt have, and people have become a bit irate because of it, but stirring the pot isnt going to help which is what the banned user have been doing.
If I thought for one minute that our posts are being censored I would leave in a heartbeat as well as the majority of other long standing members. This is not the case.
As for Debbie getting banned, im still a bit in shock, regarding her comment to RPM calling him a coward and a liar.. well I dont know. She is often the most level headed person around, and if she says these things, then i feel maybe they hold a bit of truth.
Right now we can only wait for things to calm down, then look at what has happened and take it forward. Users who get banned join again, and so the circle of forum life continues…
MBB is and will be for a long time, the best information source regarding IT in this country. Use, dont Use it… best to stay clear of the drama, but its always sad to see ‘veterans’ getting banned over silly things..
What really amazes me about MBB is how dedicated a lot of their members are. I normally not follow the forum much and I just went there now to see what the fuss is about. I noticed that some of the users there have over 20,000 posts in only a few years of being a member.
Russell, I have to agree mate, I am a member and often find interesting threads with great information and whilst looking around I’ve seen some serious dedication and involvement from members, as though it’s a RPG or something!
MBB is just no any old forum.
The fact that you can discuss pretty much anything from politics to religion to IT to games to relationships.. makes it unique. Just type ADSL in google and MBB comes up first, pretty much anything regarding ADSL, even international peeps look for advise there.
Post counts are not always what they seem, there is one thread called The Thread Killer with over 200 000 posts – all of these posts are pretty much bs, and alot of users post nonsense to get their post counts up (post whores).
Respect a user on his feedback and not his post count.
But yes people are dedicated because they are actively involved in the forum, helping users in need of support regarding anything. MBB also organises group meets to meet on a face to face level, dont forget about the branded gear.
The site as one user put it, is a baby/child of the people who made it what it is today. Its grown exponentially with over 65k members and over 2million posts to date.
Ive contributed a hellava lot in the ADSL Broadband section, as well as others, and feel equally a part of the MBB community.
http://www.google.co.za/search?hl=en&q=ADSL&btnG=Google+Search&meta=
Comes up 6th actually :) Even if you narrow down to South Africa only, it’s 3rd, but we get the point – It is indexed with Google 485,000 terms though, which is huge!
The stats on members and posts is incredible, what a huge source for great information!
There was something odd I noticed there – last week it wouldn’t let me post, this week it will. I dunno.
Privately owned web sites can do whatever they like, which I have found can often work against public participants. I’ve been at the sharp point before of owners ire over political differences expressed on their forums.
I prefer unmoderated Usenet forums which circumvents that problem entirely. However, South African ISPs show little discretion when it comes to receiving complaints from unknown third parties.
More than one local ISP has (temporarily) suspended my account following unfounded Usenet complaints from vindictive parties seeking revenge for arguments they’ve lost on Usenet groups.
What I’d like to see is legislation that prohibits local ISPs from suspending any Internet account unless they have followed a procedure of first contacting the person and informing them of the problem and giving them a chance to respond first.
iBurst, for instance, suspended my account last month over an entire weekend over a billing issue. They claimed that my account was unpaid. They just suspended me without even contacting me to ask for payment. Fact is, the error was all on their side. They had been paid in full at the correct time and they had confused my account with someone else’s.
I believe it should be made a criminal offence to suspend an Internet account without following a correct procedure. People concerned should spend 6 months in jail for a first offence and pay a R10 000 fine.
I say this because the Internet is an essential service. Not everyone can find practical alternatives if their account is negligently or maliciously suspended. Lack of a connection causes serious business damages.
Also, as a result of MyBroadBand’s heavy handling of this, I am purging their link from my blogroll.
Grief, well I hope they sort everything out soon, because it’s been an amazing forum!
@Chris: Yeah, it’s disappointing when this happens. You spend an awful amount of your daily time contributing to a web forum / blog and in the end, they f–k you in the ass over some trivial political issues.
But when the administators and the mods start parading around in jackboots, it’s time roll out the B17 bombers and level the nazis like Dresden. :)
Ian.
I can tell you that I have been in exactly this situation where advertising revenue has bought certain liberties and some censorship on the forum. Having been involved myself I can say that it absolutely does happen.
