Creative Cow banned me for linking to your book

I've been posting at CCOW for a couple of years now and they have a new "secret policy" I guess that if you post links to outside sites instead of posting a link to their own internal forums to answer a question they ban you. Even if the information isn't in their archives and can only be found offsite. I answered a post on the COW about using AE for mastering due to 16bit by saying that there was a whole chapter on it in your book and they should pick it up. Next thing I know I can't connect to their site for a week and then when I can and post it says my account is invalid.

I thought it was an isolated incident but I noticed a blog with links of the sites they are banning people for linking and other people having the same thing happen to them.
http://generalspecialist.com/2007/06/censorship-at-creativecownet.asp
I noticed the same fake service is down error when I tried posting links to here and dvxuser.com but if I took the url out I could post it. You don't seem to be on the list on this guys blog, but I think www.rebelsguide.com has been added to their list of verboten sites to link to.

I thought the internet was for sharing information and creating open communities and not creating closed ones. [/url]

http://bscenefilms.blogspot.com/2007/06/creative-cow-censorship.html

http://bscenefilms.blogspot.com/2007/06/cow-responds.html

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Pontificatious Ramblings

Tim Wilson's reply didn't actually address the issue. He just mentions some spammer accounts and what not and then says he's happy to post anyone's tutorial for a reciprocal link. It doesn't address the issue of deleting accounts of cow users who are 3rd parties linking to tutorials or other tutorial sites, or to other sites that contain the answer to posted questions.

With the tremendouis amout of spamming going on, it's probably an automated response until they check it out.
I wouldn't take it personally.

Cow is looking out for its ads($).
They really dont care about (you or) the truth or what is said.

They have a right to protect their business interests.
Fighting unwanted spam is one of them.
Saying they don't care is simply not true.
They have some great online tutorials for AE, both beginner and advanced, and at no cost.
I'm sure if you email them and discuss it they would be reasonable.

They do have some controversial policies regarding their moderators though.

If you feel strongly about it, there are other forums over at dmnforums.net with an active
AE community. That is if you can get over the fact that half your screen is taken up with adds.
I rarely go over there because of that. (Not against ads, just over use of them).

I also prefer the bbs interface bs the html/tree view one.