Well it was an auto thing after being off topic a bit.
I got a warning for talking in the builds competition which lead up to it. Nowhere does it say we cant havw a friendly conversation about our builds there.
Lets be clear here, one of the replies you made very tersely said "Did you even read the rules?", I'd hardly call that friendly conversation.
As for the contest we will be sure to be clearer in the future about avoiding off topic conversation in there. We (the mods) have just been straight out deleting non build posts in there which I am sure you have noticed, however the warning you received was because the posts were not only off topic, some were mean spirited as well. Apologies if this was not clear.
Now that said you should not have been banned for it, and when we all discussed what happened (we do that, often!) and determined it was a mistake, I went in and fixed it immediately. While I wasn't the one to warn you, I was able to correct this.
So must be 3 strikes your banned.
Not really, the system we have is more complex than that, but suffice to say repeated offenses over certain time periods will result in bans from 1-3 or more days depending on severity and frequency. As I said you shouldn't have been banned at that point but due to an error on our end it did happen, but we were able to correct and I apologize again for any inconvenience.
That's scary. Can you tell me what exactly happened ? Is OFF TOPIC discussion against the Forum rules ? 🙁
Why was your account banned ? I need to know the reason, because it might help me as well, so that I don't repeat the same mistake again. I'm not sure how OFF Topic rules work here though.....But, it would be much better if we can get some clear answer from any of the MODs/Admins.
I went into it above, and Colif gives a pretty good short form explanation there. Off Topic discussion in proper places is not against forum rules, however if you are habitually taking peoples topics into the woods this could cause problems.
A topic like this in the hobby section, no big deal. But for example a contest build post where we are asking for builds? Or say someones question about a Win 10 issue that someone goes off on a tangent about their own issue, or discussion with another person who is not the OP about something not related to the question, thats the issue. And even then you won't be banned for it, but you will be told to stop, and if you keep doing it even after, thats where problems can come.
Hope I answered you guys thoroughly enough, let us know if you have questions.