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I thought it would be interesting to share stories of being banned at MADB. Here are my two ban stories

First Ban: A few years back, a Provo teenager came forward and claimed she had been having sex with her seminary teacher. The teacher vehemently denied it, but there was comprehensive proof and he eventually confessed and was sentenced to prison. The folks at MADB were weighing in on this unfortunate event when I made the following smart ass comment:

"Maybe you all shouldn't be so quick to judge this seminary teacher. Maybe an angel with a flaming sword appeared to him and threatened to kill him if he didn't sleep with that teenage girl. We all know a situation like this has happened before..."

Within minutes I was banned for life.

Second Ban: Eventually I created a new login and username with a new email address thereby bypassing my ban. I made a few posts here and there. I was getting annoyed by DCP dropping by frequently on the General Discussion Board to brag and self congratulate himself on his travel to such-and-such country, or his speaking engagement at such-and-such place. Most of it was just an itinerary followed up with tidbits to make sure everyone knew how important he was. The reason I was getting annoyed is because the MADB rules for the General Discussion Board specifically state:

For topics and discussions concerning LDS Doctrine, History, Geography, etc... Please stay on topic all off topic posts will be moved/deleted.

None of DCP's posts in General Discussion had anything to do with LDS Doctrine, History, and etc. They were just DCP travel logs and name dropping. I am always seeing the mods deleting or bumping other posts over to the Social Hall becasue they aren't in line with the General Discussion Board. On one of these DCP brag posts, I asked him why he doesn't post in the Social Hall since his post was not relevant or within the bounds of required subject matter in the General Discussion area.

Bam! Minutes later, banned for life.

I got banned for being myself

all 5, posting the truth and not violating any rules, and challenging the FAIRisees.

I was banned after expressing my opinion on the matter of DCP's "firing" from MI.
I thought it was some kind of bad joke.
The level of childish stupidity displayed in the so called moderation at MADB is nearing the limits of my fantacy.
I have to quote Brother Joseph on this one; " If I had not experienced what I have, I could not have believed it myself".

I was banned for life for calling Mr. Peterson "Mr. Peterson".

- VRDRC

Let's see:

1) Mentioning some inconvenient truths about Joseph Smith Jr., as recorded in approved LDS Church materials.

2) Offering an ocean sailor's / scientist's fact-based perspective on the probability that the Jaredites could have possibly made the journey accounted to them in the Book of Mormon.

3) (Not sure.) Believe that it was for providing a requested response to a question about Native American DNA, again from the literature.

4) Asking a question about Will Schryver during a particularly traumatic time on the MADBoard (when I should have known better).

5) Providing a requested commentary on why LDS apologists had little credibility as "scholars". (As I recall, this one got taken down in about 5 minutes).

To bad too, because I spent some time working on this one, including actually reading a number of NAMIRS papers and selecting two of the sillier ones for comment. Apparently, the author was a much beloved professor at BYU. I selected his paper(s) because they both said essentially the same thing and were published several (10?) years apart. The arguments got no better over the intervening time and neither did the data upon which they were based.

Hey, if one can continually re-publish their old ideas supported by bad data and get publication "credit" for doing so, why not?

(What a joke.)

I'm glad I've never registered there. What a loony bin.

My first ban was back in the Fall of 2006 after I was falsely accused of calling Brian Hauglid a liar. I said something to the effect that Brian was put in a tough position as a Book of Abraham apologist, in that he was compelled to fabricate evidence to support it. The mods insisted I meant he was intentionally lying, but that wasn't my intent. The first definition of fabricate in the dictionary is simply "to make by art or skill and labor; construct." At the time was in Brazil and a common word used in Portuguese to denote the construction of something creative is "fabricar," and it has no deceptive overtones attached to it, so that probably played into my choice of words. But I wasn't allowed to explain myself, and it was clear to anyone reading the thread that my post proved embarrassing to the apologetic position. So, like always, they were looking for some minor infraction to use as an excuse to get rid of the guy making them look foolish.

It was the same week my son was born, so I remember it well. Brian and I have never been on bad terms with one another, so the so-called fighting between us was firmly in the imaginations of the MAD moderators.

Last year I was invited back at MAD after I defended Juliann's attempt to have edited photos of her removed from the web. I was banned again just a few months ago after correcting Daniel Peterson's idiotic rants against me. No personal attacks were involved. No rule breaking of any sort. All I did was correct Dan Peterson's false allegations. That alone merited a banning in their eyes.

DrW wrote:4) Asking a question about Will Schryver during a particularly traumatic time on the MADBoard (when I should have known better).

Ditto other than the "should have known better" part....because I didn't back then.

I was very new to online forums and had no idea who any of the Mormon apologists were (other than that Hugh Nibley had been one). It was MsJack's epic thread about Schryver that brought me here (I read about it over on NOM If I recall correctly, and did a google search for more information because it sounded interesting).

I did not (and actually still don't) understand all the dynamics and politics behind the different apologists and forums but I thought the MADB was the "church's forum" and had no idea that it was so blatantly biased.

After reading a bit in MsJack's thread, I went over to MADB and joined to ask what their opinions were of Schryver's paper. I simply posted this:

"Do you believe that Will Schryver's paper will still be published?"

Within minutes I was banned for life. I emailed the moderators and tried to explain that I was just simply asking a question that I wanted their opinions on....but they never even responded.

Nice way to run a "discussion" forum, huh?