Posted on Sunday, 28th June 2009 by reckless bastard
Back before TheyBannedMe.com was even a flicker in my booze-soaked brain, my dad and I were tearing up messageboards devoted to the New York Jets (that’s an American football team for all you filthy foreigners). There are three major Jets forums: JetsInsider, TheGangGreen and JetNation. I have been banned from all three while my dad has been banned from JI and TGG.
TheGangGreen.com and the Boy King

Bring me chicken tenders or I shall ban thee!
I broke my ban cherry at TGG. That’s right, it was my first ever Internet banning. TGG was moronic enough to appoint a teenager to a mod position who instantly proved to be a hideous combination of emoD and Gestapo. By way of context, TGG was a Police State that maintained a sticky thread to discuss every banning and each one became a public-shaming ritual whereby the name of the recently banned would be dragged through the mud while the members danced around the bonfire, celebrating like savages and singing the praises of the mod who pulled the trigger.
The Boy King loved to ban people and be hailed as a Troll Slayer by the hordes of sycophantic members that secretly feared they would be banned next if they did not kiss his ass. However, the teenage mod had a sadistic secret. Late at night, he would ban people on a whim - a forbidden practice even by TGG’s standards - or because they embarrassed him in front of his subjects. Realizing his actions to be an abuse of power, he kept these bannings secret, not announcing them in the banned sticky thread and thus depriving himself of the wild celebration that attended all other bannings.
My dad and I were both victims of such a railroading. We migrated to JetNation - which we had heard was a site for Jets fans outcasted from the other Jets forums - and posted thread after thread about the Boy King’s abuses. Months later, we were vindicated when he was summarily stripped of his status as moderator. Of course, he became butthurt and vanished despite the fact that he was welcomed to stay as a regular member. His ego could not take being one of the unwashed hordes that he used to lord over with impunity. However, TGG wasted an excellent opportunity to rectify his abuses and disgracefully failed to reinstate everyone the Boy King had banned, even while implicitly admitting through his ouster that he had abused his authority.
JetsInsider and Soothsayer
JetsInsider is the largest Jets fanboard on the Internet. By most accounts its admin Soothsayer makes a decent living off of the board by offering access to a premium VIP area for $55/year. Soothsayer is known by every Jets fan with an Internet connection and has a high level of access to both the sportswriters who cover the team and to the team itself. There is just one problem: he’s a douche of epic proportions. He runs the forum with an iron fist and bans people for criticizing the team or any sportswriter that he depends on for inside information. Basically, he’s a sellout with no credibility.
Several years ago, a group of members was banned from JI and decided to start a new site that would allow Jets fans to hang out without the bullshit of JI. This intrepid group formed JetNation.com, a site devoted to the Jets, gay jokes and busting chops. I was eventually banned from JI for singing the praises of JN.
For years now a cold war has brewed between JI and JN with the former censoring all references to the latter in true Police State fashion.
JetNation.com - A Disappointing End
Other than TBM, JN is the only messageboard I visit regularly. I have a lot of friends on the board and my dad is one of the most active members there. After being banned at TGG, I had the idea to start TBM and JN’s admin (”Max”) served as the inspiration for how we would run this shithole. In fact, my unofficial slogan has always been WWMD (”What Would Max Do?”).

JN has always had a few rules which were seldom enforced until recently:
- Limited nudity - No nipples or bush.
- No swearing.
- No political or religious discussions.
- No personal attacks.
While these rules seem a little constrictive, I do not fault a site for having rules as long as they are enforced in a predictable and clearly enunciated manner. Since I’m busy with RL and TBM, I don’t visit JN as much as I used to. I usually drop in once a month and given that the entire site was originally built on a foundation of ball busting, I never waste an opportunity to sling some good-natured flames around at the other members, most of which I have known for years. But apparently, since my last visit, the mods had decided to crack down like the SS on rule violators. A couple days ago I posted a thread that could arguably have some political undertones although by any rational standard it’s tangentially political in nature, at most. I also posted a suggestion in a thread set up for site suggestions which you can read about here.
Yesterday, I found out that I had been banned and, despite three years as a member, the admin declined to do the honorable thing and refused to tell me why he had banned me. I can only speculate that it was for one of the two reasons above. In either case, bullshit, not to mention that this orgy of sudden rule enforcement is directly contrary to the principles that made JetNation the site of choice for those sick of TGG and JI.
Admins & Mods are Stewards of Public Forums
When I had been banned from TGG and JI, I didn’t give a shit. In fact, I was gunning for a ban. But this ban, I can admit, does sting a little. I had invested a lot of myself into the board and it is the only way I communicated with several friends from the Jets Fan Club back home in North Carolina. I had started TBM from an abstract idea, but with my JN banning, I now understand more than ever why the Internet needs a place like TBM. A forum is not built from a vBulletin license and $20/month for hosting. It is comprised of its members. Mods cannot be allowed to continue stripping community members of their identity on a whim just as a cop cannot kick in your front door without a damn good reason. My advice to all of you is to stop suffering these abuses lying down. A website becomes more than its admin’s possession as soon as he opens registration to the public. It then becomes a public gathering place of which he is a steward, not just an owner. When people take the time to gather there and participate in the community, the admin and mods have a duty to protect the investment made by those that participate in the forum and help it grow. It’s easy to erase the totality of someone’s experience on a site by clicking a few buttons but the operators of public forums have a duty to wield that power justly and judiciously.
In the end, the loss of my JetNation membership is collateral damage in the war to change the culture of the Internet. No more will we be slaves to the whimsical and unpredictable application of ambiguous rules that are enforced differently by any given mod on any given day. Remember: we are doing them a favor by posting on their site - not the other way around. It is time to take back YOUR Internet.
UPDATE: JetNation has reverted my ban to a 30-day suspension. A step in the right direction, I still retain hope that the site will return to its founding principles rather than become a place that acquiceses to whomever complains the loudest. I invite all JetNation members to join TBM if they find themselves on the wrong side of the banhammer; although I warn you that there are no mods to tuck you in at night here.
Read more about the revolution here. As always, if any person or entity mentioned in this article wishes to respond, they are free to contact me from within our forums or by emailing recklessbastard at theybannedme.com and their response will be published.
Tags: jetnation, jetnation.com, jetsinsider, jetsinsider.com, johnny green balls, theganggreen, theganggreen.com
Posted in Bullshit Bannings














