I got banned from the forums after having been considered "too combative" for not taking it lightly that a moderator lectured me on unrelated forum etiquette rules.
I wanted to discuss a legitimate technical issue, which turned out to be coil whine - at the time I did not know it was called that. A community member offered some advice, and I asked them kindly whether they would like to remove a particular question which I've answered in the very previous original post. They became offended by the very suggestion of this and deleted their whole reply, including the useful stuff. The moderator stepped in here and gave me a petty little lecture on all kinds of behavior norms, which I one by one refuted - to no avail, the thread just got locked.
Ok, fresh start. Let's open another topic because I'm not here to bicker - I have an issue to discuss. The new topic got closed within 10 minutes by a mod, threatening me with a ban if I open it again.
I thought that was kinda ridiculous, because I'm a Framework customer and I want to discuss an issue with my laptop, so I opened anothe topic. Sure enough, it got closed and I got banned for a month.
A month has passed, and my problem is still there. One day when I'm browsing the interwebs to understand my issue, I stumble upon another Framework forum post discussing the same thing. My ban being lifted, I jump into the conversation and confirm that I have the same issue, and I share my story of having been banned after trying to discuss this. As you might guess, a mod appears, closes this topic as well, and states that the real reason I've been banned is that I have... wait for it... FREIGHT FORWARDED! And proceeds to permaban me on the spot with the notice "too combative"! What the hell, Framework!!!
I hadn't freight forwarded and I have no possible explanation as to why this mod was jumping at me like that. Anyway, let's take to reddit to complain about this. Quickly, a mob of zealous Framework fans forms, trampling over each other trying to lecture me that freight forwarding is prohibited etc... I WAS NOT TALKING ABOUT FREIGHT FORWARDING! I was complaining about a mod accusing me of freight forwarding and banning me for this bogus reason! And guess what - eventually the thread gets shut down after inevitably devolving into a discussion of freight forwarding (to which Framework has a similarly bogus attitude, although that has changed slightly with them conceding to European single market regulations) - the Reddit thread gets locked as well and I get permabanned from the subreddit for "discussing freight forwarding"!
Ever since, I message the mods on Reddit every now and then, reminding them of the utterly crazy way they've been treating me, and the usual response is just a temporary mute so that I can't message them further.
Does anyone else have a similar experience?
That is actually a great question. Countries are institutions which, despite all the corruption across the world, hold some promise for their citizens to be treated fairly and with dignity. Globally operating corporations like Framework are creating a global "community", yet there is no common basis for that group of people to really become a community. It's a homegrown community that can be cut, shaped or left to rot at the behest of the gardener, Framework. My plea is that we, the people who actually make up that community, agree on a set of baseline rules that control the power of that gardener. There should be no personal grudges determining whether a person can open a forum thread on something. There should be no forbidden topics. And there should be no permabanning unless the person is incessantly harassing someone. Those I believe we can all agree on. It's difficult when we are not part of the same society - that's why we should be extra careful not to ostracize each other, further fragmenting our already disadvantaged ranks.