Like it or not, this website is a commercial operation.
That is the whole point and you need look no further for your answers as to why eddieo and Indalo were banned.
I have been following this forum for years and I am aware of eddieo, Indalo, their history and the nature of the contributions which they have made. eddieo always came across as a straightforward sort of person with strong opinions. Unfortunately for eddieo, some of these opinions were not in the best interests of the organisations who pay for a presence on the forum. Rather than entering into a debate, these organisations have sought the removal of the source of criticism from the forum. And this has been met with some success, particularly in the case of eddieo.
Contrast the above behaviour of a private individual, banned for publicly criticising a commercial product, with the behaviour of an commercial individual who pays for a presence on the forum. The, "paid for" commercial individual poses as a private member by opening a second user account with the intention of deceiving the membership. They then post, under the guise of a member of the public, comments which are favourable to the products which they sell. Not only that, they publicly attack rival products and traders.
So, we have two sets of behaviour, eddieo, a punter with no commercial interests. He is simply vocal about his thoughts as an end user of ebikes. Then we have Mr £ of Brand X. He pays to be here. But Mr £ also has a dual identity, he also pretends to be just like us, a punter. Under the cover of this dual identity, which is calculated to deceive, Mr £ then tells us just how wonderful the bikes sold by Brand X are and how inferior rival machines can be. Not content, Mr £ then levels some pretty nasty and damaging accusations at his commercial rivals.
Who receives the ban here? eddieo for candidly voicing his opinions, or Mr £ for voicing his equally strong opinions, but in a most deceitful and untruthful way? Well we all know the answer.
The forum administrators usually end up locking or removing content whilst simultaneously vomiting the usual hollow words regarding an investigation, but this is simply a stalling tactic to allow the matter to blow over. It does indeed seem to be the case that if the price is right, our morals can be parked for the good of goddess coin.