Permanently banned from a hiking meetup group over one trail photo

I posted a shot of a scenic overlook in a local hiking Facebook group three weeks ago, and the admin claimed it was 'location leaking' because I tagged the trail name. They deleted my comment and then banned me without a warning, even though the group's own rules never said anything about hiding spots. Has anyone else gotten the boot from an outdoors community for something that seemed totally harmless to you?

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1 Comment

felix15520d ago

Whoa, hold on. You really tagged the trail name? That's kind of a big deal in a lot of these groups, even if the rules don't spell it out. The whole point of a hidden overlook is that it stays hidden. Once you slap a name on it, you get a flood of people who don't care about the spot, they just want the photo. They trample the area, leave trash, and then the land gets closed off for everyone. The admin probably sees you as the reason they have to deal with a hundred "where is this" messages and a bunch of angry longtime members. Three weeks is a long time to have that up there too, so it's not like you made a quick oops. Being banned without a warning is harsh, but I get why they snapped. You might have just ruined the one thing that kept the group special.