Re this thread
I am well aware of the general admonition that we contact a moderator if someone is banned without an announcement, but i was under the impression that we had also reached a sort of understanding whereby long-term members with thousands of posts to their name would NOT be banned without some sort of announcement.
Incubus had been here since 2002, and had made about 6,000 posts on this message. To be frank, banning someone with such a long and productive history without an explanation is complete bullshit.
I understand that if some troll or sock joins and manages to slip in a few dozen or even a couple of hundred posts, it can be better to just disappear the account without any fanfare in order to deny the attention-seeker what he or she craves. But if a long-term member, someone who has thousands of posts and whose name is easily recognizable to many Dopers, is to be banned, i think an explanation is due, even if the banning is for sock-puppetry.
In such cases, i reject the argument that you’re just giving him what he wants: if he was a sock, then he’s had what he wants for years, and one last announcement isn’t going to change that.
I’m not asking why he was banned. But i am asserting the principle that you should have made the announcement. It’s only fair to your members.