03/29/2010

I’m so proud of myself. I’ve been using the internet for many years now and have never been banned from a site – until yesterday. And it’s the strangest thing. I didn’t even know I did anything wrong even though I was accused of just that.

Saturday night I couldn’t sleep so among other browsing, I was looking up something about my disease. I came across healthboards.com where a couple of people had made posts with questions about CLL, my particular type of leukemia. Having lived with it for a lot of years already, I wanted to help with reassurance that it does not have to mean a life sentence. I offered my email address in a covert sort of way by spelling out DOT instead of using the symbol as in .com. I was told in a newsgroup that I belong to that it lessens your chance of having it stolen by a “bot” and I can’t even begin to explain how it works. I just know what I’ve been told. Don’t give out your email address on the internet. But I wanted to reach out to 2 of these posters, so I took a chance.

The next day I got an email from the administrator of the healthboards saying I was PERMANENTLY BANNED. I clicked on the message which took me to the the site, and sure enough, in bold print – permanently banned. There was a link that I could click to appeal. All I wanted to know was why I was banned. I got an email back that said only: Free advertising is not allowed for any reason. That started the exchange of emails as I began to explain what I was doing.

You know you did wrong
By offering to help someone in need? I’m a private citizen and did NOT advertise
we deem what you posted to be advertising
The evidence that you knew you did wrong is that you spelled out ‘dot’
in your email address. Those who don’t know, simply enter .com
I knew I did wrong??? You couldn’t be further from the truth. I belong to a great newsgroup and that’s the way I was showed how to protect my email addy somewhat.
I’d do it again if I thought I could help someone though. In my eyes the only person I was possibly hurting was myself by exposing my address. Even that is worth it if I can give someone else hope.

I’m 100% sure this “admin” person is female. What professional man would take that action, and then waste his time bantering back and forth over several emails. The last one I sent made it clear that I did not want to discuss this further. I’m far from a professional, but the people writing in to that board weren’t asking questions directed at professionals. I got my diagnosis and initial information from professionals in the medical field. After it had all sunk in, I wanted to speak to someone living with the disease. I identified with a couple of people and reached out. Was that wrong? Not in my mind. No, I didn’t read the rules before signing up for this board. I jumped right in. 🙂 But I have a hard time thinking that if this person read my post, they wouldn’t have let it slide, to think that someone might have had cause for hope instead of worry. Or at the very least, emailed me with a warning. No, I’m not really proud of myself. I think it’s everybody’s lost in this case.

Note to admin’s everywhere –
1. Think outside the box
2. Have a heart
3. Don’t be afraid to look the other way for a greater good