Good job Gamespot!
Ha. But an annoyed one.
So, Gamespot decided in their ultimate wisdom to ban my account on their site. I can see no reason why they would do that other than my user name, because there is a small group of people out there who are unable to separate "titter" (a nervous, stifled laugh) and "tit" (slang for the female breast). I can only assume that an overaggressive bot grabbed it and an admin approved the banning without thinking, because it's not like I do much on the site other than viewing the reviews, reading some of the forums, and stuff like that. Also gamefaqs and downloading stuff. I even used to have a Gamespot Complete account that I occasionally think about reinstating (it ran out last year). And yet no one ever said anything about it until now.
Now part of me is also a little concerned that maybe someone hacked the account and did something bad with it, but the reasoning why I lost the account was based around "Admin discretion" which makes me think it was the former issue. Which is really somewhat ignorant on their part. I mean every once and a while I get people who are like... "I don't get your name... " and I have to patiently explain to them what a titter is, and how it has nothing to do with sexual organs.
Anyway I wrote them a long note explaining things and being like... WTF, politely. Here it is.
Apparently sometime in the last few days (I believe November 8th), my account was banned for forums and whatnot. I can only imagine it is due to my account name "tittergrrl"? Maybe because it starts with "tit" which an aggressive moderation bot flagged and an admin acted on not understanding that the key word was "titter"... which is defined in the english language as "to laugh in a nervous, affected, or partly suppressed manner." As you can see here: http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/titter .
My name has nothing to do with any sexual organs, if that's what you assumed. Don't believe my story? Check out my profile on MetaFilter (a long-standing, highly respected and lauded weblog) where I describe how I picked the name... which I have been using since before 2002. http://www.metafilter.com/user/14273
It is also a name I have used successfully on numerous social networking sites, gaming blogs, message boards, and even some professional organizations... none of which have had a problem with it. And actually until recently, your own site had no problem with it... like when I registered (and paid for) a Gamespot Complete membership on 6/10/05. I still have the email, and apparently you didn't have a problem with the name then. I'm glad I let it lapse now, I guess... though I had been considering resigning up.
So, I was wondering... what changed between 6/10/05 and 11/7/07? Not that I am a big forums user on your site, but I did use my profile page and the achievements I had on there as an example of a good community-centered site as my employers finish working on our upgraded, user-centric web site. I guess I can now use it as an example of overaggressive, misinformed or negligent moderation! ;)
Of course, if it was due to someone hacking my account and doing nasty things with it I would understand that, but seeing that I never got any e-mails or notification other than within your message center (which one has to log in to see), how would I know that? At the risk of sounding too rude, you may want to revisit your procedures.
I would appreciate it if you would reinstate my account at your earliest convenience and let me know what the issues are/were. If you would like, I would be happy to discuss this matter on the phone. If so, please respond via email with either contact information or I can send you my information.
Thank you very much and I hope we can resolve this issue with the greatest expediency.
Yours,
Katherine Dawson
*my email*
I'll let you know what happens. CAUSE CELEBRE!!
So, Gamespot decided in their ultimate wisdom to ban my account on their site. I can see no reason why they would do that other than my user name, because there is a small group of people out there who are unable to separate "titter" (a nervous, stifled laugh) and "tit" (slang for the female breast). I can only assume that an overaggressive bot grabbed it and an admin approved the banning without thinking, because it's not like I do much on the site other than viewing the reviews, reading some of the forums, and stuff like that. Also gamefaqs and downloading stuff. I even used to have a Gamespot Complete account that I occasionally think about reinstating (it ran out last year). And yet no one ever said anything about it until now.
Now part of me is also a little concerned that maybe someone hacked the account and did something bad with it, but the reasoning why I lost the account was based around "Admin discretion" which makes me think it was the former issue. Which is really somewhat ignorant on their part. I mean every once and a while I get people who are like... "I don't get your name... " and I have to patiently explain to them what a titter is, and how it has nothing to do with sexual organs.
Anyway I wrote them a long note explaining things and being like... WTF, politely. Here it is.
Apparently sometime in the last few days (I believe November 8th), my account was banned for forums and whatnot. I can only imagine it is due to my account name "tittergrrl"? Maybe because it starts with "tit" which an aggressive moderation bot flagged and an admin acted on not understanding that the key word was "titter"... which is defined in the english language as "to laugh in a nervous, affected, or partly suppressed manner." As you can see here: http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/titter .
My name has nothing to do with any sexual organs, if that's what you assumed. Don't believe my story? Check out my profile on MetaFilter (a long-standing, highly respected and lauded weblog) where I describe how I picked the name... which I have been using since before 2002. http://www.metafilter.com/user/14273
It is also a name I have used successfully on numerous social networking sites, gaming blogs, message boards, and even some professional organizations... none of which have had a problem with it. And actually until recently, your own site had no problem with it... like when I registered (and paid for) a Gamespot Complete membership on 6/10/05. I still have the email, and apparently you didn't have a problem with the name then. I'm glad I let it lapse now, I guess... though I had been considering resigning up.
So, I was wondering... what changed between 6/10/05 and 11/7/07? Not that I am a big forums user on your site, but I did use my profile page and the achievements I had on there as an example of a good community-centered site as my employers finish working on our upgraded, user-centric web site. I guess I can now use it as an example of overaggressive, misinformed or negligent moderation! ;)
Of course, if it was due to someone hacking my account and doing nasty things with it I would understand that, but seeing that I never got any e-mails or notification other than within your message center (which one has to log in to see), how would I know that? At the risk of sounding too rude, you may want to revisit your procedures.
I would appreciate it if you would reinstate my account at your earliest convenience and let me know what the issues are/were. If you would like, I would be happy to discuss this matter on the phone. If so, please respond via email with either contact information or I can send you my information.
Thank you very much and I hope we can resolve this issue with the greatest expediency.
Yours,
Katherine Dawson
*my email*
I'll let you know what happens. CAUSE CELEBRE!!