After some truly interminable snipery, Asimovian banned two posters from posting again in a thread. Just a quick note of thanks for this: I think thread bans are an excellent tool, more than a note and less than a warning, to help people cool off and to break the cycle of both people really wanting to have the last word. It’s possible I would’ve benefited from being subject to a threadban before as well.
Thanks, Asimovian, and I hope this tool gets used more often!
I am so tempted to ban you from this thread.
Nm
But it’s not perfect. One gets the thread ban in the body of the thread, and if one sees a response to his own post and replies, it is not always preceded by reviewing the entire thread to check for threadbans first. So one can violate a threadban without knowing that it is buried somewhere above. Is there an implicit obligation on the part of a poster to have read every post carefully since his last post before responding to a direct challenge to his own post?
DO IIIIITTTTTT
(obligatory small-caps text)
This is something that’s bothered me too, not specifically about threadbans, but about moderator notes, instructions, etc. in general. There needs to be some flag added to the thread title of a thread where you could get into trouble by having failed to notice that such instructions were present.
Yes! You should read the gotdang thread before posting every time! I promise you, we will survive without your cutting remark, witty oneliner or ferocious rebuttal while you spend the extra ten minutes it takes to read whatever was said since your last post.
Absolutely true, because the other thing is that people who post “I haven’t read the thread, but…” just about always go on to say something that’s already been covered extensively in the thread.
And if you get a mod note for misbehavior, c’mon, you know you were skating close to the line. You don’t get a mod note for civil, polite, on-topic, substantive posts. If you got snarky, you got an extra motivation to read the thread like you already shoulda done.
It would be less of a problem if the Infraction system were used as designed. There is a level that is never used here: the Infraction. When it is used, then it functions like a Warning does now, and the Warning functions like a Mod note. Except one major difference: a Warning will send a PM.
There’s a reason that Warnings give you a Yellow flag, not a Red flag. The system is designed to have two levels, but it’s just not used that way here.
And, no, I’m not advocating that the whole thing be changed now. It’s been like this for way too long. It just occurs to me that the problem we have with Notes maybe not being seen could be better.
Granted, this doesn’t work for the other kind of Mod Note, which is specific to a thread rather than a poster. And I bet you’d have to give out two warnings for two people, which might be tedious. If people can get along with the system as it is, it seems silly to change it. It’s really more of a “what could have been” idea.
I haven’t read this thread, but it seems there’d be a problem if one of the posters chose to respond prior to reading the mod’s threadban. Would they be in trouble? You guys haven’t brought that point up yet, have you? I mean, it’s original and insightful, right? Please say yes; I need your validation.
Are mod notes part of our record here? I’ve never known. Um, asking for a friend. :coughs nervously:
No. That is one reason why we have not used the color code system indicated by BigT. We regard a Mod Note as a way to encourage a poster to modify his or her behavior rather than as a demerit. It is a different philosophical approach than the punitive method that the color coded infractions employ. Either system can work, but our method starts from a different initial intent than the color code system.
Yes, but usually the Mods are reasonable about this.
Personally, I appreciate that. It’s very embarrassing to be chastised in public, especially when you know you deserve it. It’s a lot easier to take if it is done in a low key manner. I can only imagine seeing a blood red flag with a blood red note in size 6 font. 
Is a thread ban supported by a software component that can actually prevent specified posters from replying, or is it just a moderator telling them to stop posting?
I appreciate it, too, since my mod notes have come from a usually atypical lack of control of my annoyance or anger towards someone who doesn’t deserve that much of my energy, anyway.
Thanks, tomndebb.
We can manually remove any unwanted post from a thread which would effectively accomplish the same thing, but there isn’t anything automatic available to us in the software, at least not a thread by thread basis.
At the admin level, they can create user groups which can restrict access on a forum by forum basis. For example, we have a moderator only section that regular users can’t access. I don’t think that they can restrict postings on a thread by thread basis even in the admin control panel, although I don’t have access to the admin control panel so I can’t say for certain.
This admin control panel of which you speak. Its formidable presence has been cited in many an ATMB thread.
What’s it look like? Is there a big red button?
ETA: Screenshot, redacted of course if necessary, would be cool.
Which is a weird thing to think. I must be hanging around here too much.
I had no idea the mods were so tiny.