In my case Antowan said he would restore the deleted thread. This did not happen and on a number of occasions I reminded him of this, however the answer I always got back was in essence “too busy, looking into it” Well he wasnt to busy to delete it now was he?
interesting to read… i think my actions and my banning have been misunderstood by many on the forum. the post that i believe got me banned has been put back up uncensored, so kudos to MyBroadband (MyBB) for doing that.
alot of individuals are asking what am i going to do to get back at the forum and I think they have failed to understand. I have no ill intent toward MyBroadband and never had and the matter of me being banned is now closed.
i myself believe the perma-ban on me was uncalled for, but then i have no interest in the forum anymore as it has lost its core value. i think i outgrew the forum this year as its focus has changed from an activist forum into a news portal with a big forum where people help each other, and people like Telkom can advertise on.
i would urge the owner of myBB to come clean to those who believe MyBB is something which clearly it is not and to perhaps stop alienating long standing members who have contributed a lot.
btw my nick is ‘halicon’ although ‘hailcon’ works too ;)
peace
I too was shocked, but not surprised by recent events. After posting for over a year on MyBB, I soon realised that Rudolph Muller was using the site for less than noble motives.
Posts about Vodacom come under quite intense scrutiny from one particular moderator.
We’re not talking about rants which in essense say”Vodacom suks”. No, the ones that he doesn’t like are more subtle and questioning.
Ask yourself why the Official Vodacom Rep spends so much time there, when he has a wife and family, a plush home (or two) and a comfortable income. Is he paid to push his point of view?
After observing interactions over a long period I came to the inevitable conclusion that there is an unpublished link between the forum and the Vodacom company. How does it work? Well, firstly there is the obvious advertising banners. Nothing odd about that. Then there is the small, but noticeable fact that “Vodacom3g” is the only rep from a major network on the forum. He is given very free rein to troll in all areas, which he does often, even in the MTN section. He is heavily protected. As rwenzori said, he is “Royal game”. He isn’t the most affable person and can often be found in the thickest of scrummages. He feels free to get down and dirty with the heavy sarcasm and insults and is rarely, if ever, censured. In contrast, those that dare to try and take part in these skirmishes are shot down in flames or banned. And therein lies the problem. Not that one rep is getting far too involved in personal scraps, but that he is protected from criticism, usually by moderator, ic.
Then there is the annual ‘survey’ by the MyBroadband staff. A poll is put out to all members, and they are asked to ‘vote’ for the network they prefer. It’s all done very unprofessionally. This year’s effort had to be modified several times because of errors in the format and compilation of the form. FOr example; you couldn’t submit your poll about both fixed and mobile networks. Then once you had submitted it, a series of cookies prevented the average user from submitting another. Admittedly, it wasn’t as bad as last year (or perhaps the year before that) when they changed the questions half way through!
Why do I mention the survey? Well because Vodacom uses it to make their claim “The Best Broadband for your Rand”. Now you can see how the symbiotic relationship works. I’ll bet my last dollar that Vodacom will win again.
The Vodacom guy on the forum is not the most honest person in the world. If you want proof of that, then just look at the ASASA judgement (Vodacom 3G / DJ Dawkins & Another / 8207 / 8285)http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/archive/index.php/t-68129.html
Look carefully at whom Vodacom chose to do the speed testing! Yes, it’s the Official Vodacom Rep again, Jannie van Zyl. However there is no mention of his status in the judgement. In fact, he paints himself in his ‘testimonial’ as “acting as an educated consumer and user”. The ASASA saw through this BS and rejected his findings. In fact, they won’t ever accept his opinion again, probably because he submitted it under false presences.
Vodacom is allowed far too much leeway on the forum. Are they there for the marketing opportunity, to push their product? I believe so. They certainly supply sweeteners in the forum of free conference facilities and lunch. Van Zyl attends meetings with members and pays for the alcohol as well. It isn’t an innocent relationship and rpm has been asked to explain. Instead he has ignored every opportunity.
Therefore, anyone who believes that rpm is a person with honourable intentions and supports the broadband community with his ‘consumer’ forum should really think again. Are they just sheep, spending good money on bandwidth to become statistics in the advertising game. Every member who refreshes a MyBB page or clicks on an ad generates revenue for Mr. Muller. At the end of the day, that’s mainly what he’s there for. The forum provides a foundation for his speeches and guest appearances in the media as well. Simply put, he doesn’t care who says what, as long as nobody questions the status quo and there is harmony on the forum.
Don’t rock the boat or ask too many question, or you will find yourself out in the cold.
Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Sorry for the incorrect naming mate, I took it directly off a thread.
I think the perma ban was uncalled for as well, I think a perma ban warrants a great deal!
I am a longstanding ex-member of the forum as well, simply because I have also outgrown the forum from it’s core beginnings. It is now a commercialised entity that is raking in a lot of money for its owners.
It is no longer an activism site, but instead a portal with a popular forum for open (to a degree) discussion. Good luck to them.
The forum is indeed a commercialised entity, just like Prophecy.
Whenever money and large sums of it, get involved, that’s when you invariably begin to see censorship, and the classic power trip and moderators who have far too much power.
