well clearly max was breaking the rule about being a jerk to the quoter.
As is it easy? Most of the times I've seen somoene banned, they did someting intentionally dumb to get banned. Like, blatant violating of the rules. so I would say no to getting banned.
Though, it has become... not easier, but more common to be given a warning or suspension since the rule change.
EDIT:
Strain42 said:
I've gotten some warnings on what seem like very minor offenses, and I'm surprised to see them still there.
Of course I'm not entirely sure what the policy is on stuff like that, so maybe warnings don't just go away with time.
You're gonna get quoted on this alot, so you may wantt o edit your post after someone answers.
Penalties
The Escapist forums are different from other forums on the internet. We try to maintain a system that balances intelligent discussion, debate and fun. The penalty system is meant to provide guidance to users - it allows users to better understand the rules and adjust to the differences from other Internet forums. The Escapist uses a strike system that grants you a maximum amount of 8 penalties to learn how to adhere to forum policies. Once a threshold has been broken, there is no way to gain strikes back. Here is the breakdown of all 8 stages:
Up to 4 Warnings (Green)
Warnings do not negatively impact your account but will stack against you for penalties.
Probation (Yellow)
This is your final warning. Once you receive probation, you are always on probation. All penalties after this will be suspensions, and all badges for good behavior will be negated.
3-day Suspension (Red)
You will be unable to post in the forums for three days, and all badges for good behavior will be negated.
2-week Suspension (Red)
You will be unable to post in the forums for two weeks, and all badges for good behavior will be negated.
Permanent Ban (Red)
Your posting rights on the site, as well as other methods of community participation, will be revoked permanently.
We do not enjoy banning people, but we will not hesitate to do so if we think that a person's removal will have an overall positive effect on the community. We also reserve the right to increase the punishment as we see fit, and any punishment above a warning will put the user at a minimum of the probation level. For example, advertisers get an automatic one month suspension, which means that any future infractions (once the suspension has ended) will result in a minimum of a suspension.
You will be able to see your Forum Health Meter in your profile as a colored bar progression, using the colors listed in the penalties list above. Ban Histories, which the health meter loosely represents, are also taken into account when moderating.
Appeal System
Moderators and staff are human and sometimes make mistakes. For this reason, we have an appeal system that members can utilize to plead their case in hopes of a reversal of a penalty. Once you have received a penalty, a message will be sent to you via private message. At this time, there is also a link to the appeal process. Please note, the appeal process works with your email account, not the private message system on The Escapist. If you choose to use the appeal system, please make sure to check your spam folder for an email.
All appeals are normally seen within 48 hours of your appeal, except on weekends.
Amnesty
After every 6 months without any warnings, you will drop down one level on the Forum Health Meter. After 2 years without any warnings, your meter will be returned to 0, regardless of where it was before.
These adjustments don't apply to any users that have been permanently banned, and they don't remove the history that the moderators can see on your account. Anyone that is seen "gaming the system" will be held accountable for it.
<url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/codeofconduct>source
The bolded section will probably be most helpful to you.
No need to reply to this ^^
