Shahid,

All discussion boards (forums) must protect themselves and the other people who respect the rules of the boards. Each of the boards has its own method. You must know that it is not possible to "hide" your identity from the board owners even by using proxies (and changing your "screen name" and registering again will not work). The moderators will set sanctions against signing-on to a board if a user has previously abused the rules of the board. Some board owners and/or moderators will kindly send an email of warning to someone who has violated the board rules because it may have been a mistake that was made due to naivety (you get one chance to change your ways). Other boards will not give you the benefit of the doubt and they will ban you for your first mistake as you are creating work for them that they do not need.

We come together at the engineering discussion boards as a community of equals. We should always try to behave as ladies and gentlemen and respect each other regardless of our perception of the skills or knowledge of others. That is the spirit of the engineering discussion forums - share ideas while respecting our fellows. There is an assumed level of what we term "netiquette" (http://www.albion.com//) that should be displayed when we participate in discussion forums. There are some implicit rules beyond simply being respectful. For example asking questions that have been asked many times before will likely arouse the ire of the "regulars" at any discussion board (ALWAYS use the search function to read previous "threads" that pertain to the topic at issue - that is a function of "netiquette"). AND ALWAYS read and observe the rules of the forum that are provided at the top of the Caesar II discussion board.

Regarding Eng-Tips, perhaps someone offended the rules while using your computer? I think Eng-Tips management will usually send a "warning" email to notify a user of some unintended breach of the rules there. If there are repeated rules violations or one violation that is particularly egregious the offender will be banned. From what you describe, it sounds as though something has happened to cause you (your identity) to be banned. You can contact Eng-Tips management through the "contact us" tab at the top of that page.

Regards, John