Standards of Ban-worthy material

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aesling
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Standards of Ban-worthy material

Post by aesling » Sun Feb 25, 2007 7:47 pm

Ok, certain recent events have highlighted something that's been bugging me for a while; the way mods go about handling banning people. It seems to me that the mods are very eager to hand out bans based on spamming, as well as being very...enthusiastic...about deleting spam posts. I'm not saying its wrong of them to police spam. Obviously that's part of their job and it helps to keep the forums from degenrating into chaos. However, when some members display behavior that is in other ways reprehensible, it takes much longer to ban them, if they get banned at all. My prime example of this is this member, who's posts consist almost entirely of racial supremacy, and if he gets banned soon it will probably be because of his repeated spam, rather than his racist comments. At the same time, another member who was spamming his threads has already been banned. It seems to me that the mod's priorities here are a bit messed up. Sure, spam is annoying to deal with, but socially unacceptable behavior is ultimately more harmful and offensive.

I realize there must be difficulties in dealing with this kind of behavior at all, much less promptly. It is much more of a grey area than spam is. Where do you draw the line between behavior that is acceptable and behavior that is not? And I also realize that it's difficult to decide when banning someone due to what they say is trampling on their right to free speech. However, the line needs to be drawn somewhere. Also, the mods don't seem to have a problem with the free speech issue when they delete peoples' posts. :?

So, in all seriousness, I hope there is some way to work on this issue, because it seems like there is an imbalance in priorities and judgement of content, and I think it is a larger problem than it may seem on the surface.
:ying:

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Otohiko
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Post by Otohiko » Sun Feb 25, 2007 7:55 pm

I personally think the mods are doing the right thing here in establishing a precedent before a ban and removing/locking that which is inappropriate. I far prefer it to jumping the gun; plus I believe in possibly giving the offender a chance to smarten up.

I know this well as, though not to this extreme, I too was a smartass who was quite willing to spit on everyone when I first started posting here, but I quickly got dissuaded by more intelligent posters and views.
The Birds are using humanity in order to throw something terrifying at this green pig. And then what happens to us all later, that’s simply not important to them…

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BasharOfTheAges
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Post by BasharOfTheAges » Sun Feb 25, 2007 7:57 pm

And this individual has made something remotely related to an effort in understanding or responding to anything said to him with more logic than a 6-year-old when exactly?

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aesling
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Post by aesling » Sun Feb 25, 2007 8:00 pm

Otohiko wrote:I personally think the mods are doing the right thing here in establishing a precedent before a ban and removing/locking that which is inappropriate. I far prefer it to jumping the gun; plus I believe in possibly giving the offender a chance to smarten up.

I know this well as, though not to this extreme, I too was a smartass who was quite willing to spit on everyone when I first started posting here, but I quickly got dissuaded by more intelligent posters and views.
This is a good point, but when do the mods decide that it's become apparent that the member isn't going to change?
:ying:

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Otohiko
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Post by Otohiko » Sun Feb 25, 2007 8:00 pm

BasharOfTheAges wrote:And this individual has made something remotely related to an effort in understanding or responding to anything said to him with more logic than a 6-year-old when exactly?
I said I believe in second chances. I didn't say they were always realistic :roll:

But let's not jump the gun. Although at this point I agree that I think the point where 2nd, 3rd and 13th chances have been expended and I sincerely hope there's been at the very least a stern warning from the mods to the offending member.
The Birds are using humanity in order to throw something terrifying at this green pig. And then what happens to us all later, that’s simply not important to them…

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The Origonal Head Hunter
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Post by The Origonal Head Hunter » Sun Feb 25, 2007 8:00 pm

The person spams their own thread and then claims other people got it locked for their spam. And the spam isn't even coherent english, just racist bigotry about how others are racist and liars.
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The Origonal Head Hunter
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Post by The Origonal Head Hunter » Sun Feb 25, 2007 8:02 pm

And that is why Batman for President, Godix for Most Helpful, and Britney Spears for a woodchipper.
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Tsunami Jones
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Post by Tsunami Jones » Sun Feb 25, 2007 8:03 pm

A warning has been sent to the first member.

As to the other member that was banned, he has recieved multiple warnings and has recieved previous bans in the past for identical behavior.

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Otohiko
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Post by Otohiko » Sun Feb 25, 2007 8:03 pm

aesling wrote:
Otohiko wrote:I personally think the mods are doing the right thing here in establishing a precedent before a ban and removing/locking that which is inappropriate. I far prefer it to jumping the gun; plus I believe in possibly giving the offender a chance to smarten up.

I know this well as, though not to this extreme, I too was a smartass who was quite willing to spit on everyone when I first started posting here, but I quickly got dissuaded by more intelligent posters and views.
This is a good point, but when do the mods decide that it's become apparent that the member isn't going to change?
A system of warnings will do.

Since someone brought up the 'schoolyard' analogy, ever since school I adopted a '3 strikes' policy. If people offend me, I give them a very certain and stern warning. I remind them of the warning twice. Those who didn't change their minds had reliably a fist in their face the day following my final reminder.

I think even one warning that is given in no uncertain terms and required to be responded to is enough in this case. If the member doesn't understand, talk it through with them. I would be willing to if that's something the mods don't wish to do, even - just let me know.
The Birds are using humanity in order to throw something terrifying at this green pig. And then what happens to us all later, that’s simply not important to them…

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godix
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Post by godix » Sun Feb 25, 2007 8:04 pm

Personally I'd ban the user you're linking to for being a blatant troll or being such an idiot that he appears to be a blatant troll. I mean come on, you can't get a more obvious troll than him even if you made an account named 'KKK pride' on the NAACP message boards. However the mods tend to be far more lenient that I would be and give people the benefit of the doubt. So I assume they're giving Yellow Power there a chance to clean up his act. The other user who was banned knows his actions were ban worthy, was warned before the ban, then was banned when he worked around the specifics of the warning but obviously violated the spirit of it. I question how long he was banned for but not that he was banned. It's a lot like my case last week actually, the past behavior had a lot more to do with it than the specifics of who caused what exactly this time.

Besides, again like my case, I think the users are making their feelings known to the original offender and mod action probably isn't needed. Although mr superior race did flat out say he would continue the same shit that caused his topics to get locked until the admins ban him so who knows, maybe the admins are needed here.
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