How to lose your bling / How to get banned

So you're happily collecting your GuG badges or enjoying your Premium Member status and suddenly it's all gone or you find yourself blocked or banned? Before you go posting all over the site that you're innocent or you've been framed, read this post:

Most badges (bling) are a sign of respect, honesty knowledge, etc. As silly as those little things are, they are the only thing that most members can use to decide how much credibility another member has. Because our site is "for beginners" it is important to know who can be trusted to give good, useful help or information.

Trusted member status and access to the trusted-member areas are a privilege - If at any time a member should become less-trustworthy, we may decide not to allow them into these areas any longer.

Here is a partial list of things that will get you DEblinged, red-badged, loss of access to trusted areas or banned from the site completely:

• Deliberately or repeatedly posting incorrect or inaccurate information
• Registering with multiple accounts
• Re-registering with a new name after being banned
• Accessing the site from a proxy or using any method to attempt to hide your true identity
• Trolling or bashing other members
• Posting or embedding any "trackers", or any other form of tracking system or method to collect information without the knowledge of whom it is being collected from.  
• Solicitation of services in any form or "spamming"
• Arguing with, harassing, or baiting the moderators (who give their valuable time freely to help us out)

Those are just an example of why a member might get de-blinged, kicked from the trusted areas, or banned completely - there's lots of other reasons, but you probably get the idea. Rest assured that before anyone gets de-blinged or red-badged we make absolutely certain that there is good reason for it.