There is the potential for a moderator to misuse the system by quickly inflicting a prolonged ban without getting support from the rest of staff that it is warranted, hence the recent change to points and days. A single mod could fairly easily issue an infraction for a point, but the member isn't suspended until at least 2 points are earned. IF a mod is issuing these without his peer forum mods being aware and in support of the action, it'll be visible to all of staff and we can look into it. This was a step to prevent mods abusing their position and banning members without proper agreement it was earned.
Now, there are instances where a mod may really need to have a member banned - for that we have a staff thread for raising such discussion points, and we have our REPORTED POSTS in which we can see where a problem member is out of line and needs immediate attention. This step is here so that the peer forum mods are enlisted to assess proper direction, and ANY sr. staff member can manually issue a longer temp ban, or additional point (more than one) if warranted. But all of this requires more than one person's input - this way we again avoid the opportunity for a member to cry about unfair treatment.
Also, this helps us with the site overall - as newer mods might use the tool to ban a SPAMMER, but it may only be temporary and not flag sr. staff's attention to the account as is really needed for proper clean it up.
The accounts were banned - after several temp-bans, they were fully banned. When would you have ever thought you'd get those back?
The current policy was created because of the handful of people on that list. Before then, it there wasn't a real list of "Ban on sight" persons, because this group of fuckups raised the bar so damn high we had to start doing that.
The handful of people that are on that list know what they did to earn it. Not one of them could possibly claim they didn't know the trouble they were causing. Like others before them, the accounts were banned permanently, so the claims by kokomo to get an old account back is just pointless bitching about something he already knows he earned. To answer in his words:
Any donations are more than welcome, as they help keep the place alive and online for everyone. That said, we're not entertaining the chance to 'buy' back an old account. It's not on the table for discussion. You're right, "theres no point, they aint gonna reactivate our accounts"
"my 8 yrs" = join date, "my posts" = postcount. You care. They aren't coming back. "Fair"? Try being on the receiving end of the shit pulled by those listed on the first post and consider what is "fair". Several of the staff would never have those people back at all, ever, but that wasn't the majority decision. We're trying to be "fair" by letting you guys on the site at all. Hoping you have any sense of what it is "fair" and won't pull the same shit again.
You each have a shot at being a member again. That's more than you had before. How's that for fair?
Me? That's all I have to say about that, because "i see no reason to go on discussin this, theres no point,"