...so why are certain things such as names of certain companes changed to "* * * * * *" on certain posts? Are they bad comapnies? or bad posters?

They are probably banned from this forum because they violated some of its rules as defined in http://www.webhostingtalk.com/misc.php?action=forum-rules .

This usually happened after repeated offenses and ignored warnings.

The common reasons are :-

1) Spamming
2) Being Abusive

That'd be the 'common' reasons.

wonder why they would break the rules if they knew they would get banned...
Then again I just read what I worte and though about some people I actually know. Thanks for the explanation.

Todd,

The thing is that although the rules are plastered so visibly some people actually do not read them and if they did, they thought they could breach it without being detected.

We all know that spamming is wrong and yet day in and day out, I still get tons of spams. Our society taught us that murder is wrong and yet each day you hear of people still being murdered.

In our line of work, we come out with help files and How-tos for our programs but yet every few days we still have people write to us and ask us how to do certain things. Most of the time they are clearly posted in the first few pages of the documentation.

I guess that is just human nature.. how I love to understand it. :P

Originally posted by eddy2099
Todd,

The thing is that although the rules are plastered so visibly some people actually do not read them and if they did, they thought they could breach it without being detected.

We all know that spamming is wrong and yet day in and day out, I still get tons of spams. Our society taught us that murder is wrong and yet each day you hear of people still being murdered.

In our line of work, we come out with help files and How-tos for our programs but yet every few days we still have people write to us and ask us how to do certain things. Most of the time they are clearly posted in the first few pages of the documentation.

I guess that is just human nature.. how I love to understand it. :P

My wife and I have come to the conclusion that common sense is all too uncommon and unused in the most of who we have encountered. I too agree with you and also love to understand it:stickout:

As far as the ToS and help files... I can attest to helping people out, I know EXACTLY hat you mean when it comes to no one reading these.

It really gets me that they don't even read The Rules (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/misc.php?s=&action=forum-rules) when we send them a link to it and tell them which part they violated. Or they read them and try to twist them into something that 'doesn't apply' to them. In any case, it takes a lot of hard work to get your URL censored. You have to nearly want to be stars.

Originally posted by Todd_Beedy
wonder why they would break the rules if they knew they would get banned...
In an ideal world maybe. It would be nice to have a day where nobody was warned/banned, but I can't see that happening real soon :(

I signed up quite a while ago so I cannot remember the sign up procedure for WHT. Was the Rules pasted on the Sign up Page ? If it is not, it should be there. If it is then I do not understand why they broke it.

If people just follow the rules, this world would be much peaceful and we wouldn't have the SARS outbreak as it is today.

Anyways, I shall stop talking.. I think I might be going out of topic here. Oops.

I think most forums have basic rules before you hit the signup button. I always read them and if there is something there I don't understand, I don't signup (For instance some have a lot of legal jargon that is way beyond my comprehension) :eek:

But having said that, once I do join a forum, I look for announcements and rules. Forewarned is forearmed :cool:

Originally posted by anon-e-mouse
Forewarned is forearmed :cool:

We have a winner!! It only takes once to get burned REALLY BADLY and you will always read the rules for the rest of your life.

Cute stars... how do I apply :) Eh... Just kidding :D
In any case, usually these censoring is meant to serve as a warning to the community and is supposed to serve as an example to the rest. But many simply are too new, sign up, and start advertising messages. Some blatently do it a few times thinking that just re-registering will do the trick.

Originally posted by sprintserve
But many simply are too new,
You would be surprised the number that we are nabbing that have been here for quite some time. They got away with a lot because there wasn't enough mods to handle it. But now we have more and some extras specifically for the ad forums, you will be seeing a lot more stars :buck:

I've always equated the rules to the same principle you should use when entering a room at a party. Instead of just walking in and yelling to everyone in the room at once, you wander around a bit and get a feel for the room. It doesn't take long to figure out what crowd you're in, then act accordingly.

People who get banned here are generally just people without any form of social grace and consider their own needs well ahead of others ;)

Greg Moore

Social grace on the Net? Sounds like a good idea but thus far I have yet to encounter that ideology in any continious form.