What is a ban?
A ban prevents a member from posting. Like the rest of the public, banned members can still read any board that doesn’t have a password. The posts of banned members are not deleted, unless they are patently offensive (i.e., pornography) or present legal liability to the site.
A member who’s been banned has a red Banned banner under their avatar, visible on their existing posts.
There are different kinds of bans.
In the case of obvious unacceptable behavior (spam, porn), a member may be banned by the first moderator to spot it on their board or the first supermoderator to see such a post reported by members. The rest of the time, moderators talk with troublesome members privately, issue warnings, share information and discuss among themselves what actions are reasonable when a member’s behavior has been unacceptable. Bans aren’t done lightly or in the heat of the moment.
Reasons for past bans include:
We’re aware that there are people online who say Absolute Write bullies people and bans unfairly. The site owner and the moderators know the people making such claims omit the part where they behaved inappropriately, instead making themselves appear the innocent victim. If you behave with courtesy, you’ll be fine. Act like an entitled jerk, you’re at risk.
A ban prevents a member from posting. Like the rest of the public, banned members can still read any board that doesn’t have a password. The posts of banned members are not deleted, unless they are patently offensive (i.e., pornography) or present legal liability to the site.
A member who’s been banned has a red Banned banner under their avatar, visible on their existing posts.
There are different kinds of bans.
- Permanent bans are just what they sound like, issued when a member’s behavior has been entirely unacceptable. On a very few occasions, the banned member has contacted the site owner, vowed they’re a changed person, and been given a second chance, but this is not typical.
- Temporary bans are a final explicit warning about unacceptable behavior. Most often they’re two weeks or one month, but they can be set for any amount of time.
- Self-bans are temporary bans given at the request of the member, usually because they need to eliminate the distraction of this site to focus on their writing, or need to to cool off after strong disagreement with another member.
- Forum bans allow a member to post anywhere but the specific banned forum, such as Office Party, Novels, Politics & Current Events, etc. These are issued when a member has proven they are unwilling or unable to abide by the forum’s expectations, such as citing sources in P&CE, or have repeatedly behaved in a way that disrupts the forum.
- Thread bans bar a member from posting in a specific thread after their past behavior there has been unacceptable.
In the case of obvious unacceptable behavior (spam, porn), a member may be banned by the first moderator to spot it on their board or the first supermoderator to see such a post reported by members. The rest of the time, moderators talk with troublesome members privately, issue warnings, share information and discuss among themselves what actions are reasonable when a member’s behavior has been unacceptable. Bans aren’t done lightly or in the heat of the moment.
Reasons for past bans include:
- spam
- pornography
- copyright violation
- posting anything generated, edited, revised, translated, etc. by an AI, including images
- posting work for critique that they didn’t write
- Holocaust denial
- doxxing/sharing someone’s personal information
- spreading misinformation about COVID
- refusing to cite sources at P&CE
- eroticizing sexual assault, sex with minors, etc.
- posting adult content at all-ages parts of the site
- telling other members to f--- off, go to hell, etc.
- hate speech
- plagiarism
- promoting conspiracy theory
- creating multiple accounts/sock puppetry
- stalking, bullying, or harassing other members
- insisting white male privilege is appropriate
- assuming the identity of a real person who isn’t you
- continuing a behavior after being warned not to
- posting only for self-promotion
- getting members to do your schoolwork
- promoting diploma mills or academic cheating sites
- religious proselytizing
We’re aware that there are people online who say Absolute Write bullies people and bans unfairly. The site owner and the moderators know the people making such claims omit the part where they behaved inappropriately, instead making themselves appear the innocent victim. If you behave with courtesy, you’ll be fine. Act like an entitled jerk, you’re at risk.
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