MacRumors Forum Rules and Bannings - The Good The Bad The Ugly

Have You Been Banned or Penalized at the MacRumors Forum?

If so, you are not alone. The MacRumors (MR) staff rules with an iron fist, uses a broad set of subjective rules for justification and often plays favorites. Visit their Site and Forum Feedback forum to see some of the complaints from members, keeping in mind that they regularly delete posts started by members from time to time as well, so you're only seeing what they allow you to see.

Who Am I?
I have been a MR member for many years. I have been warned, banned and reprimanded in every one of their various ways. I am also e a productive member of their community and for the most part do not have issues - I just want to have some say in my defense, something MR strictly forbids.

One could ask why I keep coming back and that would be a fair question. I have met a lot of really great people there and enjoy the basic camaraderie, some of the time I get into heated discussions as well and that's where all of this stems from.

This article attempts to explain the reality of their rules, culture and treatment of users that I've witnessed over the years.

What are MacRumors Official Rules? 
While this is specifically geared towards their Politics, Religion, Social Issues (PRSI) forum, This post outlines them, I'm not going to post them here as they're mostly subjective and often ignored by their staff anyway.

However, I want to highlight this one specifically and call it out:

The moderators never take sides in discussions of social issues when enforcing the rules. They would rather not interfere with debates or discussions at all. If you and others follow the rules, they won't have to. If you think another user's post is not within the rules, report it, ignore it, and/or respond without breaking the rules. Let the moderators deal with the user in question while you preserve your forum privileges.

This is patently false in my experience there. Depending on the day and the moderator, you'll often get two different results. Just one example, I've posted a meme and had it taken down because (something like) "you didn't add any context, posting images without context is against the rules". Yet you see others doing it all the time without issues, some of which mods have even replied to.  You see similar inconsistencies like this on a regular basis.

Now, if you want to go through their lengthy rule book - which they fully expect you to know - grab yourself a cup of coffee and have at it.

Reporting Posts Used as a Weapon
Those who speak out are always going to be targets because people who disagree with you will report you, knowing full well that the mods will likely act. In fact, this is often used as a tool or tactic by other members and it has proven to be very effective for them. MR has created this culture.

I will admit that when I have felt attacked, instead of calling out the other user in the forum, I've reported the post. This is because they leave you no choice in the matter, you are not allowed to retaliate in any way. Often times, they have a different set of standards, showing more leniency for some users and not others. One has to wonder if those who have openly donated to the site are granted a bit more freedom, in either case the perception is that they play favorites as a result of inconsistent moderation.

Cursing
Cursing is allowed and all words are passed through their profanity filter, much of the time you don't really know what the user is saying because it's a bunch of asterisks - any attempts to bypass this filter will result in a stiff penalty.

What Mods Do I need to Look Out For?
While there are several moderators/staff of varying hierarchy, the most notable is Weaselboy. There is never a time he isn't online, he is obviously a great contributor to the community and generally helpful when called upon but that's where it ends.

By and large, he is laying in wait for reported posts and then he acts with precision and bias, cloaked behind a vague rule that may or may not really apply to the post at hand. He issues penalties on a daily basis and seems to thrive on it.

Several complaints have been lodged against him on MR, many of which end up deleted by either him or other staff members. But they cannot control the rest of the internet, there are more if you google it but here are some of the highlights:

AppleInsider Forums -

Weaselboy is an officious Junior High School Hall Monitor that has the backs of the regulars over there. He routinely stalked and rebukes people who upset the angry members who act like vicious members of the Democratic Underground. That's an objective observation, not a political one. The guy is a caricature of the over-used concept of the "Social Justice Warrior", giving legitimate social causes a terrible name.

You are exactly right, there is a core of nasty posters who provoke anyone who disagrees with their agenda (anti-corporation, etc), and are adept at using Weaselboy as a weapon by the thirty odd people who are on there 24/7 talking politics and nothing else. It's non-stop conflict and new threads about the latest political idiocy every day. Why Macrumors doesn't close their political forum is beyond me. It's hurting their business and reputation.

If you are a thinking adult, and don't like being treated like a child, don't go there. Tell everyone you know to do likewise to avoid the toxic atmosphere. The discourse there is obviously dictated by the silliness you see on college campuses. It assumes that everyone is a helpless victim, results in infantile lecturing, and ends up making the problem worse.

That said, their loss is Appleinsiders gain. I tell everyone to avoid MacRumours. Come here instead.

iMore Forums -

Original Post:

Hi everyone. I was member on there. Got in a ugly fight and got banned. How is your experience. Please share!

Side Note:- if you visit there beware of "Relentless Power" he has multiple accounts there please report to moderators


Reply:

Oh I know, I regularly post, this week I reported a post for a blatant swear word d******d. You can fill in the blanks, the moderator team told me no action was required, even though swearing is supposedly against their own rules, I reported it again in a much more stringent manor, but had no reply for 3 days so I posted about this in the thread, then I get a message from the team that action had been taken, they nearly blanked the swear word with ****, fine I ignore it and carried on, then today I’ve been banned for apparently posting off topic! So I called their own moderator team out for ignoring their own rules and they banned me for a couple of days...

Yeah they are a VERY selective moderation team, I have to say it’s usually the da,e one, Weaselboy, who bans me, I or course have shown my discontent to this and may send an email to Arn the sites owner, the onus is on him to enforce his own rules and not ban people who call them for it on it. Posts my off topic once in a thread does not lead to a ban, or seeks Weaselboy has been caught not doing his job and took it off it on me..

The forums are a bit of a joke their, you literally have to kiss a Apples bhind and never raise a concern against the endless trolls to avoid a ban.

In fact,  his style of imposing penalties is so obvious that you typically know what will trigger him. As mentioned above, the users will use this to their advantage. If you are new there and have strong opinions, you'll get eaten alive and baited/banned right out of the gate before quickly learning they want heavily sanitized political discussion.

Why Do They Even Have a Political Forum?
Great question, even their staff has mentioned how much they hate it many times. The reality is debate is commonplace and often heated in a political forum, it's obvious that their staff has to work hard on a regular basis to keep it inline with their stringent standards. They will often complain about it, yet they still keep the forum around.

What Can You Do?
If you are banned there is essentially nothing you can do about it. You will be given the stock reason, likely by Weaselboy, then you will be locked out of the board via cookies. The only recourse you have is to contact them through their Contact Page - note you may have to be logged out of the site for this to work.

You will also have a "Suspended" label under your name during the term of your suspension, this serves no other purpose than to give the mods and those who have reported you a gratifying sense of vindication. The staff has openly bragged about this in their feedback forum.

You should note that all decisions are final. Contacting them about it results in no changes and while they have claimed to reverse a decision, I have never once personally seen that in all my years there. At best, all it does is lets you vent to them, you'll likely get a delayed canned response and nothing will happen.

Consensus
If I had to sum up the feedback of those I've seen who have pushed back against their moderation over the years, I would say it's that the MR staff treats you much like a child, regularly scolding with imposed penalties and warnings. Do some ask for it? Sure. But overall it's run more like a daycare with stern nuns at the helm running around with rulers swatting members on the hand who step a little bit out of line.

Note to Staff:
If it were my board and I ran across this article, the first thing I would do is post it in the moderator/staff forum and let everyone point their finger at me and have a good laugh, seriously, have fun with it.

Then maybe reflect about two things:
1) Are you all on the same page? What one mod does, all mods should do with consistency or it shouldn't be a rule.
2) Is a political forum that you have to constantly monitor and regulate really the right fit for a tech site?