In Need Of Help

Posts : 173 Join date : 2008-07-20

Hello, my name is Eiri (Tyna).

I have been a long-time user of eHealth's forums. I began as a user needing help about birth control pills and ended up a moderator. I spent four long, fun, educational years on eHealth with no known problems. Towards the end of this spring season (2008) I went through an extremely stressful time finishing college. My frustration vented onto eHealth, and even I knew my performance as a Moderator was waning. I asked many times to be removed as a mod. My most vocal complaints took place on the Debate Forums.

Eventually I became so frustrated with what I felt was a failure to act that I posted a good-bye thread on the Moderator's forum. This was done to keep the drama down, but to let eHealth know I was pretty fed up. During a conversation on that thread, other moderators convinced me to stay (as far as my memory serves). I also believe I asked on that thread again to be removed as a moderator.

I feel that the admin of eHealth (Lee) did not read this thread. She banned me, which is expected since there is a 0 tolerance for good-bye threads, but I feel she was in error because she did not read the thread or try to find out why I wanted to leave, nor did she learn that I decided to stay afterall.

I became very angry after the banning. I kept receiving email alerts (strangely enough) about replied-to topics and eventually re-registered under the name Cmyked, hoping to prove to the administrators that the reporting system only worked if everyone used it, and also to prove to them that some of their "beloved" moderators were far from well-behaved. I know I was one of the problems, which is why I'd asked to be removed from modship. They eventually banned me again of course.

Many months passed, I graduated, and my stress level went down. I was still receiving email alerts, and decided one more time to return to eHealth. This time however, I would petition Lee personally for permission. I registered a username, EiriForLife, and refrained from posting on the forums proper. I PMed Lee, let her know how I was doing and gave a little information on why I'd been so upset in the spring, and asked permission to come back.

She refused, stating that I'd been banned for posting a good-bye message, and she could not go back on that policy. I noted that she had in fact done it at least once before. She said that case had been in error and the person had been re-banned after their posts were reviewed. I again apologized for my behavior on the Debate forums, and explained why I felt I deserved a second chance. She again refused, and my next reply was polite but angry, stating the names of several other people who were just as bad as me who also deserved to be banned if I was going to be banned.

Her next reply was as follows:

Quote :: Hi Tyna,

I'm sorry to say that we're not able to endorse future accounts for you at eHealth Forum at this time. Your account was originally closed because you requested it. However, upon evaluation of your posting history and of communication between yourself and the admin team, we've agreed that it's best that you find another community.

1. Inflammatory posts
2. Rude posts
3. Inappropriate PMs (personal attacks)
4. Publically questioning and criticizing admin's decisions
5. Preemptive action (posting a poll in the Debate Forum)

Simply, these actions do not align with our mission and are not compliant with the site's terms of use. You were allowed much room for error and were repeatedly warned both about the tone and the content of your posts. Truth is, had we enforced the rules objectively, you would have been banned much earlier that the time it took for you to resign. We simply used your resignation as an opportunity to close the account. However, the account will remain closed for the above reasons.

Lee

What I'm asking for is simple. If ANYONE from eHealth posts here, let me know. Tell others on eHealth of what has happened.

The PMs I know about and admit to. I angrily PMed Kypros (telling her to shut up, not to tell me how to think, that she was close-minded etc) out of absolute desperation when I felt reporting her posts was no longer doing any good. I felt victimized and abused, and utterly abandoned by the administration. I was told nothing would be done about Birch because "we've gotten complaints about you too". So two wrongs makes a right!? I would rather have seen both of us banned!

As for the last two "reasons", those are both related to my re-introduction thread I posted. I was getting tired of waiting, and was hoping that a grass-roots movement could help me.

The admins of eHealth shouldn't need an excuse to ban someone who deserves it. What, are they waiting for Birch and Darkmoon and Kypros to resign too?

