Pollyellon banned me

[Kerm]

from   Chuck Dickens
to   al@bleedcubbieblue.com
date   Fri, Aug 15, 2008 at 6:31 PM
subject   Banned?
mailed-by   gmail.com

Hello guy,

I was wondering what I did to receive the banhammer treatment at BleedCubbie[sic]Blue dot com. I believe the last time I posted on your site Dusty Baker was still pulling the strings and Prior was still whipping towels.

Nevertheless, I tried to log in the other week and it asked me to authenticate my account; I followed the directions and everything appeared to be honky dorey, but when I logged in today, I discovered that I had been "banned from commenting" on BleedCubbie[sic]Blue dot com. This is obviously a mistake on your part, so just shoot me an email when you've restored my account. My username was "ChuckDickens".


Thanks in advance,
C-----------

This aggression will not stand!

The "[sic]"s are awesome.

[Wheezer]

Still unbanned, but I have multiple IP addresses

As does nearly everyone with a consumer-grade connection.  Do these magical auto-bannings survive a refreshing of DHCP lease?

[Thrillho]

Still unbanned, but I have multiple IP addresses

As does nearly everyone with a consumer-grade connection.  Do these magical auto-bannings survive a refreshing of DHCP lease?

We'll find out soon enough, now, won't we?

[powen01]

Anybody tried proxy servers?

[Wheezer]

Anybody tried proxy servers?

This just brings me right back to "Montenegro."

[powen01]

Anybody tried proxy servers?

This just brings me right back to "Montenegro."

Previous post = Kurt Evans photoshop

Please explain.

[Wheezer]

Previous post = Kurt Evans photoshop

Please explain.

For goodness' sake, explain what?

[5laky]

Previous post = Kurt Evans photoshop

Please explain.

For goodness' sake, explain what?

Netflix? Meet, Zardoz.

(Side note, that was JD's avatar for awhile. Sean Connery in the red bullet underwear.)

Off to Vegas!

[Thrillho]

Previous post = Kurt Evans photoshop

Please explain.

For goodness' sake, explain what?

Netflix? Meet, Zardoz.

(Side note, that was JD's avatar for awhile. Sean Connery in the red bullet underwear.)

Off to Vegas!

Marriage has changed you, man.

It's like you're not even around anymore.

[Three times a JD]

Previous post = Kurt Evans photoshop

Please explain.

For goodness' sake, explain what?

Netflix? Meet, Zardoz.

(Side note, that was JD's avatar for awhile. Sean Connery in the red bullet underwear.)

Off to Vegas!

You don't have to remind me.  I was just pondering a change back.  That trailer was fairly amazing.

[Al Yellon]

Well, I received no reply from Al, so I took the issue to his superior.

Hello Mr. Borowsky,

I'm writing you in regards to your capacity as the Manager of MLB Blogs for SB Nation. This is the only email address I could find for you; I apologize if it's meant solely for your activites in regards to VivaElBirdos. The reason for my email arises from an apparent miscommunication between myself and BleedCubbieBlue (BCB) and Al Yellon as well as a subsequent lack of communication on his behalf.

I signed up for a BCB membership about two years ago and made three posts in regards to a thread about the Jason Grimsley controversy. As a Cub fan and a lurker at BCB, I felt that some work I had done to uncover one of the names in the affidavit might be relevant to the discussion at hand. Mr Yellon disagreed with my methods and findings rather disrespectfully. With a poor taste in my mouth, I thus ended my career as a BCB commenter and decided to go back to periodic reading and lurking.

In the meantime, I became a member of Desipio (another Cubs-oriented website). This is relevant because a feud between Mr. Yellon and Andy Dolan (the owner/operator of Desipio) appears to be central to my banning. I've heard from numerous other Desipio members that they have also been banned with little (if any) provocation or warning.

A few weeks ago, I was prompted to authenticate my SBNation account while browsing around BCB. Normally, I'm not even logged in to my SBNation account, but I was using an old computer that had saved my login and password from this time. In any event, I complied with this step, authenticated my account, and went along my way thinking nothing of it.

About a week later, I returned to BCB while using the same computer and was greeted with a popup window that said I had been banned from commenting on BCB. In addition to being banned, Mr. Yellon deleted my comments from the Grimsley thread. They have however been preserved for posterity by Yahoo!'s cache. That cached version of the thread is available by clicking here. As you can see from my SBNation profile, the only three comments that I posted on BCB are in that thread.

Rather unimpressed by my overall experience with BCB, I fired off an admittedly sarcastic email to Mr. Yellon. In my defense, I believe I showed him as much respect in that email as he showed me during the entirety of my BCB activity. The text of that email is pasted below for posterity. I have been unable to receive a reply in any sort from Mr. Yellon to my email. As such, I am going to the next person up on the food chain--you.

I won't lie to you, Mr. Borowsky: being banned from BCB is not a major predicament for me. I only go to BCB on rare instances and obviously don't comment after seeing the behavior of Mr. Yellon. However, I wouldn't mind, in the very least, an explanation for Mr. Yellon's conduct. Specifically, I would like responses for these questions:

    * Do all of your SBNation blog editors greet new (and well-intentioned) commenters in such a dismissive and disrespectful fashion, only to subsequently remove any trace of this treatment after two years?
    * What have I done to warrant this treatment from Mr. Yellon? How did I violate his "community guidelines" which state in plain English that "Consistent with its baseball roots, when it comes to violations of the Community Guidelines, BCB works on a version of 3 strikes and you're out." Were each of my three comments thus considered to be "strikes"?
    * Is this the regular procedure for banning people from SBNation blogs? Are members not given any warning before being banned?
    * Is my banning the result of me being a member at Desipio? If so, is such petty retribution commonplace at all of SBNation's blogs?


I appreciate you taking the time to consider my complaints and look forward to hearing back from you.

Sincerely,
ChuckD

[Eli]

SBNation might be interested that Al is driving away traffic by banning people, since I'm sure SBNation relies on site visitors and ad clicks for revenue.

[Kerm]

1.  That e-mail is awesome.
2.  Every time I remember your name is not "Chuck," I'm surprised all over again.

[Quality Start Machine]

Doesn't Yellon own a piece of SBNation?

Any copyright lawyers here? Can we copyright the phrase "Bleed Cubbie Blue" (it's not in TESS) then hit Al with an injunction?

[Kerm]

Doesn't Yellon own a piece of SBNation?

Any copyright lawyers here? Can we copyright the phrase "Bleed Cubbie Blue" (it's not in TESS) then hit Al with an injunction?

Nah, you can't do it retroactively.  And it'd be a trademark, rather than a copyright, but it still wouldn't work.  Of course, it's been a long time since I took trademarks and copyrights.  Anyone know differently?