Big, huge, fat disclaimer: I in NO WAY wish to piss off the moderators or even remotely intend to side with said banned persons.
Little slinky lame-ass disclaimer: Time constraints and a job that doesn’t allow for more postings put me most certainly in the “lurker” category. Although I’ve reached out to fellow dopers before and am beyond thankful for support I received. But still, I’m a lurker.
So, the thing is this. And I swear to the the giant Goat Balls in the Sky – it is simply a question.
Have the mods thought about an “on suspension” status before the banned status?
I ask because, recently, there have been some bannings of posters (FarmerOak the most recent) that did not seem to be average trolls. More, it seems like they had something (albeit different and not conventional) to offer and just didn’t really get the, for lack of a better term, ‘culture’ at the SDMB. I just wonder if their posting “opportunities” were revoked for a while, the culture would sink in – they’d then decide whether or not to be a member in a way that’s appropriate to the board.
In my lurker status, I have the utmost respect for all the mods here and in no way mean to offend or challenge. Just a thought.
I’m thinking that since the mods usually give warnings before the final banning, they are reluctant to give any official status to the trouble maker. Plus, if you’ve been warned, realize that you’ve done something stupid, want to put it behind you, having “On Suspension” under your name would just make people ask what you did.
From my experiences as moderator on another board, I can say that administratively suspensions are a pain in the ass. Better to just get rid of the problem and be done with it. If the offender really wants a second chance they can talk to the moderators privately.
But if you create a suspended category you are obligating the moderators to spending an awful lot of time reconsidering, evaluating, etc. Essentially it creates a “due process” situation, which is legalese for “tons of paperwork”.
I believe that many of these posters (that don’t seem to be acting up but are banned anyway) are people who have already been banned and are trying to return with a new name.
Not for nothing, but it’s not that hard to avoid being banned. I’ve been here for several years and am an active poster and have never even been warned by a mod. If you play nice and follow the rules, all is (generally) fine.
If the mods started with suspensions and such, it would be a lot of keep track of, I would think.
Umm…not to seem like I’m trying to cram my way up Mod Ass, but the three responses so far have answered the question. Maybe I should’ve posted in ATMB.
Oh good golly.
I get it and it makes sense. Duh. Thank you for the responses.
You got it, Zette. It’d be a nightmare to handle. Not that it’s impossible in concept, just in practicality given our various constraints.
And don’t sweat asking, winneee; it was a reasonable question, civilly posed. Good idea, honest question: no prob.
It DOES take a lot to get banned. The Teeming Millions aren’t exactly shy about expressing themselves when someone’s being a jerk so it’s fairly easy to get a feel for the place. (They’re also suprisingly forgiving when someone admits, “oops, brain fart”–or words to that effect.) And then there are official warnings on top of that.
Folks who’ve gotten banned knew what they were doing wrong–and kept on doing it anyway. They might not have AGREED it was wrong, but they knew.
This place is just too populous and diverse to nurse idiots along endlessly until they either grow up or start respecting the rights of other posters.
Well, since I’ve come out of lurker status for the moment, I’d like to have a Hallmark moment before taking my jackhammer and going home…
I’m speaking for myself but hope some lurkers can identify…this board provides knowledge and insight. I sincerely look forward to reading your thoughts and genuinely appreciate the words of wisdom that you each take the care and time to offer.
Besides, if someone doesn’t understand “you’re being a jerk; stop it or you will be banned” there’s really not much hope for rehabilitation. And if they just don’t care, kinda silly to offer them another chance.
However, it is possible to be unbanned if you ask nicely and grovel and apologize and weren’t too bad to begin with. Or, in rare cases, if you convince the mods that you were banned due to a mistake or the malicious intentions of others.
I think some people just cannot stop. They have to have the last word in, and they don’t realize that insisting on posting, even when the content itself is not itself highly inflammatory, can be the last straw when they’ve been told to cool off.
Sometimes you’ve gotta just shut your yap, no matter how much you wish to respond. When you’ve attracted moderator notice for the wrong reasons? That’d be one of those times. It’s cases like that where I wish suspension was an option, but if it’s an administrative nightmare it’ll just remain a vague wish on my part.
“Besides, if someone doesn’t understand “you’re being a jerk; stop it or you will be banned” there’s really not much hope for rehabilitation. And if they just don’t care, kinda silly to offer them another chance.”
Well, I’m on the way home, jackhammer in tow, but do realize that “this is a great message board” and “I’m a lurker” doesn’t excuse me from debating the OP.
My point was really that I just didn’t think some folks “got” the deal with bannings. I would guess that they fully realize they’re being jerks, but didn’t “get” that the mods are Serious. (Who knows – lack of research, jumping in and not taking the message board at its guidelines).
I stand fully behind the mods and their actions, especially after the responses I received to the question. My query was more about the gray area where some well-meaning, although confrontational, posters could be enlightened to the fact that some things don’t fly here. And if there was a way to preserve the status of some seemingly quality posters who were being jerks.
(In the same vain, if someone could be kind enough to offer up the proper way to quote someone, I’d be grateful).
The “quote” button at the bottom of each post will open a New Reply window with the entire post already included anf formatted as a “quote”. Or, you can quote any text you cut-and-paste into a New Reply window by manually putting {quote} and {/quote} before and after the text, like this:
{quote}The quick red fox jumped over the lazy brown dog.{/quote}
Only replace the {} with :
More about vB codes (including links and bolding or italics) can be found here.
It’s pretty easy, winneee. Pick the post you want to quote and at the very bottom, at the far right, there’s an icon labeled “quote”. (It’s a blockish, stylized quotation mark.) Click on that and it’ll pull up the whole post, all ready in a standard posting window.
From there you can quote the whole thing, or delete extraneous stuff. (Highlight and hit your “delete” key is the fastest.) To keep the stuff you want, just make sure it’s surrounded by by quote tags, i.e. (quote)(/quote) only with brackets instead of parentheses (). You’ll be able to see the existing tags in the part you’re quoting, so it’ll show you the pattern.
And if you’re unsure, just hit “preview” and it’ll show you what your reply actually looks like.
I was going to post a few things but, reading through this thread shows that pretty much all of my points have been covered already. So, I’ll do what I do best, hijack!
winneee, you seem intelligent enough in the 4 to 5 posts I’ve seen in this thread. Looking at when you joined, you’ve been here long enough to know how the game is played around here and you seem to want to do the right thing. That said, the bench is warm enough without you. Get your fool ass up and contribute to this board.
If it’s time constraints, that’s one thing. But if you’re intimidated by the reaction others will give to your opinion, don’t be. Speak your mind, speak from knowledge or experience, and you’ll do fine.
Stop lurking and welcome to the boards.
