Well, all the regulars we deal with have pretty open lines of communication with at least one moderator or admin because they somehow have an affinity with that person or are their personal antagonist or know their history well. I’m not sure if that just isn’t happening here, but would suggest any users who don’t understand why they are being moderated to send a private message to any admin or mod and discuss things. 1:1 discussions just seem to be way more productive for me.
It can be pretty difficult to discuss things in public because of teh “ruleslawyering” referenced above. Moderation usually involves a lot of judgement in interperting tone and intent. Discussing it in public just invites a lot of dogpiling.
But suggesting that because you are a regular or super regular that you should get an extra message - no, I wouldn’t do that. Hopefully if you are that regular you understand what happened and can roll with it or bring it up for discussion. When I type something up, it is usually a post to tell the participants to all get back on track and to let them know I am watching so they will hopefully self limit their shenanigans…The people who I am most likely to send a message to are those who are NEW and are obviously running against the grain of the culture somehow and don’t seem to understand why they are generating annoyance from other users…at least after I check to see if they are a troll or duplicate account…
Really? I mean, I don’t… at least I don’t think I do. I never PM with any of the mods or the admins, and only sometimes talk to them in the comments. If there is some special in for regulars who get to be all cozy with the powers that be here, I’m certainly not part of that group. I’m a regular because I spend way too much time here, posting, liking, commenting (sometimes thoughtfully, sometimes not). I read the front page, read the comments, and get to know other posters. I didn’t get an in because I know anyone who runs the site personally.
We’re talking about not being banned with no idea of why. I do think that everyone who gets banned, for ever or for a week, should get some sort of notice, because especially the people who spend lots of time here and are the core audience for the site.
From @rkt88edmo’s previous post, it sounds like they’re talking about the situation in another forum, where they are a moderator, not the situation here.
I understand their point about moderators being busy and all. But maybe there can be a set of pre-programmed reasons for a short time out, that the individual being banned gets?
Yes, I am talking about another forum where I am one of a dozen or so moderators. Different forums definitely have different cultures.
Getting banned with no idea why is not ok. All bans where I mod get some kind of message. When we are talking about “no message communicated” I was thinking along the lines of deleted posts/threads. All bans have at least a few words communicating to the person banned. I usually use a short quote from their offending post and sign it so they know it was me.
I definitely communicate with those banned especially if I see them headed there again. I also like progressively longer ban periods for repeat offenders.
The only special knowledge I have of boingboing bbs is that sometimes I am a space moose.
A suspension message is required in Discourse for all suspensions, and shows on the user’s profile for all to see. Not sure why you weren’t seeing it @Mindysan33 since it’s been there since the feature was created.
I was speaking to what @enso said, about getting something more concrete and specific for a ban. It sounds like one just is logged out? Sometimes the one liners on the person’s profile page seem kind of vague for the reason.
You’re just logged out. When you try to log in, it fails and the “error” or “explanation” message will tell you’re banned, how long you’re banned, and a one line (I assume) reason why. I’ve only banned twice, I think (only once for a longer period) so I’m grasping here.
You can’t PM the mods because…you can’t log in to PM. You can send email to the default site address and hope someone replies, I guess. Likely as not, if you’re banned, no one is going to reply and reverse it (obviously an opinion). As a number of people have said, the witty explanations of “why” leave a bit to be desired and their is no mechanism to appeal or even contact staff to ask for details.
It shows the same message, per @codinghorror. Like the “pedantic != funny” that one person complained about above as their explanation.
The system has my email address. It notifies me of replies. It would be nice if the system notified a user when they’re banned (other than coming to the site and seeing you’re logged out), with a reason and a way to contact if one has questions.
I think sometimes the moderators (Whoever they might be since we don’t know who they are) might be either rushed (for some reason) or engaging in their own wit.
The last time I was banned, I didn’t even get a warning or a PM from Falcor to chill or anything. I have received such warnings once or twice before (and followed them).
I think it would be nice if there was a “one strike” or “two strike” policy from mods before they just outright ban someone. Like “We’ll PM you a warning on this thread once and if you don’t follow it, don’t be surprised if you wind up banned.” It seems it goes from heated thread to banning with no in-between at times, based on various anecdotes here.
