Permaban offences

Without naming names* what have ex-posters done to get permabanned?


*a caveat which I'm hoping will get this thread past our respected and honourable censors, but what will be will be.

I can read your mind A spammer this morning already was banned for spamming, probably a bot and not a human at all. But if that wasn't what you were thinking about, I'd say in general being permaban comes from not listening to the many chances Yoda would give someone in PM. If something is taboo and one has been reportedly warned not to do it, don't do it!

This is a private bar. Piss off the bartender and you get tossed. The rest is PR.

Yeah, for new users/obvious spammers/people who start trouble immediately, the ban hammer comes down pretty quickly. For people who've been around a bit, the threshold is significantly higher.

As CR indicated, overwhelmingly any regular who's been banned has been warned many times first. I virtually always contact them privately at least once. I do this specifically to avoid calling people out in public, which tends to raise hackles, get egos involved, et cetera. But interestingly some people are more upset by the private communication; they find it scoldier, I guess, even though to me the exact opposite is true. But whatareyougonnado?

As for the why, it varies, but it's usually just picking fights over and over, particularly the same kinds of fights. Needless confrontation, escalating things unnecessarily over and over, or just skirting the rules. History and intent matter, in that it's possible to get banned for something which wouldn't be a huge deal if it happened once, but when it keeps happening over and over, pretty clearly suggests the person is trying to see what they can get away with. That kinda thing. Mostly these days that means political stuff, trying to pull discussions back into contentious topics over and over.

I try to lay out clear rules when possible, but it's not always possible, and I know from experience that if the rules are too define, too literal, people always find loopholes even though any common sense observation makes it obvious that they're trying to cause trouble. I leave myself and any mods enough wiggle room to make those judgment calls.

To try to compensate for any ambiguity, I invite questions exactly like this one and appreciate it when people ask me to clarify any edge case stuff. Always happy to do it!

This makes it sound a lot more mercurial than it actually is in practice, but sure, true in a very technical sense. The important missing context being that what pisses off the bartender is fairly well-established, routinely divorced from the substance of his own beliefs, and pretty (in my opinion) consistent.

Some will certainly disagree with that last bit. They are all, of course, people who have consistently run afoul of the rules, so you can judge for yourself whether that influences the criticism or not.

Oh, one last thing: the "perma" part complicates the answer because a pretty high number of banned users have been given second chances (on top of the second-and-third-and-fourth chances implied by any warnings). Occasionally it even works out the next time. But not always. Sometimes it's just a way to remove any shadow of a doubt that it was the right decision the first time.

So basically doing bad things badly?

This is why you gotta get creative with high brow, veiled insults. Ya can’t just go around calling everyone a poopy head.

Well, the one that sticks out the most to me was Jinnistan, who I think was temp-banned for causing a bigger stink than was neccessary about a stupid thread someone else made here (the thread he made in response to the other guy got deleted before I was able to log on unfortunately though, so I didn't see it for myself), and then I believe he was permabanned after he copped an attitude towards Yoda about something else, after having been warned to back off, which I wasn't surprised to see from him. I mean, he was a very intelligent poster otherwise, but he kept having a bad attitude, dating back his days on the Corrie when he essentially trolled me for moderating that forum in a way he disagreed, which I would've at least warned him about if he had said it to someone else, but I refrained from since I was trying to avoid the appearance of abusing my power there, even though that wouldn't have been the case there in that circumstance. Whatever; it's done now, I guess.

lol

lol

Completely unforgivable.

You left out:
-- liking colorized versions of B&W movies.

I think theres an erie magic about this place, Ive seen people want to be permabanned because they couldnt or wouldnt leave on their own willpower. So it becomes more of a social media euthanizing. Go figure.

Yodas extremely patient in most areas, but is human like the rest of us. I couldnt do what he or the mods do, simply lack the tempermant. I would have banned myself years ago in his shoes, deservedly....but then what do you get? By banning all that you feel is out of place you get some hemoginized inorganic construct of a site with no true soul, community, or life. That is the easier softer way, and the reason forums have fallen to the wayside except this one.


Having said all that Im looking forward to the book Chris/Yoda writes of his experiences running this place

Yup, I've seen that happen here and on other boards as well.

There's an erie magic to a thread like this. The existence of such a thread is a bit of a dare. It is an implicit criticism which demands a reply (i.e., if the question is being asked, then the answer is presumably uncertain and that's an insult).

We've even had our bartender show up to assure us that all his pours are level, that he doesn't water down the whiskey, and he never turns anyone out in the street who didn't deserve it. I suppose that settles the matter.

Optically, however, the immune response to the challenge is more persuasive if we have testimonials from satisfied customers. I, myself, have offered such testimonials in praise of a bartender on several occasions. You don't want to piss off the bartender, but some bartenders are more forgiving than others. All hail our local Moe, more patient than most, best well-drinks in town, purveyor of finest Falernian wine.

That stated, there is a survivor bias here. Those patrons eighty-sixed from our fine establishment (and there are a lot of them, just look at how many times you see the word "BANNED" next to names of posters in old threads) are not here to offer their testimony. Thus our sample is that of satisfied customers in the surviving clique (and there are like what, twenty, thirty people left here?), and only the occasional grumble from a malcontent who mutters over his mug.

Don't be a nuisance. Don't complain. Pay your tab. Decline any invitation fisticuffs over your list of "Bestest Films Ever." And don't make threads like this.

Nah, it's not about pissing off the bartender...it's about not pissing all over the patrons and the bar!

This.
It usually isn’t any transgression against Yoda himself, but rather multiple transgressions against the users here.

And he lets a lot of transgressions against him go when it would have been easier to just ban someone who has openly attacked him. I’ve seen it.
The ban always comes after multiple warnings.

Question: was political discussion ever allowed on here?

Yes. It was banned because it caused too many problems.

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