In general? I'm asking because I have a good friend on another forum who was supposed to adopt a baby from another forum member in April. It was all planned out with my friend spending thousands of dollars getting ready for the new baby, doing everything that she would do if she were pregnant, all that stuff. Now she finds out the baby is promised to another couple when the lady had sworn that she had decided without a doubt that she was giving the baby to my friend.

Knowing the person, I'm biased.

Someone did a poll though, as to whether the person should be banned. People are banned from that site for scamming people over silly little things all the time.

Most of the people voting (of 200 + votes so far only 30 or so voted no) to ban her, but some people are saying that since she didn't violate the terms of service of the site she shouldn't be banned.

My friend is understandably heartbroken and feels like if the other girl doesn't leave, she will have to. Even some "trolls" have started accounts to harass her saying things like "You don't deserve that baby" and stuff like that.



So my question, since I am so biased, is "What do you think is a good reason to ban someone from a site?"

Trollers, scammers and spammers should be banned from sites. Far as your friend goes, that past dirty what the other person did. Did they know each other in person, did they ever meet? Were papers signed? Fucked up as it was, I don't know if I think the other person should be banned from the site. That was personal business between them. The site was no different than a bar where two people met. If one turned out to be a jerk in the relatiosnhip outside the bar, they shouldn't be banned from being able to go there again.

I'm gonna say no, unless it was a site about adoption and they (the site) was involved in the whole deal. It stinks what this person did, but I wouldn't say that it was grounds for them to be banned. It's really beyond the site masters business and has little to do with the site itself.

Dark Oblivion wrote:

Trollers, scammers and spammers should be banned from sites. Far as your friend goes, that past dirty what the other person did. Did they know each other in person, did they ever meet? Were papers signed? Fucked up as it was, I don't know if I think the other person should be banned from the site. That was personal business between them. The site was no different than a bar where two people met. If one turned out to be a jerk in the relatiosnhip outside the bar, they shouldn't be banned from being able to go there again.

That was unethical and heartless what that person did to your friend OP and if the community at that board decided to cold shoulder her for it, she would deserve it, but I can't agree that it sounds like it should be a ban worthy offense. Like it's been said, the situation goes beyond the site.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say yes, especially if they did a healthy amount of communicating about the fraudulent adoption at the forum, or through private messages. The lady ran a scam and used the forum to do it, that would be enough for me to zap someone.

In general, though, Dark Oblivion pretty much nailed it:
spamming
trolling (or 'board harassment,' as they used to call it on AOL)
scamming

She's being banned for scamming. People are banned at this site over 5.00 bows that they don't produce all the time, so they decided to ban her. Also selling counterfeit goods will get you banned, and it turned out that because of her lies it would have been an illegal adoption had it gone through, because she hasn't told the baby's father about it and she's going to have her SO sign the birth certificate so that the real father won't find out about it.

They met on the site, communicated on the site, set up the exchange of funds on the site (although funds were exchanged through paypal) and members of the community chipped in for things like 3d ultrasounds and stuff like that.

They put it to vote and 83% voted ban.

Thanks for you input folks I know I'm totally biased but I voted ban, I *think* because I don't want someone who is KNOWN to be scamming in the community. Especially not something so big...