Here's her last letter to me:

Quote :: Dear Tyna,

This will be my last communication with you about your ban. Your continued insistence to be heard has further confirmed that our community is not an appropriate venue for your participation. To be clear, you are no longer welcome at eHealth Forum.

I have reviewed all of the posts created by Birch, Darkmoon and Kypros. It seems that the majority of these user's posts are in the debate forums. I'm not so much interested in their participation (or yours) in the debates. The debates always have and always will create conflict that is difficult to moderate. Moderating debates is not in our mission statement and I don't spend too much time worrying about these forums. Instead, I'm looking at how members interact with others regarding medical questions. You were repeatedly warned to change your tone in the medical forums and did not. To clarify, the reasons stated before are in reference to your participation in the medical forums. You will not find justice by trying to bring others down, but by taking responsibility for what is yours and understanding the consequences.

Now, please leave our medical community.

Kindly,
Lee

If anyone knows what Lee is talking about, I would be really, really thankful. I have no idea what public posts she is talking about. To my knowledge, I have never been warned about inflammatory comments in the general forums. I was not "warned repeatedly" to stop such actions - I was never warned ONCE. I never made rude posts on the General forums. I was far more cordial than most other users! All I ever did was help people... Unless I've suffered from some serious strokes here. If Lee is claiming that it was not my actions on the Debate forums that fueled my final banning, then I'd really love to know what she's talking about.

I know I'm never going to get back on eHealth now. Any further pushing and I'm afraid Lee will take legal action and it's just not worth it. I just want answers. Actually, don't even tell that it's from me if you talk about it. I don't want anything coming back to haunt me. The internet is not as anonymous as we'd wish, and if Lee really wanted to, she could have the police track down my IP address. On charges of stalking, harassment and threatening I suppose, though I never threatened her. "I'll post on your forumz!!" <_<

Is it sad I'm that paranoid?

Posts : 213 Join date : 2008-03-09

why did you want to quit there? What did you say in your goodbye post?

Why were you banned as cmked?

Posts : 92 Join date : 2008-03-13

I was once there too. Lee is a twat, to put it kindly. She allowed several members to run a muck and when I had had enough and went off (as a mod) I was banned. Not that I truly care. That place is dieing anyway. You can not longer have an opinion AT ALL if you want to post there and Lee is only in it for the money anyway.

I didn't know you were banned and it is truly there loss.

I was iridescent_opal by the way. Wink

Posts : 173 Join date : 2008-07-20

Erulissë wrote:: why did you want to quit there? What did you say in your goodbye post?

Why were you banned as cmked?

I wanted to quit because Lee wasn't doing anything about the other offensive posters and just let them have free-reign of the place. These people got away with insulting other posters for most of the time I was there, and have only grown more bold with time.

I was banned as cmyked for the obvious reason that I had the same IP as my old username, so I was clearly the same person.

Posts : 173 Join date : 2008-07-20

Danielle wrote:: I was once there too. Lee is a twat, to put it kindly. She allowed several members to run a muck and when I had had enough and went off (as a mod) I was banned. Not that I truly care. That place is dieing anyway. You can not longer have an opinion AT ALL if you want to post there and Lee is only in it for the money anyway.

I didn't know you were banned and it is truly there loss.

I was iridescent_opal by the way.

Gee, same story as me then... You were Opal!? You were great!! I miss so many people from there, that's what I truly regret. I don't want to speak bad of Lee, I have no real reason to aside from the fact that she's banned me. I didn't know she was making money from eHealth...

Posts : 173 Join date : 2008-07-20

Well, with my experience on teh webz, I've decided to try and start up a forum of my own... It's a pro-life forum at the core, but anyone is welcome to post as long as they're polite. I am going to moderate it to keep offensive posts and personal attacks to a minimum, because I'm just so sick of that kind of behavior.

The address is http://prolife.forumotion.com if you're interested.

Posts : 213 Join date : 2008-03-09

Have you ever seen the prolifeamerica forums? alot of drama, but it's fun to read.

