Bartholomew's 'Stuck at the Top of OP' Thread

Bartholomew

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Ever go through an old thread, and you see someone who's made a quasi-reasonable, on-topic remark, and then notice that they've been banned?

You see this person has 12 or 13 posts - sometimes a few more, sometimes a few less - and his or her post history shows no obvious reason for a banning.

It makes no sense! Threads around here aren't cornfielded, they're locked. The mods typically make their decisions with full disclosure. And besides, this type of forum shows if a thread was deleted - so there aren't any sneaky mod shenanigans going on.

And yet, some newbie has been shown the door.

Does this make anyone else insanely curious, or am I just an old, gossipy hen?

I took the purple pill by posting this. Soon, supermods in black suits will ban me and destroy all evidence that I ever existed. I go down the rabbit hole, now.

Farewell!

/flounce
 
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poetinahat

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Ever think you know the whole story, then find out you didn't?
 

MacAllister

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Usually something like that happens for one of several possible reasons. For example, the ostensible newbie is actually a sockpuppet, and we find out. Or else the ostensible newbie is here to web-stalk another member, and we find out. The ostensible newbie might in fact be quite abusive, backchannel, and get banned for that.

Generally, in any of the above situations? That's not anyone's business, and it would be terribly inappropriate for the mods to be airing that laundry, just to satisfy your curiosity.
 
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Kaiser-Kun

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Soon, supermods in black suits will ban me and destroy all evidence that I ever existed. I go down the rabbit hole, now.

simpsons_nelson_haha3.jpg
 

BenPanced

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Ever go through an old thread, and you see someone who's made a quasi-reasonable, on-topic remark, and then notice that they've been banned?
The times I've seen people get banned, their responses are almost never quasi-reasonable and almost always never on topic. They get one or two warnings, unless they're being outright stupid.
You see this person has 12 or 13 posts - sometimes a few more, sometimes a few less - and his or her post history shows no obvious reason for a banning.
Until you get to that one particular thread where they completely unravel and there's no way to reel them back in. Quiet warnings don't work. Simple, short time-outs don't work. The only way to contain the situation is to carry through on the threats of bannination and boot their ass.
It makes no sense! Threads around here aren't cornfielded, they're locked. The mods typically make their decisions with full disclosure. And besides, this type of forum shows if a thread was deleted - so there aren't any sneaky mod shenanigans going on.

And yet, some newbie has been shown the door.

Does this make anyone else insanely curious, or am I just an old, gossipy hen?

I took the purple pill by posting this. Soon, supermods in black suits will ban me and destroy all evidence that I ever existed. I go down the rabbit hole, now.

Farewell!

/flounce
Bart, from your post count and join date, you've around almost as long as I, so I would hope you have a better understanding of the machinations that go on around here. As Mac said, there's a LOT that goes on backstage we don't see. A couple mods have mentioned there's much more hand-wringing and fretting we don't know about.

So a newbie got the boot. Was it somebody you know personally? A good friend or family member you'd recommended they join? Unless I'm personally affected/effected by a situation that ends with a newb getting 86'd, I just shrug and figure "it's teh intarwebz". A very minute portion of what's going on here has directly involved itself in my life. The rest I can ignore at whim, and I do so with great frequency and relish. If it gets too stoopid in a discussion, I can either just no longer read it or put the person on my ignore list. Et voila. Life goes on.

It's like when people get fired from the bank where I work. Unless you're in the gossip chain, your supervisor has told you directly, or you were somehow involved in the decision, all you're going to know about it is the email saying "Firstname Lastname is no longer an employee of the bank." Period. Cold, sterile, harsh. Opening it up to public scrutiny compromises the integrity of the operation and exposes the owners and operators to all sorts of legal ickiness; keeping the matter closed generally allows all parties to drop the matter with some dignity. Again, life goes on.
 

MissMacchiato

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lol, I can't say that I have, but now that you mention it, I am curious!

I mod on another board, so I understand all the possible reasons for banning or posts being deleted and such, but I'm always curious about specific examples, the who, the how, the why.

Must be the writer in me!
 

Kaiser-Kun

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Wait. There's a PURPLE pill?! Dude.

That's easy, if I learned something in Kindergarten's Colors 101: You have to mix the excretions of two subjects, one who took the blue pill and one who took the red pill.
 

poetinahat

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False advertising! You promise a report, and all we get is conjecture. What is this, a Michael Moore audition? :Wha:

Soon, supermods in black suits will ban me and destroy all evidence that I ever existed.
Nah, time does the good work without any help. I presume you're the same noble Bart we all know and love, and this thread will have its fifteen minutes and sink into the AW archaeology.
 

MacAllister

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Indeed. I'm trying hard to fathom any possible motive for starting this thread, other than to make the admin and mods here look like mooks, or else look like a secretive and ban-happy bunch of control freaks.

And since simply closing the thread at this point would play right into either perception, our hands are a bit tied--this one's gonna have to run it's course.

So do elaborate on your central thesis, Bartholomew. You've got the stage.
 

Guardian

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This is not a report. You fail fourth grade.

What a shame. Your finger paintings showed such promise with primary colors.



Seriously though, have you stopped to consider that not all bannable behavior is expressed through posts? The mods here are very rational. I think. I was banned before from a social network by a newly crowned mod who was given administrative rights and immediately abused them. That person was also probably 12. As quirky as the mods can be, I don't think they ever ban people just because they can.

P.S. The banning game thread doesn't actually ban people. ;)
P.P.S. That mod had no grounds for banning me and didn't check with the admin there, so I was unbanned and she was drop-kicked. I did get banned from a sub group that was forming a cult but that's another story.
 
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MissMacchiato

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lol, Guardian.

And more generally (not directed at G) Mods are people - we all have bad modding days, although you don't actually ban anyone unless they're being a complete tool.

That's why most forums have infractions first, and then time specific banning, followed by full permanent ban

And how useful is the phrase 'they were like, twelve!' I thought I was the only one who uses that!
 

Deleted member 42

1. Read the post history
2. Keep in mind that most of the people who are perm banned are banned for being spammers.
3. Read the %&(#*& post history.
 

Guardian

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WELL I don't like to use age against people, still being legally a child myself. But at 12, you're not supposed to be on most websites. :p Then again at 11 I was already browsing the exquisite sins of the internet. ^_^ Also at a young age, it's a rare person who can wield power with responsibility. Either that or the person was just a biotch with grudge issues against anyone who didn't agree that Buffy & Angel were true love. Young or not, she had ~ISSUES~
 

MacAllister

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Heh. I think we've scared Bart. Or scarred him.

Ice cream cones on Bartholomew, then, folks.
 

Guardian

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Aww, Bart. I'm just sayin'. Of course we get curious but it's not like it's a conspiracy. Now, the government covering up evidence of UFOs and secret experiments with mind control, time travel, teleportation, and injecting civilians with hallucinigens are things that I TOTALLY love to hear conspiracies about.
 

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I must confess, when I'm reading old posts (something I do rather worryingly often, tbh), and I note that a user's been banned, I almost invariably click on their profile and try to figure out why.

But I'm a weird pseudosociopath, so I can probably be safely ignored.