I was thinking that maybe people who get their threads locked (and maybe even people who get suspended or banned), should have the right to email or pm a mod with a closing post for their locked thread.
The intention of this is to give people a chance to explain or apologize for whatever wrong it was they made.
Say I make an OP in very poor taste. A handful of people get their chance to pile on and dance on me, the whole thing goes mental and a mod closes it. This would give me a chance to say “Hey, after reading everyone’s reaction, I see how what I said was wrong. I thought it would be funny because of this, but now I see it is not. I am sorry for the heartache. Peace”.
Since it is going through a mod, there is no chance for abuse, trying to sneak a final word, cheap parting shots or anything of the sort. Just a chance to go on record as seeing your mistake.
Would that make any sense? It doesn’t sound like too too much extra work for anyone involved and would probably smooth some things over.
I’d have to say that in my experience people generally DO have a chance to make an apology in a thread before it is closed. It’s more typical that several people have made negative comments before a moderator sees it and closes it than that it is closed instantly.
And a poster always has the opportunity to make a public apology. I have seen a number of posters do so by opening a thread in the Pit. If sincere, such threads are generally well received. As far as I am concerned as a moderator, if I see a poster apologize in a thread after being warned, or I receive an e-mail from them in recognition of the offense, that is much appreciated. Unfortunately, in my personal experience such apologies are comparatively rare.
With regard to suspended and banned posters, in general these individuals have received multiple opportunities to change their ways and apologize for bad behavior. We do not suspend or ban lightly. To earn a suspension, you generally have to have accumulated multiple warnings in a relatively short period of time or shown persistent jerkish behavior. Except in extreme cases, banning of members usually does not take place before the poster has been suspended at least once, and then persists in the behavior for which they were suspended after being reinstated. Unfortunately the latter case is probably much more common than a poster being able to make a turnaround.
In short, there are venues and opportunities for making apologies, either to the board in general or to the moderators. I don’t think it is really necessary to add the option of making an apology in the thread, especially since I think few posters will take positive advantage of it.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what many of the e-mails we receive are.
True. I thought of that. Still, that apology is not linked to the offense. If someone stumbles on the offending thread, they won’t learn of the apology.
At any rate, it sounds as if there won’t be much of a market for this idea from what I gather from your response. Pity.
I am speaking only for myself, and not as a matter of board policy. I am not making any promises, and it would depend very much on circumstances, but I would not entirely rule out making a note in the thread to the effect a poster has apologized by e-mail after a thread has been closed and requested such a clarification be made.
It takes a lot to get banned around here for that kind of bad behavior - in the normal course of events that would mean that someone had been counseled many times, had been warned numerous times, and had been suspended at least once. All that happened before they got banned. They were probably talked to by the rest of the board as well on many occasions.
If they haven’t learned anything in all that time and persist in being jerks, coming to their senses AFTER the ban hammer has been thrown is really too little, too late.
We have had people that took being banned to finally get what we meant – or sometimes after a period of reflection that started with being banned – but that realization is way after the fact and not much use to us. We wish them all the best but there’s a reason we throw people out and they’re not invited back.
We do not make posts by proxy – the exceptions to such have been very rare and usually involve the death or incapacitation of a Doper and passing along such message to the rest of the community.
I’m not disagreeing with TubaDiva, but I am adding the footnote that, if someone has a thread closed and they think that there is some significant unfairness in the timing and they would like to make a final post, a Moderator could consider such a thing. We’re talking exceptional situations here, not just any closed thread.
And, remember, while it may seem unfair that the OP doesn’t get a “last say” in the thread she/he started, it also may seem unfair that others don’t get a “last rebuttal.” Almost always, the thread closing is not in the middle of a meaningful conversation, but because things have gang aft agley.