Unlike other banned forum members (halicon), I wish to expose the truth about this forum. It is no longer a desire, but now a dream of mine, to see justice done, and the truth to be revealed in the public interest, and therefore I am putting a reward up for the first person who can pass me correct and verifiable information about the identity of that arrogant and power corrupted moderator known as “ic”, in order that I can serve him or her directly with a lawsuit, instead of having to go through Old Man Rudolph Muller, who just wastes my time anyway.
@Snotkop: or, iow, paraphrasing you:
“Bring me the head of John the Baptist!”
Um. Just reading the court case about ‘up to 1.8mbits per second’ and not being able to achieve.
Is that a joke? My car figures show a 0-100km/h of 7.2 seconds – however I doubt I’ve ever achieved that. Think I can lay a law suit against all car companies?
Not sure if my problem with ‘MyBroadBand’ is related.
I’m a iBurst subsriber and having some problem, made a post and all went well
with the post. Had one reply, did one reply to that when I some how started to
be moderated with no explanation…
Did one PM to admin, had one reply and after that everything might as well gone
to ‘/dev/null’.
All very frustrating, and post & PM where both civil and none confrontational…
It’s always interesting to hear from more and more people that moderation is happening whilst nobody is aware..
Like the moderation when Rudolph Muller, forum owner, deleted the member NFBS’s complaint about a dodgy online retailer that NFBS had bought from and had never received his order.
Rudolph was running a competition by this online retailer, so no surprises why NFBS was so quickly censored/shut up (…and then also bullied into silence in a private message from Rudolph).
In the end, the dodgy supplier, Click2BuyIT, did not deliver prizes, did not pay their advertising costs to MyBroadband, and it appears that the company has folded.
One by one, people are coming forward claiming to have lost money on Click2BuyIT, one person claiming a R12 000 order that was never delivered.
Rudolph erred in deleting NFBS’s original comment: he has yet to admit or talk about this.
Yeah well most of us already know that mybb no longer allows any criticism. What GraceKiss said about SAOL is probably true as it was true with my vodacom criticisms that repeatedly got deleted. Vodacom is by the way a big sponsor of the forum and its events.
Ian is probably not aware of everything. My vodacom criticism was removed because of criticism towards a sponsor and that was not the only instance. Criticism is no longer wanted, the suggestions and gripes has changed to the suggestions only. So it’s okay to make suggestions but don’t dare to criticise us we don’t want that here.
Yes it wouldn’t be where it is without the criticisms and guess what, without those criticisms it’s now on a downward trend. It was at its peak at the time I left and that is also where the pawpaws started hitting the fans.
Debbie must have realised what was happening after I left so she probably understands my position better now than the last time I talked to her. It would be interesting to know if Debbie is the same Debbie who commented here.
For anybody that wants to know I left there myself. I wasn’t banned and I won’t post there and risk a ban so it can be blamed on me. The invitation to rpm (Rudolph Muller) is still open. I tried to talk in private even though I hate being so secretive about these things. He just pushed it off onto lackey ic to “handle”. He can now handle it publicly though I know he doesn’t want to.
It’s not surprising that v3g, I won’t use his real name as I can’t confirm it, is the only official rep. I can’t blame honest companies for not participating on sites they have to “buy in to”.
Do I have a gripe?, some would ask. If demanding honesty towards members who made the forum grow is a gripe then my answer is yes. It’s the members that made it what it was and they deserve nothing less than to demand some honesty. Rudolph should come clean the interest is primarily commercial and you are only allowed to pick on a few selected companies that don’t advertise there.
You can still see on the internet archive where they claim never to allow commercial advertising. Somewhat unrealistic imo but then when he made an about face there should have been more discretion about advertising that rely on the comments made or at least some honesty about the commercial interests.
People, the malady lingers on. MyBB now shields iBurst. Who’s the new CEO of iBurst? Jannie van Zyl.
This is no longer a matter of a privately owned MyBB doing what they want and exhibiting ‘normal’ forum politics. This now speaks to corporate malfeasance. My primary gripe is with iBurst, but MyBB has now entered the fray.
I am writing a piece about it. I urge anyone who is prepared to speak, especially under their real name, to contact me. My email address is on the about page of my blog.
Thanks
Oh, and can someone confirm that Jannie van Zyl, CEO of iBurst, is the Jannie van Zyl of Omnisolutions, the wireless house people? Or whatever it is called.
Sorry, I’m only on the periphery of tech developments and audiences.
@Rustum
Yes, that is the same Jannie. He’s also the previous official Vodacom rep on MyBB and currently posts under his own name.
Thanks Tinkerbe.