Posts : 92 Join date : 2008-03-13

Thanks. What i find hilarious is I got banned but The_Girlfriend did not (at the time). And as for Lee, she allows a lot of attacks but doesn't want people to respond. They bring in revenue for her and by not wanting responses she limits drama. She has been uncaring and unsympathetic to long time members and their concerns on the forums which is causing the place to die out.

Hope the new forum works out!

Posts : 618 Join date : 2008-03-09

Danielle, I didn't know you were iridescent_opal! You were one of my FAVORITE posters!!!!!

Eiri, you need to go over Lee's head, because she is lying about why you were banned:

EiriForLife wrote:

Quote :: Dear Tyna,

Instead, I'm looking at how members interact with others regarding medical questions. You were repeatedly warned to change your tone in the medical forums and did not. To clarify, the reasons stated before are in reference to your participation in the medical forums. You will not find justice by trying to bring others down, but by taking responsibility for what is yours and understanding the consequences.

Now, please leave our medical community.

Kindly,
Lee

If anyone knows what Lee is talking about, I would be really, really thankful. I have no idea what public posts she is talking about. To my knowledge, I have never been warned about inflammatory comments in the general forums. I was not "warned repeatedly" to stop such actions - I was never warned ONCE. I never made rude posts on the General forums. I was far more cordial than most other users! All I ever did was help people... Unless I've suffered from some serious strokes here. If Lee is claiming that it was not my actions on the Debate forums that fueled my final banning, then I'd really love to know what she's talking about.

Posts : 173 Join date : 2008-07-20

Erulissë wrote:: Have you ever seen the prolifeamerica forums? alot of drama, but it's fun to read.

I'm on there actually, and have to laugh that I thought eHealth was offensive! I'm LiberalChiRo on pro-life america.

Posts : 173 Join date : 2008-07-20

Danielle wrote:: Thanks. What i find hilarious is I got banned but The_Girlfriend did not (at the time). And as for Lee, she allows a lot of attacks but doesn't want people to respond. They bring in revenue for her and by not wanting responses she limits drama. She has been uncaring and unsympathetic to long time members and their concerns on the forums which is causing the place to die out.

Hope the new forum works out!

She does allow a lot of abuse and seems to cater towards the pro-choice side of things... I know a lot of early old-timers who just drifted away, from both sides of the debate... And that's a loss for the general health forums too.

Posts : 173 Join date : 2008-07-20

I thought so... because I swear to god I don't remember being warned.

futureshock wrote:

Danielle, I didn't know you were iridescent_opal! You were one of my FAVORITE posters!!!!!

Eiri, you need to go over Lee's head, because she is lying about why you were banned:

EiriForLife wrote:

Quote :: Dear Tyna,

Instead, I'm looking at how members interact with others regarding medical questions. You were repeatedly warned to change your tone in the medical forums and did not. To clarify, the reasons stated before are in reference to your participation in the medical forums. You will not find justice by trying to bring others down, but by taking responsibility for what is yours and understanding the consequences.

Now, please leave our medical community.

Kindly,
Lee

If anyone knows what Lee is talking about, I would be really, really thankful. I have no idea what public posts she is talking about. To my knowledge, I have never been warned about inflammatory comments in the general forums. I was not "warned repeatedly" to stop such actions - I was never warned ONCE. I never made rude posts on the General forums. I was far more cordial than most other users! All I ever did was help people... Unless I've suffered from some serious strokes here. If Lee is claiming that it was not my actions on the Debate forums that fueled my final banning, then I'd really love to know what she's talking about.

Posts : 618 Join date : 2008-03-09

EiriForLife wrote:: I don't want to speak bad of Lee, I have no real reason to aside from the fact that she's banned me. I didn't know she was making money from eHealth...

Yep, that's why she banned me. She thought I was stealing revenue from ehealth by "making my own health forum". Even though this is NOT a "health" forum!

