Well, what can one say? This is my first topic written in english for my blog site. Starting this topic is not easy, not even for me. Since 1985, i have been a dedicated fan, user and supporter of the Amiga platform, and that just as an allround-user, not as a programmer or a developer, because i was never into developing or programming. My talents lay in photographing, writing and some music creation. Again as an allround-user. There are many ways to support the Amiga. While many may have a great talent for porting applications and games, others might have talents in producing technical support of some sort, others again are like me, an allround-user with talents into writing, photographing, some music creation, and again others might be very good with graphic work, hacking and everything related to the net. There are many different areas and no limitation in how you support the Amiga. This is where we are getting into the point of this topic, so keep reading and you might easiler understand what i am trying to tell all of you..
My first dedication for support in an Amiga-forum was of course AmigaWorld.net. It all went well the first 2 years. If i remember correctly, i signed into AmigaWorld.net sometime in 2007 under the nickname Helgis, but apperared to be banned from the site because i became too "personally involved" in some heavy-weighted Amiga topics. It's surprising to see that
when the TOS (Terms Of Service) is supposed to be followed by ANY members of a forum, including the moderators, a moderator can easily "bend" the TOS at his/her own advance. Say if a moderator simply doesn't like a member and feels that member is becoming a "pain in the arse", no matter how right or wrong that member is, and no matter how neutral and polite that member is, the moderator can simply choose to suspend or ban that member, including removing any "traces" of what that member wrote, which led to a suspension or a ban.
The last one especially happened to me in Amigans.net few weeks ago, but more on that later..
It's important to understand that i'm not trying to point out the responsible persons for my ban or suspension. This is a neutral topic where we all can learn something important, avoiding the same mistakes over and over again. We are all humans being different to each other, with different talents and qualifications. As true humans, we live in the same planet, same world and the same society but many forget what true humanity is. To learn to respect each other and that we are different from each other with different backgrounds, knowledge and experiences. We are invidual talents, and no perfection. When we all learn to accept this truth and reality, life will automatically become better for all of us, and we can live in harmony, showing what true humanity is all about. To not do so would mean a certain death for humanity, like it or not..
As to my ban from AmigaWorld.net already in 2007, most of it was my own fault as i gave in to a lot of anger and frustration, which again led to personal attack to the persons responsible for my ban. While there is surely a good reason to become personal at some points, it wasn't suitable to show that kind of personality officially in the Amiga forum, so i was banned almost a year later after my first sign-up in 2007. A moderator claimed i changed profile in AmigaWorld 7 times. That not true, but it's 3 times. 2 of the times because i didn't like the nick Helgis and Blacksnake is also another nick i believed i used for AmigaWorld.net. The last one became HKvalhe, which is true to my whole name, and must admit i was given a "second chance". A true second chance. Things actually went better, but too many of the members and the moderators didn't like my "controversial behaviour" and the personal insight i had in my love, interest, belief and support of the Amiga. Again, as close to the end of 2009, i was permanently banned from AmigaWorld.net and not allowed to get back. It's not even possible for myself to delete my account and all information stored about me in AmigaWorld.net. Isn't that a violation to the right for privacy and protection against leaked information on the net? I would think so..
AmigaWorld.net is not the only Amiga-forum i am banned from. For jus few weeks ago, i was suspended from typing anything into the Amigans.net. It's clear that this kind of suspension is not valid, as i was suspended because the responsible moderator never personally liked my way of saying things related to the Amiga, and that i tried to share "wisdom". A wisdom we all can have advance of, and to learn from, even myself. So the question is: At what term was i suspended?
Well, there was that disturbing announcement made from Amiga Inc that Commodore USA were given permission to use the Amiga brand for their x86-based PCs to be called Amiga, installed with the Open Source AROS. AROS stands for Amiga Research Operating System, and was built from AmigaOS 3.1 from scratch. The mistake i did was to say that AROS steemed from "open source codes of AmigaOS 3.1", which of course is not right. When i tried to correct my comment in that topic in Amigans.net, i was somehow "attacked" by the responsible moderator not because of me being wrong about AROS at the first point, and not because i in fact was polite and neutral, but the moderator chose to make it into a personal "vendetta", ultimately giving me a suspension, probably permanently or to an unknown time, and in addition he removed any "traces" of my mistakes in the forum. Surprisingly, my profile can't be deleted by myself there and not even any information about me stored on that site, which is suspicious..
I don't know what will happen with me being a member in these forums, and if i ever will get a chance to come back. I don't personally think it's possible, but there are better ways to support the Amiga. I can always dedicate myself to YouTube-videos talking about the Amiga and anything related to the Amiga. The advance of video blogging is that it gives a much deeper, clearer and better picture of how dedicated one is to the Amiga platform, and it's probably also easier to learn the truth as you get the whole visual thing. To only read what one is writing, doesn't always give the right picture. At that point, one has to read between the lines, which can be difficult and confusing. That's why video usually is so much better, because of the visuality..
Getting to the end of this topic, i would like to say if you are still lucky to be a member of an Amiga site, remain careful, polite and as neutral as possible, no matter how enthusiastic and dedicated you are to the Amiga platform. Becoming too enthusiastic in forums might not always be a good thing. Just look what happened to me and others who fell in the same trap as i. Our enthusiasm, love and belief in the Amiga were used against us with moderators choosing to "bend" the TOS at their own advance, removing traces and getting ride of members they don't like or value as a "personal" threat to them. That's very sad, really, but also a clear fact. That's why it's so damn important to understand what true humanity is. To respect each other and the fact that we are different from each other. We are invidual talents with no perfection, but always trying to do our best in life, until the time has come for us to die, and that cycle restarts again..
I think it's all for now, and there will be new stuffs to write in a forseable future. Stay tuned..
Written by
Helge Kvalheim, Norway
