Shambles
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2006
- Messages
- 52,286
I wonder if the perceived increase in bans may have something to do with the way the disciplinary and banning procedures changed completely between the "Golden Age" so many refer to (albeit a different period of EADD history being referred to depending on who is doing the referring) and now. Way back when mods actually did wield a banhammer but that hasn't really been the case for a long time now.
Years ago bans were decided by staff discussion. However careful people are about trying to remain as objective and fair as possible it was inevitable that biases and all manner of subjectiveness and random quirks of situation & circumstance will have also played a part. Presumably this was a big consideration behind switching to the current points-based system. Staff no longer have the option of simply banning somebody as the system is automated. Obviously we still decide whether to go for a PM warning, give and official warning, or issue an infraction - only the latter carries points and can thusly result in a ban.
I can only speak for EADD staff here but all that I have worked with over the years have made a real effort to deal with things via "soft" disciplinary options (ie anything short of infracting). I can't say that happens perfectly every single time cos mods are human too and have our off days, but I do know it is true in the vast majority of cases.
However, if a member has gotten to the stage where PMs and warnings are not working infractions will become the preferred option for any serious infringements. This is when somebody can get into a cycle of repeated tempbans because that is the way the points system works. Each new infraction triggers a tempban which gets longer each time - ten points and it becomes a permaban. In practice that is incredibly hard to get to though as points expire over time (although there is an option to add a permanent point in certain cases). Basically you'd have to go out of your way to ever reach permaban stage - takes a real concerted effort and there are many opportunities to get back to a clean record (pointswise) along the way.
All that aside, I totally agree with the point Sadie raises which has been noted many times over the years - the forum was indeed a lot friendlier (although certainly not to new members) in many ways when most of the regular posters were on eckies half the time. Nowadays there's barely any luvved-up posting and instead we have a lot more stims, opies & benzos as the DOC. Stands to reason things are going to be a lot more fractious, volatile and generally non-luvved-uppy really.
It's all context / intent m'darlin.
