I had a very bad experience with Academia.edu which insulted my personality, violated my human rights, and harmed my reputation.I logged in my account last Sunday to reply to a message I received from a member. Then, I realized that I had difficulties to log in. After some attempts and using my social media login, I saw a message on my dashboard that my account was frozen because it had been flagged as suspicious.It looked very odd but I followed the instructions and submitted all required information.Unfortunately, it was Sunday and obviously, a manual review could not be done quickly,Next, I tried to see my profile-website because I was and I had paid a premium subscription and I saw that I was unable to download even my own documents.My problem with this situation is as follows:1. In democracies, we are all innocents until someone or an authority proves that we guilty. They froze my account without giving any explanation and without giving me the opportunity to support myself. They just adopted a flag and froze my account until I prove my innocence!2. Freezing my account, I had no access to my document and my high rating was not visible.3. A flagged account as suspicious harmed my personality and my reputation as well as my human rights.4. Once they examine or believe that I my account is suspicious, why do they accept my money for the premium subscription?I wrote all of the above to Academia.edu but I have not received a response yet. Actually, I was so sorry for this development and the fact that they like my money but they are not sure about my credibility, and I decided to delete my account on Sunday night or Monday. I left a message with the above also.The account deleted but no response yet.They do not care!And one more thing: I respect their policy and I support all measures aiming at securing reliability and safety. But their policy is just ridiculous. Why? Anyone can flag an account as suspicious. Imagine a member to flag the half accounts. Then, the half academia.edu will be frozen (?)I think that this not an intelligent, secure, efficient and proactive policy.It is rather an anti-democratic practice that shows the lack of modern security systems and policies.Also, I wrote to Academia.edu that I have provided all required information for their check and the fact that I am an MBA student and a research manager in London and Zurich.Note that I was in the top 0.5% of the researchers at academia.edu.Lastly, another sign of their culture is that there is not an obvious link (menu) to contact them. I believe that it is the minimum for transparency and credibility of a website. Instead, they have a support menu. You have to enter a question such as "contact". Then you receive some answers and one links to a page where you can send a message.If I am not blind, a contact form or link is not visible on their website.I will send a link to this review and wonder if they pay any attention.Thanks to Trustpilot, we can share our experiences and protect other customers.If I am wrong, I am more than willing to accept my mistake and publicly apology.ThanksLeonidas StergiouPSAlso, read this from ForbesJAN 23, 2017Title: Dear Scholars, Delete Your Account At Academia.Edu (google it)
