# There should be some penalty for protesting your warning and not having it overturned **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [January 24, 2020, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-should-be-some-penalty-for-protesting-your-warning-and-not-having-it-overturned/846901 "2020-01-24T15:31:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2020, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-should-be-some-penalty-for-protesting-your-warning-and-not-having-it-overturned/846901/41 "2020-01-25T17:08:08Z")
Yeah, I wouldn’t support that change if my fellow mods proposed it. I think one of the strengths of the SDMB is that feedback - polite feedback - is allowed in terms of protesting and discussing moderation decisions and policies. And sometimes things to get changed and policies remade. It’s not often but it does happen. I’ve seen other fora where moderation is both draconian and non-appealable. That’s really not something we want to encourage. I’d prefer to have the back-and-forth - even if it’s sometimes testy - and see those gains and refinements happen over time. Of course, it appears that [Trump may just be able to handle things better](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=888959) and draft recalcitrant moderators into the service. So we got that going for us. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2020, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-should-be-some-penalty-for-protesting-your-warning-and-not-having-it-overturned/846901/42 "2020-01-25T18:34:55Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > That’s sort of what I’m getting at. The OP is attempting to stop a certain subset of posters from contesting every mod action directed at them. However, that’s a pretty wide net to cast and it’s going to cause problems for a lot of other people. > > I’m not saying the problem doesn’t exist, I’m saying that we don’t need a solution for it. What the mods currently do seems to work just fine. Agreed 100%. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2020, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-should-be-some-penalty-for-protesting-your-warning-and-not-having-it-overturned/846901/43 "2020-01-25T18:49:58Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Allowing people to bitch about warnings in the Pit would be a mistake. > > Eh, people used to do it all the time when it was still allowed. It got tedious sometimes( often ), just like bitching in here gets tedious sometimes( often ). But I can’t say the board ran much worse, particularly. It was just different. > > But yeah, I agree with others that this proposal is a solution in search of a problem. When I joined, just before the turn of the century, the Pit was the designated forum for complaints and questions about specific moderator actions. One problem with that arrangement was that other posters could just pile on against the OP if they were feeling particularly snarky, because the Pit tends to foster that kind of behavior. IMHO moving moderation-related discussions to ATMB was the right thing to do, and it’s a good reason we can even have such conversations, unlike most other message boards. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2020, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-should-be-some-penalty-for-protesting-your-warning-and-not-having-it-overturned/846901/44 "2020-01-25T22:05:11Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > IIRC, due to pit rules (or lack thereof) those threads got really, really vile. Did they ever. When I was still new around here I innocently questioned the closure of a thread I had started. I really wanted to know, and what I also didn’t really know yet was the way things work around here. **Some Other Poster** , who I don’t think is around anymore, jumped in with such insulting and aggressive language that I felt like I’d stepped on a rake. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2020, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-should-be-some-penalty-for-protesting-your-warning-and-not-having-it-overturned/846901/45 "2020-01-26T09:46:59Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > I’ve never thought of the mods being vindictive like that. And in any case if they were, acting like that in ATMB would likely lead to the mod’s expulsion as a mod. I would suspect the board members would be very vocal if a mod was acting that way and the admins would take action. How would anyone know? The mod wouldn’t admit that’s what they were doing. They might not even realize it themselves. There would be no proof. Plus I’ve never in my history of posting seen a mod who was fired because posters complained about them. And I am aware of mods being fired, even though they always say they are “stepping down.” You can tell the difference. I could see proposing that those who contest disingenuouly get moderated, as I suggested before. On the other hand, I know that it’s easy to be biased towards thinking that everyone is disingenuous. (I’ve even been accused of such, and everyone knows I do not lie.) So it’s better that the mods err on the side of not punishing them. Being able to contest Warnings is a good thing. You don’t want a chilling effect where people would be afraid to contest even when they have a good reason. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2020, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-should-be-some-penalty-for-protesting-your-warning-and-not-having-it-overturned/846901/46 "2020-01-27T05:07:03Z")
The penalty for denied protests and general whining should be an insulting smilie that appears next to your username for a designated period. And moderators should be allowed to have an appropriate number of scalps or similar smilies next to their usernames to designate how many posters they’ve banned. Sort of like fighter pilots had for the number of enemy planes they shot down. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2020, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-should-be-some-penalty-for-protesting-your-warning-and-not-having-it-overturned/846901/47 "2020-01-27T21:03:10Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > And moderators should be allowed to have an appropriate number of scalps or similar smilies next to their usernames to designate how many posters they’ve banned. Sort of like fighter pilots had for the number of enemy planes they shot down. If you included bots and spammers in that a couple of them would need the entire screen just for their “hit parade”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2020, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-should-be-some-penalty-for-protesting-your-warning-and-not-having-it-overturned/846901/48 "2020-01-27T21:49:06Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > If you included bots and spammers in that a couple of them would need the entire screen just for their “hit parade”. 😃 **engineer\_comp\_geek** is the current banmeister with at least 11,763 spammers (actually many more, since some of the posts document multiple spammers), 223 socks, and 118 others. So you would need a 60-page thread just to list them all.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2020, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-should-be-some-penalty-for-protesting-your-warning-and-not-having-it-overturned/846901/49 "2020-01-27T22:30:58Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > **engineer\_comp\_geek** is the current banmeister with at least 11,763 spammers (actually many more, since some of the posts document multiple spammers), 223 socks, and 118 others. So you would need a 60-page thread just to list them all.🙂 Freaking superhero numbers! Wow! ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2020, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-should-be-some-penalty-for-protesting-your-warning-and-not-having-it-overturned/846901/50 "2020-01-28T00:27:27Z")
Truly, a mod among mods. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2020, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-should-be-some-penalty-for-protesting-your-warning-and-not-having-it-overturned/846901/51 "2020-01-28T00:35:14Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > **engineer\_comp\_geek** is the current banmeister with at least 11,763 spammers (actually many more, since some of the posts document multiple spammers), 223 socks, and 118 others. So you would need a 60-page thread just to list them all.🙂 He was the one I was thinking of but I recall #2 and #3 of not being slouches either. Compared to him – sure! But a bit ahead of the rest of the pack. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2020, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-should-be-some-penalty-for-protesting-your-warning-and-not-having-it-overturned/846901/52 "2020-01-28T02:21:08Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > He was the one I was thinking of but I recall #2 and #3 of not being slouches either. Compared to him – sure! But a bit ahead of the rest of the pack. **Marley23** and **samclem** are #2 and #3 on the all time list. I’m #2 among active mods but only have about 10% of **ecg’s** totals. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-should-be-some-penalty-for-protesting-your-warning-and-not-having-it-overturned/846901/53 "2020-01-29T19:34:49Z")
We are in the presence of greatness. He could fill most sports arenas with his Banning Carnage. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-should-be-some-penalty-for-protesting-your-warning-and-not-having-it-overturned/846901/54 "2020-01-29T19:39:52Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > You’re proposing a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist. And beyond that - there is an existing solution for this problem if it _were_ ever deemed to be a problem. If (say) somebody is warned for trolling, and then starts and ATMB thread that is a thinly-veiled excuse for continuing that trolling, there’s no reason the mods can’t issue another warning for the ATMB thread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-should-be-some-penalty-for-protesting-your-warning-and-not-having-it-overturned/846901.md?page=2)