“Banned” implies the poster is a baddie, rather than someone who made an administrative slip.
Since that’s one of the requirements for posting here, then suspending his posting privileges is the correct course of action.
Right.
I’m totally stealing this. 
ETA: I totally stole this. I did so without much input from the rest of the staff, so we might come up with something else later. For now I went ahead and did it. Thanks for the suggestion.
You are very welcome. I’m glad that I can finally be of some use around here.
Okay, so they banned him for not having a valid e-mail address? That would seem a bit much, but at the very least justifiable under some (silly, IMO) technicality. But they non-banned-banned him because he didn’t respond to their messages, in order to get his attention? Maybe he just didn’t want to respond, or maybe couldn’t for some strange reason. Color me weird, but banning-but-not-really just seems like a bizarre thing to do.
It wasn’t a real ban but a way of getting his attention. Maybe “Suspended” would have been better.
I know it wasn’t a real ban. That’s what I’m saying.
You’ve said this twice now, as if it were some sort of excuse. If I believed that Zhen’ka was intentionally ignoring my instructions (i.e., didn’t want to respond), I’d have issued a real suspension (for a fixed period) or banned him for real (depending on his record). Ignoring moderator instructions is not ok, even if you think they’re only about a technicality. What I’ve done is give Zhen’ka the benefit of the doubt and assumed that he didn’t see my instructions (twice). I can’t send him an email because, well, that’s the problem. And a PM didn’t work. So I’m doing what I can to make contact. I don’t see how that’s bizarre. YMMV.
I’d still appreciate an answer: “Is the “If you’re curious, e-mail the mods” thing an actual rule with warnings and such if needed, or is it just a quirk/preference of some of the mods (like liking names bolded).”
So far, from what I’ve seen, I’d have no problems opening a thread like this if I was curious–yeah, a few mods would be unhappy that their personal preferences weren’t being followed, but it doesn’t seem like I’d be breaking any rules.
Please clarify.
It’s a preference, just like you’d prefer we respond to your questions.
Seriously, I don’t think we’ve ever warned anybody (or worse) for asking about an unannounced banning or suspension.
Even more seriously, I thought I had a more responsive answer to give, but I want to make sure I’m not full of crap before I say more.
Oh. I didn’t realize you had to respond to messages sent to you by moderators.
It’s a preference.
Well seeing as it is a preference, hey Gfactor, why were you banned?
This has been going on for years. It’s moved from the Pit to over here but it’s always the same. A poster asks the question, a Mod comes in and sighs and rolls their eyes and says to please take it to email or PMs and then answers the question anyway. If you guys really don’t want people to ask, then don’t answer the question. Failing that, just tell them without the preamble about preferences.
MeanOldLady said:
Just like if a Moderator gives you a Note in a thread, you ignore it at your peril. If a Mod gives you a PM/email about some administrative function, you need to respond.
“The registration agreement says that you need to keep a valid email address, and we noticed that your address is not current. Please correct this. Failure to comply could result in disciplinary action.”
“Ah, I can just ignore that.” :smack:
What part is hard to understand?
We usually do it on a case-by-case basis. If they’re fairly active, we’ll make an announcement, because most regular users follow the monthly ban threads. Once they’re reinstated, we’ll remove the announcement.
It’s not so much a ban or suspension, but rather a “soft suspension” of sorts. We’ve got an inactive group, where users can’t post or subscribe to threads, but there’s no ban notice that will appear when they visit the site. I’ll send a PM first and give them a chance to respond before we move them to the inactive group and make an announcement.
:rolleyes:
I don’t care about the e-mail address thing, and never stated or suggested that everyone should feel free to ignore that requirement (although I would imagine many posters here have outdated e-mail address, likely by accident, or use spam-catcher e-mail addresses that they never check for their SDMB account, but that is beside the point). I just didn’t realize that if a moderator sent you a message, failure to respond can result in banning or suspension. I don’t know the details of the PM, but I don’t respond to every note or message I get. It’s not that I’m being a bad little girl and am Breaking The Rules; it’s that I don’t really have anything to say, and so I don’t say anything. Unless someone is asking me a question, I’ll probably see a note and think “Okay,” then say nothing.
But that’s against the rules or something, I guess. I don’t know, whatever. Seriously, I don’t really care.
Apparently you do, otherwise you wouldn’t respond in this thread. Nobody is saying that you have to respond to every private message from the mods and admins, but you do have to respond to requests for information. If you are asked to correct your email address because it is no longer functional, what do you suppose you should do?
You’re right; this is totally a big deal to me, as is the topic of every thread I respond to. Enough with the e-mail address already. I’m talking about in the first place when they PM’d Zhenka, did not get a response to their PM, so they e-mailed him, at which point they discovered his e-mail address was no longer valid. What was so urgent that they kept messaging him, requiring a response? Like I said, I have no idea what the nature of the reported post was, or what the PMs contained. My guess is the initial PM (you know, *before *they discovered the invalid e-mail) contained instructions of some kind, otherwise, I can’t see why anyone would care whether or not he responded.
My best guess is that it is a private matter between him and the mods, and thus we may never know.