Lawl @ [H]

[Sr7]

Disclaimer: This is purely my experience, and obviously this isn't meant as an XS vs. [H] forum war thing.

I was a regular on the [H]ardforums for about the past year. They were my main source of tech news and reviews. I'd help people with problems, and contribute to the general knowledge there.

Then I noticed that around the time of their 3870x2 review, there were a lot more people showing up as "Banned" in the threads I'd read. "No matter" I thought, they must've done something wrong. More and more criticism poured onto Kyle, and he would ban more and more people. I defended his x2 review and previous reviews initially, until he started to be so stubborn and hardheaded that he was unwilling to run some simple tests or double check his numbers to confirm they were accurate.

I didn't want to be blindly defending the laughing stock of the review world, so I asked some simple questions and hoped Kyle could swoop in and answer them. Instead, they were ignored, and eventually the thread for his review feedback was locked.

Then, about a week ago, I posted in the forums, saying that some user in the thread was "clueless" on a particular topic, in a forum thread. Kyle banned us both for verbal abuse for ... get this... a WEEK. Yes, I contributed to the community for a year, then arbitrarily get banned for a week for calling someone clueless. Talk about censorship. So, upon my return, I kindly PM'd him to let him know that I didn't appreciate that kind of treatment, and I would appreciate if he could admit he over-reacted by banning me for a week. Maybe even apologize in pm:

I'd appreciate it if you would admit this was overkill and could apologize for overreacting... cmon man..

His response:

If you are not satisfied with the way we operate our forums that are supplied free of charge to you, please do not frequent them.

My response:

Wow, free forums? I can't get that anywhere else Kyle!

Ya, you're a pretty poor reviewer/site admin. All the time I've wasted on your forums trying to educate and correct your largely (though not completely) clueless community has been a waste.

And you're just a ing . You can feel free to ban me, I won't waste my time on your site or forums anymore. Sites like xtremesystems have better content and news, and the community is actually knowledgeable there.

Now I know why you have such a poor community.. you ban the regulars who know their , and you're left with people new to computers and console kiddies. Enjoy continuing to be the site that everyone laughs at.

This immature behavior, combined with poor review style and a largely uneducated community led me to swear off his bull and look for better sites (like XS).

I'm curious, has anyone else had this kind of experience with their site? It's really a sad thing.