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Anonymous on

Yes, I have encountered this also. The company uses active users as moderators for the majority of flags (at least it seems so).

Some of the regular users, moderators, and staff are extremely petty and often ban people for personal reasons, all while pretending to be fair and objective. There is a small segment of people on the site that have a disproprionate amount of power. They are narcissitic pricks and like to fling their power around in such a way as to always make everything work out in their own favor.

My advice: Never even talk to the regulars or the moderators or the staff if at all possible. Never flag anything at all, even if it is genuine. They have frequently banned people purely for having a worldview that differs with their own. For example (and I'm saying this as a liberal), I have seen them ban people who have asserted even the slightest sign of conservative opinion on certain sensitive topics. I don't agree with those opinions personally, but it is very unethical to run the site like a dictatorship where only their opinion and worldview is given fair treatment and everyone else is banned at the slightest faint breeze. They even boycotted Firefox once purely because the CEO of firefox had views that they didn't agree with (which I also don't agree with, but that is irrelevant).

The only safe way to use the site is to lay low. Sacrastic humor in messages are often reported and can accumulate until you are banned. It is a rather oppressive environment in terms of how they operate. Both OKCupid and POF are like that unfortunately.

Anyway, good luck. I know how you feel. I've been on the recieving side of their incredible hubris and pettiness too and have also been hit with a completely unethical ban for purely disagreeing with them and flagging something in an ambiguous case.