@hecep's Modusoperandi thread

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Good cop, bad cop?

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Robo cop, Judge Death.

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Are you going to make BBS User Trading Cards with their stats on the back?

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There was a guy on the disc golf site I moderate that was Foghorn Leghorn for about a year. I let it slide because I loved his commitment (and I love Foghorn Leghorn) but one day he pissed off another mod and poof he was gone.

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This seems like one of the problems with using an opaque moderation style where posts might just vanish with no explanation or warning (even to the original poster). A mod might have enough information to feel justified about it, but that doesnā€™t mean someone isnā€™t going to get the wrong idea and end up with things escalating.

And, as others have said, the solidarity is more about the reaction to that escalation than what the original trigger was. This also isnā€™t the first time that disproportionate punishments have resulted for things that probably could have been defused by a lighter touch.

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And that right there is a big reason why I resist getting all that personally invested in online communities.

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Iā€™m self-sufficientā€¦

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I didnā€™t even necessarily realise that I was getting invested, and yet looking back on the past 5 years or so this BBS probably represents more than 50% of my non-family social life (I donā€™t socialize easily)

Iā€™m not happy. I like the people who got banned

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Yeah. I wrote that I resist getting drawn in, but I canā€™t say that it never happens.

insert flying Flag of Sadness gif

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I honestly donā€™t know the details. I donā€™t know what joke got him banned. I think though the outcry is independent of who it was. Yes @modusoperandi as more or less someone who threw out above average one liners, but should it matter if he was a joke account, or a regular, or a casual user? It seemed some felt the way he was dealt with was heavy handed, period.

But, again, I donā€™t know what happened, if it was deserved or not, but thought I would chime in on what I think the reasoning some people are upset.

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Just so thereā€™s no confusion:

MO wasnā€™t banned because of a joke. I know, I banned them.

MO posted a joke the topic owner thought was offtopic and deleted. MO asked why it was deleted (also offtopic), and their posts were deleted. They did this several more times. The topic owner asked them to stop. They did it again. The topic owner threatened that the next derail attempt would result in ā€œunreasonably long bansā€. they did it again. I stepped in at this point and gave the same ban I would have given to any account being that disruptive, regardless of whoā€™s topic it was. Thatā€™s unreasonable behaviour, especially when we have two moderation threads and DMā€™s available if they really wanted to discuss why their original post was removed.

I didnā€™t have anything to do with further mod actions surrounding this issue, but I want to be transparent about my reasoning, why I stepped in, and what occured in this case.

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Thank you for clarification. I do not have access to moderation threads, so I have been acting based on observation and pieced together a narrative from what remains - one that is incomplete and possibly even flat out wrong.

Another community where I have been active maintains a public Banhammer Strikes thread, where offenders are listed, rationale for ban, and occasionally the moderator posts logs (like in the Gimper Affair, which you can read all about here, in logs and the adminā€™s own words). Transparency, or at least the appearance thereof, is key to community well-being. At least that was my own rationale during my stint as an administrator at one co-operative writing forum.

Again, thank you for this clarification.

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I agree. This has been discussed in detail in the moderation topics for regulars as well both my me and others involved. Iā€™ve made a point of trying to be clear as to my actions, and participate in moderation topics where appropriate for this very reason (and will continue to do so for as long as I volunteer my time here!) I believe good communities deserve no less.

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Indeed. I look forward to reading the moderation threads when I achieve Regular status in four months (barring behavior that results in yet another flog- flagging). I think this has been a good learning experience for the community, for the moderation team, and for Discourse developers. I will not be rescinding my change of avatar as passive protest, but I will desist from spamming snark related to this in threads.

Iā€™m building a discourse instance dev environment tonight for sake of developing a better mod toolkit userscript. Turns out I had some spare kit in the backroom - not commercial grade server, but good enough to host a MUD.

#FreeMichael
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Seems to be a common escalation path when posts are deleted unceremoniously.

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Just the fact that youā€™ve been explaining this for the last couple of days without the slightest hint of irritation* says worlds about you. Thanks for all you do.

*that weā€™re aware of

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Thanks for the explanation. Given how things have been going, you probably saved MO from a much longer ban by stepping in when you did.

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Actual footageā€¦

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Mierda! Joder!

Thatā€™s right. Banned. For a decade. A decade. I am using my burner account, but I need all ghosts to be aware that you can totally get smuckered. And no, I did not request a ban. I ceased my protests when requested to by moderators in a DM.

@nimelennar - sorry, ghosts. I swore that Iā€™d never give you up, never let you down, never run around and desert you. Sorry. Iā€™m crying. I guess this is the part where I say goodbye.

@orenwolf

EDIT:
My username was tinoesroho. But now Iā€™m just somebody that you used to know.

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