I know people regularly complain about things like this, but I wanted to share my experience too, in hope that someone can give me advice, or so I can bring more attention to the problem.
A couple weeks ago I started downloading an audio book from a user. Shortly after starting, I get banned. I noticed my portable hard drive which has my shared files is not plugged in, and assuusername,lack of shared files was the problem, I messaged the user apologizing and asking to be unbanned. I got no response, but a while later the download resumes.
But as I continue to DL, I get banned again. I check my uploads configs and everything looks good. I message asking why. no reply. So I reconnect as a different username and continue downloading. He bans me again, and we rinse and repeat many times.
I understand that my behavior here is not necessarily the right choice, but I had tried to communicate, and in my mind, he had no reason to do this. And no matter how much he bans me, my progress bars fill up - albeit very slowly! They are one of very few users I have found to have the files I want.
They finally message me "fuck off", to which I responded that I would if they gave me a reason. No response, so back to the cycle of bans and reconnecting.
I decide to try an experiment: I waited a few days, reconnected under a completely new username, using a proxy IP, and start downloading something completely unrelated. They have no way to know it's me, right? And after a minute or so, I'm banned.
So what gives? This person says they're sharing files, but bans anyone downloading from them. I get the impression they're just trying to make it seem like they're sharing, so they can download what ever they want, taking but not giving. They could just unshare files or something, but they just ban, so they don't look bad having nothing shared.
Anyway, stupid situation. Needed to gripe.