Hi Shane,
I wasn't banned. I respectfully resigned. I spent many tens of thousands of USD there. I still have goods in transit. Generally speaking as I write this, they were smooth transactions to the penny! When you tender your membership resignation, you get banned for life & forfeit your dues. Some unwritten forum rule apparently, & is the owner's prerogative when all is said.
I resigned because of moderation reasons including being moderated without notification, having some of my posts edited without notification, told not to post on certain threads as well as not to post about certain topics. Of course the underlying reasons for my opinions being targeted were that of commerciality & sponsorship weight. Some of my opinions may have been incompatible with the forum's marketing machine. As a customer, I was offended & those frustrations began to reflect a little in my posts which is out of character for me. Not my business to argue how he chooses to run his forum, so, I thought it best to remove myself from that rather than burn his manicured lawn. Upon PMing my resignation without prejudice, I was swiftly banned.
There are quite a few plays going on there including alleged incentivised posting activities by a minority group of membership. In my view, it is no longer the Friendly Forum.
Hopefully, I can answer your questions here!
Cheers
Steve