I've had a load of fun with this site, no questions asked. However, today I must ask one majorly uncomfortable one: one that I think carries some weight here in the community.
People have been wondering about the acts recently committed by the BanHammer. While some were admittedly deserved, others have caused confusion, in particular the banning of NecroSwanson. Fire Daemon summed up most of what people are wondering about in his post on the previous page well: we're all sort of confused, scared, wondering what on Earth is going on. Therefore, I have this question to offer:
Can you make some sort of announcement about these bans, explaining the finer details? It would go a long way towards dispelling the bad feelings some of the community have accumulated over them, especially in the case of The Swanson, who was dearly loved here by many.
Another issue that users have voiced is with the apparent inaction that can be seen at times towards certain users: particularly ones that have made comments that have obviously broken the rules. We have reported these users at times to no avail, and we must wonder why this is so. Again, as Daemon said, a lack of moderators/use of the red button is no longer an problem...
Also, by request: some more information is requested about the bannings/moderation of Darth Empyrean, and Darth Mobius.
I, and the following users, thank you for your time.
every now and then ill see someone on probation or 3, 5, 7 day ban, click on the link to see what post got him banned and simply see no reason for it. however, i trust that the mods had a good reason for it, maybe he got banned for something else, they just picked the first post they bumped into to link the ban to, i dont know, either way if you're a decent character you wont have issues w/ the mods, i know i havent.
i remember Necroswanson's and remember it being unjust, although i dont remember the actual post. so yeah, im going to agree that the banhammer has been used with a bit of, well, inequality.
edit - that equates to me wanting to be on the list please.
although darth mobius's i can understand, i saw some of his posts, they were quite extreme, as i think was the post he was actually banned for. (edit- maybe not perma-banned, but he was quite harsh from what i saw.)
Let me step in at this point and simply say one thing -- when deciding what disciplinary action to take, we look at a user's complete ban history, as well as their general demeanor. So, if an individual infraction doesn't look like it justified a permaban, you're usually pretty safe in assuming it's a "straw that broke the camel's back" kind of situation. If you've been banned seven times for virtually the same offense -- say, making personal insults towards other community members -- it seems pretty obvious that you're not going to change your ways. Why would we want to keep that person as a member of our community?
Ok, that's fair, I can't really argue with that reasoning, but admittedly Mobius' posts were just a joke gone way too far.
About the users not changing? Is there anyway someone could make an appeal and maybe get him a trial 'un-banning'? Because I know a lot of people liked him, especially in the RP forums.
I'm not referring to anyone in particular. This complaint -- that people get permabanned "for nothing" -- is one that pops up frequently, so I was hoping to better explain that that simply isn't the case.
As for appealing, while I understand where you're coming from, and am personally all for second chances, don't you think the previous 7 bans should be enough of a heads up for the person? One would think that a reasonable person would figure out long before then that such behavior isn't appreciated. How many chances do we give a person before we finally tell them no? Ten? Twenty?
I've had to permaban people that I genuinely like. It's not something I get a giggle out of. But I'm also very much in favor of people taking responsibility for their behavior.
So what your saying is that Necroswanson's post was reviewed by whole staff in three minutes, and in that three minutes they decided to perma-ban him?
Sorry but I just find that highly, highly unlikely.
Moderators wait for a staff review before making it permanent. Site admins can ban permanently at their discretion, and the review happens later.
Edit: For clarity, I don't know who you're talking about, what they did, or who banned them. Honestly, I don't really care. But if someone lands a permaban very quickly, it was an admin that did it, not a moderator.
Eh, to be quite honest, I think that the moderators on The Escapist are fair, and yes, sometimes it doesn't make a lot of sense why they ban certain people, but if they did, then they obviously had a reason.
So what your saying is that Necroswanson's post was reviewed by whole staff in three minutes, and in that three minutes they decided to perma-ban him?
Sorry but I just find that highly, highly unlikely.
Let me step in at this point and simply say one thing -- when deciding what disciplinary action to take, we look at a user's complete ban history, as well as their general demeanor. So, if an individual infraction doesn't look like it justified a permaban, you're usually pretty safe in assuming it's a "straw that broke the camel's back" kind of situation. If you've been banned seven times for virtually the same offense -- say, making personal insults towards other community members -- it seems pretty obvious that you're not going to change your ways. Why would we want to keep that person as a member of our community?
Ok, that's fair, I can't really argue with that reasoning, but admittedly Mobius' posts were just a joke gone way too far.
About the users not changing? Is there anyway someone could make an appeal and maybe get him a trial 'un-banning'? Because I know a lot of people liked him, especially in the RP forums.
I'm not referring to anyone in particular. This complaint -- that people get permabanned "for nothing" -- is one that pops up frequently, so I was hoping to better explain that that simply isn't the case.
As for appealing, while I understand where you're coming from, and am personally all for second chances, don't you think the previous 7 bans should be enough of a heads up for the person? One would think that a reasonable person would figure out long before then that such behavior isn't appreciated. How many chances do we give a person before we finally tell them no? Ten? Twenty?
I've had to permaban people that I genuinely like. It's not something I get a giggle out of. But I'm also very much in favor of people taking responsibility for their behavior.
wait, he was banned 7 times and didnt learn from it? well, guess that solves that mystery. its not a 2nd chance, i think that would count as an 8th chance....
