since godix can't post, i'll post his journal entry here:
godix's journal entry wrote: Ok, this has turned into a lot more drama that it's worth. I was banned for a week. I consider it no big deal and I see no reason anyone else should either. Do I deserve it? Personally I don't think I did for the reasons given but there are plenty of other things I've done before to justify it. I'm also quite certain that the all 1 op thread was a straw that broke the camels back rather than the be all end all reason. Anyone who knows me knows that me being banned, and eventually permabanned, is a matter of 'when' not 'if'. I'm not a martyr guys, it's not worth getting outraged on my behalf. I said, basically, the same thing but shorter in IRC earlier today and my comments got cut and pasted into the forum accurately. And I would have left it at that but things have grown beyond the point where it's about me or my ban anymore and that's what I want to address here.
I'm aware the orgs administration wants to 'avoid any schism between forumites and administration' however in all seriousness you guys are years too late for that. That schism has been there since, at minimum, the time I became active on the forums. The mods don't communicate with each other and they don't communicate with the users. Without communication there is obviously a schism. The proof of this is right there in the same post where they say they want to avoid a schism. My all 1 op thread had been active for around a week before this and a mod had already modified posts in it 3 times. Clearly at least one person in the administration knew what was going on and if one knew there should be no reason that a week later another did not. I don't except every mod to know what's happening in every post, that's clearly insane. However if one mod had to take action in the thread then every mod should be notified of that. I know there is a mod only forum on the org but I don't know what goes into it. This is the type of thing that SHOULD go into it.
As for communicating with users you guys just plain don't. I've been a major headache to the mods at times but do you know how many times I have gotten a pm from a mod saying 'You're taking this too far, just drop it now'? Never. I have been banned three times and I have had god alone knows how many topics locked or posts deleted but not once has that been accompanied by a pm saying 'We're sick of this, stop spamming images' or whatever it was I happened to be doing at the time. Several times things that I personally would have deleted if I were a mod were left be for days on end before locking or never locked at all. Without any official word on what is really considered a problem the only metric I can go by is 'well they didn't do anything about it so clearly it must be ok to do that'. It's pointed out this isn't the first time I've played with the op system and that's true. I've done it at least twice before (although I suspect the mods only remember once but whatever). The first time I did it there was no action at all. The thread died quietly when it quit generating new response. No lock. No warning to not abuse the op system. No indication at all that this was a problem. Now I know full well it was against the intended purpose of the op system but barring any feedback the only reasonable conclusion was it was a misuse that no one minded. The second time the thread was left open for several days until after DTSEM got #1 and the point of the thread was finished anyway. Again no indication playing with the op system is actually something the admins mind. Considering they kindly let it go until after the joke was done the indication is quite the reverse. This time my playing with the op system had been there for a week. Again no indication what I was doing is considered a problem and seeing that a mod knew what was going on because they edited post in it but still kept the thread open can only be reasonably construed as it wasn't an issue with them. Until, of course, it became an issue and I got banned. So yes, they're right, I have played with the op system before. And the fact that there were no indications given to me that was a problem is why I played with it again. I can understand why the mods don't communicate, no one wants to waste lots of time writing 'stop that' messages to people. Especially someone who constantly skates the line. But lets consider it this way. Imagine you have a young child. One day the child pulls down his pants and pisses right on the floor. You don't say or do anything about it till days later when you wipe up the piss. Later on the child again drops his drawers and pisses on the floor. Again you do nothing. A third time the child pisses on the floor and that's it, you've had enough. So you spank the kid and send it to bed early as punishment. Where is the problem here, the kid or the parent who never told the kid that shouldn't be done? Now clearly I'm not a child, if I were that dumb I'd still be wandering around going 'why the ban? What did I do wrong?' but the point is with mod feedback I should have known I'd get banned before I posted the all 1 op thread when actually, based on past experience, I figured it'd get quickly locked and that'd be that. Obviously I was wrong and no big deal, like I said I'm not trying to say I shouldn't have been banned but rather I'm trying to show why this case shows there are problems going on a lot deeper than just the administration dodging criticism from the public (which, incidentally, I don't think they do. When an issue comes up they do deal with it, the problem is it should have been dealt with before it became such an issue). So far no one else has seemed to pick up on this problem either, probably because I'm the only one that realistically knows how total the lack of feedback I get from mods is. This current issue isn't the only example of communication problems either, the recent multiple bannings for spamming images shows the same thing. Previous times it happened the thread was locked once a mod saw it and nothing further is done. All of a sudden and with no indication things have changed it became a ban worthy offense. The mods know who the people that usually do this are however none of us ever got a pm saying 'we're sick of this, stop it or else'. Instead the first and only indication that had become a ban worthy offense was when people got banned for it. Well guess what, if this is how the system works then your users are going to keep pissing on the floor and you're going to eventually lose your temper and spank them. Communication guys, it does wonders. And without it there will be a schism between the forumites and administration the same as there has been for years.
So very long post summed up: I set out to prove a point about the need to read topics closely. I ended up highlight a point about the total lack of communication between the mods and users.
By the way, one last thing. I've interacted with Dokidoki several times and he has always been nice about it. Even the times when I know I had just caused him a lot of extra admin work. Hell, he's been nice even on those times when I know I'm the direct reason he has to take time out of his life to attend a mod meeting on my latest stunt. I am absolutely convinced that he did not play favorites. I can see where the claim comes from, especially since it was the same user against cornwiggle and me (I can not prove that but I am quite positive it's true) but I think it's just appearances and not reality. Especially since Dokidoki's sense of humor when he posts he banned someone makes it appear he passes out bans at the drop of a hat when in fact he does not. At worst he was uninformed of exactly what was going on, and as I mention above that's hardly unique to him.
godix brings up good points.
-members are not being warned about what they are doing wrong.
We are revising our policy on bans and warnings. Corran will make an official post on this later, but in most cases, we will make sure we warn before taking further action. Exceptions to this rule include spambots and emergencies, like if you start making 100s of a girl with pretty eyes links. All cases regarding potential bans or action taken on other members will be handled privately through private messages with involved parties, and any such posts created in a public forum will be moved to moderator or administrator forums.
However, we expect all forum users to be aware of the
Forum Rules.
-mods are not communicating with each other.
We are also making changes to improve communication and understanding of how to handle specific stuff.
the other complaint i am seeing is that it's unfair to ban godix because the persecutor violated forum rules too.
1. doki made his decision to ban godix before [edit]reading black_pearl_27's request for godix to be banned.[/edit]
2. whether the persecutor is in violation of the forum rules has no bearing on whether godix is in violation of forum/site rules.
3. the administration is handling the case of black_pearl_27 separately and privately.
He'll be back in a few days .....
