My account was mistakenly banned by one of your admins for "spamming". I am convinced this is a mistake since I've posted maybe 2-300 times in the past 15 years.

My account name is TheKingAce. I apologize for making a new account, but I couldn't find how to appeal the ban or contact the moderator to have him/her to fix his/her mistake.

As far as I can see, TheKingAce had posted only 108 times, the last post in Oct 2021, until you made your "Hi everyone, this is your classic “join my private poker club” post, but that is hopefully more worthy of your time and trust" in Jan 2023, the spam for which you were banned.

Obviously, your old account causes you no loss, and you are welcome to continue with your new account, as long as you don't spam again with it.

The "What to do if you've been banned ***DON'T post about it in this forum" sticky is two threads above this one, at this time.

This kind of thing really pisses me off. What you've posted here makes it pretty clear that you know exactly why you've been banned - the infrequency of your posts makes it pretty easy for you to figure out what happened. You hadn't posted in over 2 years, you come in and make just one post that is doing nothing other than advertise your poker club, get banned for spamming, and all you have to say is that you're "convinced this is a mistake"? Seriously?? You could have at least owned up to your post and said you "didn't know that was spam" or something.

When I say "mistake", I don't mean that it was accidental. I mean that the moderator had a lapse in judgement and I am giving him/her the opportunity to make amends for him/herself.

My post was innocuous and if it broke any rules, a simple "hey brother, we don't allow these kind of posts here" would have accomplished everything this moderator wished to accomplish but with more tact.

My account was banned forever with the only mention "spam". There is no definition of spam that encompasses my posting history, so this was clearly just a "road rage" kind of moment.

I get that this is the internet so everyone's first reflex is to jump on the pitchforks, but I don't think it was an appropriate response.

Again, I apologize for my post. It was an honest mistake and I would appreciate it if I could either get my account back or a reduced punishment that is not disproportionate in comparison to the offense.

Oh. How kind of you.

And I'm aware what you meant by mistake, and have implied nothing different.

There was nothing innocuous about it - it was blatant spam. And when someone shows up for the first time in a couple of years just to spam, a ban is fairly standard.

There is a definition of spam that encompasses your only post in the last two years.

Jumping on pitchforks can be painful, so that's never a good response. But the ban certainly was.

There is no "again" here. This is the first apology you made for your post, and it would've been wise to lead with that in your first post. And failing that, it would've been smart to start with it in this post, rather than first suggesting "the moderator had a lapse in judgement", "I am giving him/her the opportunity to make amends for him/herself", that the moderator could've accomplished the same thing "with more tact", and that "this was clearly just a 'road rage' kind of moment". Even after your apology, you request a "reduced punishment that is not disproportionate in comparison to the offense". Really, it sounds like you're just apologizing because you think that might help you get your account back, not because you believe you did anything wrong. You hadn't posted for a couple of years and didn't have many posts, it seems like it would be simple enough to move on with this account, so it sounds to me more like you have some other interest in getting your old account back, like perhaps access to PMs from your spam post. Hopefully I'm wrong about that, but I'm not the guy you need to convince - Mike Haven is the one to decide on that, as he banned you. I don't know that he'll be willing to reconsider, but I'd suggest taking a different approach if you hope to have a chance.