She makes money on post counts, views and numbers of members, which is one reason it took her a long time to ban the_girlfriend. The more people that read the pages at ehealth the more people there are to be exposed to the advertising. I was really pissed when I found out the money making angle of ehealth, because I felt like my intellectual property (my posts) was being used for making someone else money, without my knowledge!

Posts : 213 Join date : 2008-03-09

I didn't know you could make money like that. what if you copyrighted your stuff? Do you blog, right, fs? Could you sue for some kind of money or copyright infringement or something?

Forum drama is so funny and hard to believe what people do. I had someone go after me for a long time. Like a vendeta. they sent nasty mean messages and wouldn't leave me alone. They even took it onto another forum and lied and all kinds of stuff. Why do that? Do they haveno other life? it seemed like they were just out to be hurtful. Sad

Posts : 173 Join date : 2008-07-20

futureshock wrote:

EiriForLife wrote:: I don't want to speak bad of Lee, I have no real reason to aside from the fact that she's banned me. I didn't know she was making money from eHealth...

Yep, that's why she banned me. She thought I was stealing revenue from ehealth by "making my own health forum". Even though this is NOT a "health" forum!

She makes money on post counts, views and numbers of members, which is one reason it took her a long time to ban the_girlfriend. The more people that read the pages at ehealth the more people there are to be exposed to the advertising. I was really pissed when I found out the money making angle of ehealth, because I felt like my intellectual property (my posts) was being used for making someone else money, without my knowledge!

Yeah! I never thought about it that way and I really should have, considering my major and how important copyright law is to me...

Posts : 173 Join date : 2008-07-20

Erulissë wrote:: I didn't know you could make money like that. what if you copyrighted your stuff? Do you blog, right, fs? Could you sue for some kind of money or copyright infringement or something?

Forum drama is so funny and hard to believe what people do. I had someone go after me for a long time. Like a vendeta. they sent nasty mean messages and wouldn't leave me alone. They even took it onto another forum and lied and all kinds of stuff. Why do that? Do they haveno other life? it seemed like they were just out to be hurtful.

Anything you type that is your own idea is automatically copyrighted to you the moment it's published online, because they're your ideas. That's how copyright law works.

Now for all we know eHealth has something in its long legal bullshit that discusses how what you post becomes their property, but somehow I doubt it, since they legally have to claim that no advice given on the board should be interpreted as a doctor's diagnosis.

Posts : 213 Join date : 2008-03-09

does it make any difference if the message board is privately owned or anything like that?

What's your major?

Posts : 618 Join date : 2008-03-09

Actually, it's the fact that my writings are making income for someone else that irks me, not that they are published on ehealth, I'm glad people can read what I've written, because I want to inform the public in any way I can.

So, I don't want to rip down my posts, because it's more important that other people can read them. I just won't make that mistake again, and yes, I do have my own blog now:

Understanding the Motivation of the Right Wing Fundamentalists

Posts : 173 Join date : 2008-07-20

Erulissë wrote:: does it make any difference if the message board is privately owned or anything like that?

What's your major?

No, that doesn't make a difference. The only thing that changes it is if they inadvertently have you sign a waiver for all the things you write.

I'm a graphic design major. We deal a LOT with copyright issues, since people think anything in Google images is theirs to use, and it's not true.

Posts : 213 Join date : 2008-03-09

sorry off topic, lol !

Posts : 173 Join date : 2008-07-20

Lol, no problem. This thread is sort of about me in general so any questions are welcome.

Posts : 213 Join date : 2008-03-09

I read some of proflifeamerica.com today. it looks like hell on the internet right now! lol! "Do babies forgive mothers who aborted them in heaven?!?" WTF? That sounds so hate filled like it's trying to upset people or something. Maybe it's just me?

How can you stand that site when you left ehealth for stupid admin/attacking stuff? i guess if it is a private msg board they can ban you for anything. Doesn't prolifeamerica ban people?

Posts : 213 Join date : 2008-03-09

Hey Tyna D, check out this thread now! It's pretty funny retrospectively, isn't it?

Full.

Of.

Lies.