Poll: Do you fear the ban hammer?

[l3o2828]

I guess i do fear moderator wrath since none of them ever learned how to control anger for anything harsher than someone accidentaly sneezing on them-

 

[Nouw]

I've had three terrifying dreams where I received a probation, a suspension and another suspension respectively. Needless to say, it's an irrational fear. 4 years now, and I've only received one warning for making a stupid "this" post.

 

[babinro]

Never.

I make a habit to act the same way online as I do offline. I'd like to think I treat people with some respect even when I'm disagreeing with them of having a bit of fun. As such, I've never been warned or suspended from any forum I've frequented.

It actually seems hard to get a warning on this site low content posts aside.

 

[joshuaayt]

I post elsewhere, and I do not fear the mods here- check out my health bar, it's spotless.

Escapist has pretty simple rules, and I follow them- Attack arguments instead of people. No low content posts. No advocating highly illegal activity- these are all fair enough. More to the point, I posted with these rules before I even knew about Escapist, because they're just common sense. I've been banned on other forums before, for swearing- which we can do here. Fucking A!

You don't HAVE to insult someone you disagree with, and that seems to be the major cause of warnings here.

 

[Kotaro]

On both the other forums I frequent and the Escapist, no, I'm not afraid of being banned. Most mods are pretty fair, and if I don't break the rules, I think I'm pretty safe from their wrath.

 

[Macgyvercas]

Not really. To be honest, I don't post here nearly as often as I used to due to RL commitments and stuff. And in truth, all you really need to do to avoid the Hammer of Ban is follow the rules and don't be a dick.

 

[Basement Cat]

1-That they are inconsistent across the board while this is understandable in most cases as there are different mods with different thought patterns this can lead to unfair judgment.

Different folks from different countries and cultures chosen from all over the planet Earth will indeed have different views.

Which is what the Appeals system--which does NOT involve Mods--is designed to deal with.

2-Contributors have privilege and can get away with things we can't such as what they post/say would get a normal member banned/suspended but for them it's ok. This is unfair-sends the wrong message-Is a double standard and is hypocritical. When questioned the mods say it only for video's and that on the forums they are just like us this is a blatant lie as I saw Grey Carter on an article post Pornographic material while the image was removed he received no warning or punishment.

I addressed this matter most thoroughly here:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/528.404609.16845331

And here:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/528.404609.16845462


And finally here:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/528.404609.16852982

3-They can at times punish you if you have an unfavourable opinion-I'm not talking about if you say your opinion rudely-but just having a different opinion can end badly for you if you're not carefull although they aren't that bad with this and really the problem comes down to inconsistency/double standards.

I'm gonna call "Shennanigans" on this one, Knight.

This is ME you're talking to. We both remember THAT thread...

Remember how I watched your back. Remember how I talked you down. I PM'd you because I didn't want you to get yourself into trouble.

Remember how you lost your temper with other posters after I'd sunk the thread and wasn't paying any attention to it anymore?

I know that you do. I had your back. I was a true Moderator--I didn't pick sides and I strove to keep the peace. I know that there were times when I was a new born Mod when I was heavy handed [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/528.404802.16783832] but I was NEVER malevolent or biased with my BanHammer. Indeed, my greatest trouble when I was a Mod was my reticence towards whacking folks. If anything I was far, far too restrained.

I had your back. Now, you're slandering me and my fellows. You hurt me, Knight. You hurt me bad.

 

[FireAza]

I've just now noticed the sticky thread called "The Banhammer and You: A User's Guide to the Forums" where people post questions about moderation-related topics (i.e "is it ok to post something like this?"). It's 23 pages long. And I've never seen a sticky like this before on any other forum. So yeah, that might be indicative of a few things when it comes to the moderation of this forum.

 

[Reap3rXD]

Hell naw, If I get banned then I probably shouldn't be there. If I want to be there ill just make a new account/change ip

 

[A.A.K]

I pick D, I post in multiple forums, and I don't care or think about the Banhammer.
I post my stance, or a smartass remark. If I get banned, I get banned... and that's that. Like I said, I don't really care or think about it.

 

[LetalisK]

B. And a response I made in a similar thread just recently is relevant here too.

The rules here are piss-shit easy to follow and you get chance after chance after chance. I think there has only been one person that's been banned where I didn't think "Holy shit, they got away with their BS too long," and even then, still understood why.

And to add on to that, even though the rules are piss-shit easy, they are stricter relative to many other sites I go/have gone to. The rules here require a sprinkling of basic human decency and decorum. I feel zero sympathy for anyone that can't/won't muster it enough to not get banned.

 

[StormShaun]

I picked B.

I usually read the rules on any forums I go to.
If I don't like them I go somewhere else.

Other then that ... I have been mostly on the escapist and I feel like the mods are fierce guardian angels ready to banish people to the shadow realm.
I give them props for now.

 

[knight steel]

snip

Oh hey Copper nice to see you again ok let's deal with bit by bit.

1-The staff are not exempt from the inconsistency problem therefore the appeals system has the same issue.

