I just joined The Straight Dope message board a few weeks ago. I’ve noticed a lot of talk recently about banning members and I’ve noticed some banned members when reading old posts. How often do members get banned on here? Is this common? What is a bannable offense? Also, I’ve read about trolling (from google, I gather it means something like stirring up trouble, throwing in offensive remarks to derail stuff). Is this what is meant on here?
Gotta be honest. I’m surprised by all the ban talk. What did I sign up for?
It’s sort of like Game of Thrones around here…anyone could get banned at any moment. Just stay out of any wedding-related threads and you’ll be fine
On a more serious note…people generally get banned for *repeated *failure to follow Rule 1: Don’t be a jerk. It’s really a pretty easy rule to follow, and (assuming you’re more-or-less sane) you’ll know if you’re breaking it.
Just act like a reasonable person, and you’ll have nothing to worry about
Oddly enough, there are many people here who have never been banned. Why, some have never even been warned! It has something to do with not being a jerk.
TriPolar is referring to an incident a few years ago where everyone was banned. Accidentally. Once the powers that be figured out what happened, people were reinstated.
If you read the rules at the top of the page (the stickies), and go by those, you should be fine.
Unlike a lot of boards, we have active moderators that enforce the rules. One of those is to engage in (relatively) polite ways, exceptions being the in the Pit where almost anything goes. The things that are not allowed even there are noted in the stickies.
Even in heated debates, the golden rule is Don’t Be A Jerk. One of the big ways this is violated is to ‘attack the poster and not the post’.
Best idea is to read the general rules as well as things that are specific to the various forums and you should be fine. Banning is the last step they use, often you’ll get a a mod note at first (basically a, you’re getting close to the line better watch it), later you could get a warning which goes on your record, build up a few of those and you’ll be suspended, come back from suspension and still act like a jerk and it’s banning. Sometimes it goes straight to suspension or banning depending on the severity of the bad behavior.
This is overall a friendly board and has a lot of people with a lot to offer. However, to paraphrase the quote, we don’t suffer jerks gladly.
Not common considering the number of active posters. Among posters who have been around more than a short time, we ban about 0.2-0.3% of active posters per year. (That’s two or three in a thousand).
We ban several spammers a day, plus an occasional sock (a second username, usually of a previously banned poster trying to sneak back in), and once in a while a short-term troll whose first few posts are obviously intended just to stir up trouble. These folks are banned instantly.
You probably don’t have to worry. It usually takes a concerted effort over a considerable period of time to get banned here, including multiple warnings, a suspension, and then additional warnings after that. The vast majority of posters here never get a warning, let alone get in more serious trouble.
Thanks for the replies. I enjoy hearing differing opinions and have a pretty high tolerance for disagreement. I’m not so much worried about being banned since I don’t have an itch to drive people up the wall with irritating stuff. I do, however, occasionally enjoy reading or hearing from others who are more provocative.
I did read the rules post. Thanks for pointing that out.
If you want to see how to get banned, choose a topic that the majority of this left-leaning board feels passionate about, take the counter position and refuse to knuckle under. Just keep at that and the majority, with the help of some of the Mods, will find a way to show you the door.
Well, you, Bricker, WillFarnaby, adaher, Clothahump, and numerous others are still around. Not to imply any of you are bad posters; just that what you’re saying doesn’t seem to be sufficient. Most of the cases I’ve seen involve posters like Melchior, who went beyond “taking a minority position and refusing to budge”.
Don’t believe this at all, butterfiles, it just isn’t true. There are several reasons for banning here but taking a position contrary to the majority and arguing your corner passionately is not one of them.
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Learn to know who’s who around here before locking horns with anyone. There’s a few not-so-liked people you can shit on with impugnity, whereas others (generally anyone with “Moderator” under their username) you should tread more carefully. Avoid saying anything that denigrates any race, religion, political stance (except in Great Debates), income status, sexual orientation, or goats.
Before starting an argument with someone, be sure to verify that their comment wasn’t posted years ago (e.g. zombie thread) because by now, the person may be dead. Not a bannable offense…it’s just really embarrassing and depressing.
