Forum Bans

[AwesomeDave]

Hey everyone,

I haven't been on the site in quite a while, probably between 6 months to a year, IIRC. Upon my return, I've noticed a LOT of people being banned on forums for posts that really don't seem like they deserve a ban. I won't get into any specifics, I'm just wondering if something changed during that time? Did the forums get out of hand and require heavy justice? Did rules change and people just couldn't adapt? Was it just coincidence that the forum posts I read just all happened to have banned people in them?

I honestly believe that forums should be a bastion of discussion, and silencing people for any reasons other than endangerment/harassment of others is the most effective way of destroying discussion, and by association, progress.

 

[Saelune]

GamerGate happened and there's bias on when something counts as bad and when not.

I really think that offences should be ignored after a set amount of time (like a couple of years) since for people like me, who lash out for people acting badly repetitively we are on a countdown to banning. The system also fails, passive aggressive tones are pretty much the norm now in charged conversation and echo chambers are the standard (search for a thread NOT involving Trump in R&P) since a lot of people with "different world views" already got banned or ran off (not that there aren't some great people who are actually fun to converse with but they are the minority).

Infractions do eventually go away after a time. I dont know if you have to stay good or if each warning has a time limit, but it is not a short period of time.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

To be fair, if you're building up a rap-sheet like all of us cool kids a simple warning leads to a ban. And a lot of people get stressed and just lash out. Some dude went all agro on me when I said I thought Trump hated everyone equally, and they interpreted that to mean that I didn't feel threatened, therefore no one else should.

Oh it was this whole drama, with a giant scorpion, and Nazi werewolves and well even Gabby Hayse was heavily involved. Its just the way of things now.

 

[Queen Michael]

It's not that they get banned for a small thing. It's that they get banned for a lot of things. It adds up.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Well the rule and guideline did get changes ages ago. Even then, it isn't cos they got banned for one petit comment, it's more of their past infrigment that got build overtime. There's no way in hell you get 3/10 strikes in one day unless you are a spambot. I mean how hard is it to NOT build up that many warmings in a short time or rather not taking the hint that you should behave yourself or think more before you typed?

 

[IceForce]

Well, I've said it a million times before, but I think I'll say it a million-and-one times;

Consistency is all over the place.

In the past, there have been some fairly strict moderators (Sky, Topaz, etc, spring to mind), but then they left and the moderation went really lax for a while. Then a bunch of moderators from the defunct GameFront forum came here and started moderating, and they were extremely strict, - "mod voices" all over the place, and infractions issued for merely responding to a mod who themselves were responding to someone. It was the most iron-fisted shit you ever did see.
Then they all left, and a small number of new moderators were appointed, and things have relaxed up a bit again.

So yeah, if you see any bans in old threads that look a bit sus, they were probably issued during a time when the moderators were being excessively strict.

Moderation consistency has been a problem here for a while, but the problem is made infinitely worse by the high turnover of moderators this site sees.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

I've also mostly been absent. Last period I was here on a regular basis had constant bannings but I think that was due to Dynast Brass and his unstoppable avalanche of alt-accounts.

 

[sky14kemea]

In the past, there have been some fairly strict moderators (Sky, Topaz, etc, spring to mind), but then they left and the moderation went really lax for a while.

I was strict?

If I seemed strict it was because I was the only Mod actually addressing people publicly at that time. Practically ran this place by myself for a few months.

Spoiler

You are right though. Consistency was wavy at the best of times.