2-Those links while they do show that the issue has not been ignored do not however fix the problem merely acknowledge it Basically agreeing with I stated that being contributor gets you off the hook " If the contributors get away with something we cannot it's not because of a double standard--it's because they're held accountable to different standards." Being held accountable to different standards IS the double standard. A possible stern talking two while does take some sting of the it is not enough for what grey did-plus we don't even know if that happened.

3- Yeah that thread was horrible *shudder* and I really appreciate what you did for me back then-I deserved the warning I got for that-But I was not referring to that thread when I made my third point but other things sorry for the misunderstanding.

Sorry if this comes across as slander I'm not trying to do that I like a number of mods on this site-and I deserve most of my poor health bar-these are just issue that I've seen and are bringing to light ^_^

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Despite sometimes vehemently disagreeing with various folks around these parts and all, I've never needed to fear mod-wrath or banhammers because I'm damn good at not actively being a jerkoff, posting one minor sentence and a bunch of meme images (actually I never use meme's) or attempting to be "First".
I do nothing that would even remotely attract the attention of the mods, despite having been threatened a few times with being "reported".
Forum health bar is clean.
I do post elsewhere and some of those places have stricter rules on content and language. Everybody has their preferences and the people who run whatever forum I post in have rights to say what content can be posted.
I think Escapist is pretty lax compared to a lot of other sites I have or still do frequent. Most of the people I've seen banned here are pretty deserving of it.
Its like the guy who gets notifications over and over on XBL to change his account name to something not offensive and just switches over to a masked form of more of the same, then complains when he gets the permaban. You get warnings for whatever violations you accrue, unless you're a total jerkoff or are trying to scam your way past a ban by creating a new account...
Seriously some people are just stupid.

 

[FPLOON]

I never actually feared any sort of ban hammer in any way, shape or form...

Spoiler: The weirdest time I was banned from a forum

I mean, there was the one hentai forum I tired to be apart of, but in less than 5 seconds after registering for an account, I was banned for life for apparently having the same registered info as a formal user that was perma-banned for spamming the forum using multiple accounts...

I have been banned more than once on a different forum before for always causing discussions to derail off the given topic... and after finally getting Skype close to 3 years ago, I don't do that anymore... (because that's basically what I use my Skype for...)


Overall, I do not fear it because I know that there's usually a good reason as to why I got banned in the first place... The fear would come from not knowing when the ban hammer is coming, and I don't have that sense of fear every time I reply to any given thread...

 

[Gennadios]

Nobody ever listens to me anyway, so I'm totally safe.

In fact, I'm thinking of subletting my account to a spambot for extra income.

 

[TehCookie]

Slightly since some of the bans I've seen people get are very petty and saying anything bad against our overlords is another good way to get one. And I've just backed myself into a corner now haven't I?

 

[Basement Cat]

snip

Oh hey Copper nice to see you again-

Ditto!

1-The staff are not exempt from the inconsistency problem therefore the appeals system has the same issue.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Who guards the guardians?

There comes a time when you simply have to quit inserting "stop gaps" and just trust people to do their jobs.

2-Those links while they do show that the issue has not been ignored do not however fix the problem merely acknowledge it Basically agreeing with I stated that being contributor gets you off the hook " If the contributors get away with something we cannot it's not because of a double standard--it's because they're held accountable to different standards." Being held accountable to different standards IS the double standard. A possible stern talking two while does take some sting of the it is not enough for what grey did-plus we don't even know if that happened.

I fear that the best response to your complaint necessitates that I quote the response of an innocent....Knight Steel--you foul creature you--how dare you necessitate that I bring innocents into a War that is not theirs?!? =P[footnote]Just joking! Please don't report me for this! [/footnote]

As Copper Zen points out there are some obvious differences between me and Grey, one being that I am here on my free time while he's getting paid to write articles and news stories. The worst that could have happened to me was a permanent ban, which would have made my free time a little less enjoyable for a while, while the worst that can happen to Grey is that he finds himself out of a job, which has implications a bit more severe than "Now what am I going to do while Steam is updating my favorite game?"

Copper Zen dealt with my transgression in public because it is as much a message to others as it was a punishment against me, a message to follow the CoC. Grey is an employee of the Escapist Magazine and I don't think anyone wants their professional mistakes to be discussed in public, but would rather discuss them with their boss in private.

Moving on...

3- Yeah that thread was horrible *shudder* and I really appreciate what you did for me back then-I deserved the warning I got for that-But I was not referring to that thread when I made my third point but other things sorry for the misunderstanding.

I'm currently not a Mod but should you truly feel that you've been wronged then PM me or Sky or one of the other Mods for their opinion. TRUST ME!!! They only want to keep the peace and THEY WILL WORK WITH YOU!!!

Sorry if this comes across as slander I'm not trying to do that I like a number of mods on this site-and I deserve most of my poor health bar-these are just issue that I've seen and are bringing to light ^_^

Oh, I'm keepin' a list....

^_^