Why is everybody saying Necroswanson's ban was unjust? I liked the guy and all but his post was wrong. He could have just explained himself better but he just bashed the community. I think Mobius should have been banned long ago. A lot of his posts crossed the line. I'm not sucking up to the mods, I want to tell them this.
Mods
-When you Ban someone, please leave an excuse. Mostly, as I see it, people get banned for the whole "straw on the camels back thing". When people see a post that they don't think deserved a perma-ban, they get confused. The forum I was on before here did this. Sure, it was a much smaller community but still. When 'bid-wig' posters get banned we need an explanation, even just a sentence, or else we get threads like this.
Mods
-When you Ban someone, please leave an excuse. Mostly, as I see it, people get banned for the whole "straw on the camels back thing". When people see a post that they don't think deserved a perma-ban, they get confused. The forum I was on before here did this. Sure, it was a much smaller community but still. When 'bid-wig' posters get banned we need an explanation, even just a sentence, or else we get threads like this.
i remember Necroswanson's and remember it being unjust, although i dont remember the actual post. so yeah, im going to agree that the banhammer has been used with a bit of, well, inequality.
edit - that equates to me wanting to be on the list please.
although darth mobius's i can understand, i saw some of his posts, they were quite extreme, as i think was the post he was actually banned for. (edit- maybe not perma-banned, but he was quite harsh from what i saw.)
I saw the topic Necroswanson made and it really didn't seem like he deserved to get banned for that. To me it looks like people have been getting banned for flimsy reasons.
iain62a said:
I actually thought the mods did the right thing in banning TheNecroSwanson.
His post was needlessly aggressive for no real reason, and in my opinion that deserves a ban.
I'm pretty sure he's been in trouble with the mods before this too.
So what your saying is that Necroswanson's post was reviewed by whole staff in three minutes, and in that three minutes they decided to perma-ban him?
Sorry but I just find that highly, highly unlikely.
No. It would be the site staff who would review it later. The moderators cannot overturn admin decisions. They can contribute their input to the discussion, but it isn't their choice.
i remember Necroswanson's and remember it being unjust, although i dont remember the actual post. so yeah, im going to agree that the banhammer has been used with a bit of, well, inequality.
edit - that equates to me wanting to be on the list please.
although darth mobius's i can understand, i saw some of his posts, they were quite extreme, as i think was the post he was actually banned for. (edit- maybe not perma-banned, but he was quite harsh from what i saw.)
I saw the topic Necroswanson made and it really didn't seem like he deserved to get banned for that. To me it looks like people have been getting banned for flimsy reasons.
iain62a said:
I actually thought the mods did the right thing in banning TheNecroSwanson.
His post was needlessly aggressive for no real reason, and in my opinion that deserves a ban.
I'm pretty sure he's been in trouble with the mods before this too.
If someone has a history of being banned for flaming people and being unnecessarily rude, and clearly has not learned his lesson? If it was someone's first offense, they wouldn't be permabanned. However, we have to take history into account.
So what your saying is that Necroswanson's post was reviewed by whole staff in three minutes, and in that three minutes they decided to perma-ban him?
Sorry but I just find that highly, highly unlikely.
No. It would be the site staff who would review it later. The moderators cannot overturn admin decisions. They can contribute their input to the discussion, but it isn't their choice.
Yeah, it wasn't that I didn't like Necroswanson, but I did find his post to be mod-worthy. I think a 30-day ban would have been sufficient, though. It would get the point across, and you wouldn't have to lose a valued member.
Why not, I'll join the list.
EDIT: I didn't consider Swanson's history, so forget what I said about him. I would like to know about the Darths, though.
Mods
-When you Ban someone, please leave an excuse. Mostly, as I see it, people get banned for the whole "straw on the camels back thing". When people see a post that they don't think deserved a perma-ban, they get confused. The forum I was on before here did this. Sure, it was a much smaller community but still. When 'bid-wig' posters get banned we need an explanation, even just a sentence, or else we get threads like this.
Pretty much. It would apply to the same way. Some mods do do this. Like in Swanson's case Kulani {I think + sp?} did explain why. It doesn't have to apply to all bans, like a obviously outrageous post doesn't really need explaining.
I have no idea who these people where and what they did but Pimppeter2 said it right
pimppeter2 said:
Mods
-When you Ban someone, please leave an excuse. Mostly, as I see it, people get banned for the whole "straw on the camels back thing". When people see a post that they don't think deserved a perma-ban, they get confused. The forum I was on before here did this. Sure, it was a much smaller community but still. When 'bid-wig' posters get banned we need an explanation, even just a sentence, or else we get threads like this.
As I do feel confused sometimes but if a mod was to leave a quick message saying why they were banned (i.e. the whole last warning thing) I wouldn't feel as confused.
Mods
-When you Ban someone, please leave an excuse. Mostly, as I see it, people get banned for the whole "straw on the camels back thing". When people see a post that they don't think deserved a perma-ban, they get confused. The forum I was on before here did this. Sure, it was a much smaller community but still. When 'bid-wig' posters get banned we need an explanation, even just a sentence, or else we get threads like this.
Pretty much. It would apply to the same way. Some mods do do this. Like in Swanson's case Kuliani {I think + sp?} did explain why. It doesn't have to apply to all bans, like a obviously outrageous post doesn't really need explaining.
Yea, the bans where you wonder why it happened definately need comments. I know nilcypher (I think + sp?) leaves a comment for most thread locks and bans.
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