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[Dozebôm Lolumzalěs]

I'm noticing a lot of forumites getting banned, like cochramd. (NOOO! He was a good fortresser and writer.) Is this more than usual? What's causing them to be banned? (And yes, I read the few words about it, but what were they doing?) And how do I make sure I don't get banned? (Is it painfully obvious what to do, or not?)

(I figured this would go here, since this is where the mod log is, but I could move it if you like.)

(Also, if you're reading this Toady, I totally support your bans. Maybe somebody was in a gray area, but you don't have hours to determine whose fault it was. And any more would distract you from GETTING OUT 42.07 LIKE YOU SHOULD BE DOING jk no but seriously release 42.07 soon pls)

[Bauglir]

Near as I can tell, bans happen when you're persistently aggressive. Usually about a political or social perspective, although that's probably just the particular thing that gets people most worked up. Generally, if you don't escalate discussions into fights and don't single people or groups out for attacks (whether they're present or not), you'll be fine, and you'll generally get a few warnings, then mutes, before a ban.

[Frumple]

You can... kinda' check the moderation log to see if it's more than usual. 1-3 in a month is fairly normal, looking back the last couple years. What's causing them to be banned is kiiiinda' stated in the log -- they were doing whatever they were banned for. Not really much else to it.

As for not getting banned, there's a forum guideline. If you stay within those bounds (and perhaps additionally make sure you're not regularly causing/being heavily involved in problematic arguments/etc.), you'll be fine. Generally, be chill, don't make personal attacks on other forum members, avoid being a bigoted nitwit, don't advocate violence against people on forum or otherwise, don't bring drama to or form other places on the internet, be careful with the lewds, and that's about it.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalěs]

Hmm, "bigoted nitwit" seems like a hard thing to prove. Many people call each other that.

[Frumple]

Really not difficult. Avoid stereotyping of demographics, especially offensively, don't use slurs, and that's about it. Most of those bigoted remarks bans are because people... didn't. It's really easy to prove when someone's basically acting like it's /pol/ or some crap.

You can believe it, I guess, but the problem boss toad has is opening your mouth about it. You'd think it wouldn't be difficult to not do that, but, well. The log est.

[IronyOwl]

Assuming the ban log is up to date, we appear to be holding steady at around 2 a month. The Bay12 Posting History thread might have more detailed information if you're curious how that compares to total membership or posting rates or whatever.

Toady tends to delete whatever gets somebody banned, and it seems to often be based on former behavior or even PMs with them, so it's usually not obvious why after the fact. Sometimes it'll get mentioned somewhere by the people who witnessed it, but you could ask around if you were curious about the details or nobody was talking. From what I've heard it's usually pretty obvious to most of the people who have had extensive dealings with the person.

As far as I'm aware, the vast majority of bans take place in political threads, so if you don't take part in those you're mostly safe. Otherwise it's kind of hard to tell precisely what gets you banned, but at 2/month it probably takes some effort or severely poor luck.

What's causing them to be banned is kiiiinda' stated in the log -- they were doing whatever they were banned for. Not really much else to it.

What's stated in the log is really vague, though. You can get a rough idea, and the low rate implies a certain severity or persistence, but "Bigoted Remarks" is otherwise a pretty fuzzy concept.

As for not getting banned, there's a forum guideline. If you stay within those bounds (and perhaps additionally make sure you're not regularly causing/being heavily involved in problematic arguments/etc.), you'll be fine. Generally, be chill, don't make personal attacks on other forum members, avoid being a bigoted nitwit, don't advocate violence against people on forum or otherwise, don't bring drama to or form other places on the internet, be careful with the lewds, and that's about it.

Note that the stated bounds don't necessarily line up with observed data. The rules specify not to pick fights with other posters or use bigoted language, for example, but "bigoted remarks" shows up fairly frequently, while "fighting" is almost always preceded by "repeated." So... is bigoted language more severe than picking fights? The guidelines don't say so, but the data might imply it. They also don't define either term, which leaves more room for ambiguity.

Hmm, "bigoted nitwit" seems like a hard thing to prove. Many people call each other that.

Well, not calling other people that is probably a good start. Toady and others like to keep this forum relatively chill. It doesn't always work.

[martinuzz]

I recall 3 bans in the past 2 months in my EU thread. All 3 were because people were advocating the use of lethal violence against refugees / muslims. Obviously, that's more than one bridge too far. If you post crap like that, you're like holding a big flashing neon sign saying ban me plx, even if you're an otherwise helpful forum member in the gameplay forum, or a good community story writer.

[smjjames]

And there was that one wierd guy who wanted to get banned and was going to troll until that happened. I don't think Toady One put that name up.

[Frumple]

Nah, T1 did. The captain one nearest the bottom. Boss toad usually puts them up unless they've only been around for a few days or whatev'.

Though @IO, the bigoted remarks tend to be multiple offenses, too, especially if they're oblique instead of direct -- burningpet, ferex, was spewing hatred against muslims for quite a while before they got squished. I'd say the difference in whether repeated or not is used in the log is more a writing quirk than anything.

That said, yeah, there is a bit more leniency in regards to heated tempers compared to bigotry, especially if there's not a pattern of the former. Toady's fairly understanding of the occasional bad day making you feisty so long as it's not a substantial pattern or common occurrence. Not so much deciding to start throwing racial slurs and whatnot around.

[My Name is Immaterial]

Assuming the ban log is up to date, we appear to be holding steady at around 2 a month. The Bay12 Posting History thread might have more detailed information if you're curious how that compares to total membership or posting rates or whatever.

OOOOOHHHHHH That's awesome! I'll have to take a crack at that! Anyone have the pre-2013 bans?

[Dozebôm Lolumzalěs]

So I'm necroing this to ask about OW.

What the hell did he do? I've mostly seen spammers and people who tend to be flamey get banned, not people like OW! What's next?! LW? Tiruin?

(no, tiruin would never get banned)

[BorkBorkGoesTheCode]

Something to do with the out of context quotes thread. I wasn't there to see.

[Tawa]

What the hell did he do? I've mostly seen spammers and people who tend to be flamey get banned, not people like OW!

To be honest, OW did have a bit of a tendency to get flamy. Most specifically, I remember him going out of his way to bash Americans on the grounds that they're Americans. He was also one of those sorts who glorified "shitposting", as I remember it.

The specific reason he got banned apparently involved the N word and F-gay word; Toady has a zero-tolerance policy on slurs, IIRC.

[BorkBorkGoesTheCode]

What the hell did he do? I've mostly seen spammers and people who tend to be flamey get banned, not people like OW!

To be honest, OW did have a bit of a tendency to get flamy. Most specifically, I remember him going out of his way to bash Americans on the grounds that they're Americans. He was also one of those sorts who glorified "shitposting", as I remember it.

The specific reason he got banned apparently involved the N word and F-gay word; Toady has a zero-tolerance policy on slurs, IIRC.

A remark was supposed to have been made referring to a previous post involving something similar to the KKK.

[DEVIL POST]

[Yoink]

The only bad thing I saw from OW was, as mentioned, his habit of bashing the US to the point of being ridiculous.
Apparently the ban involved a post from someone that involved a rectangle formed from the word "KEK", which led to jokes involving the diagonals, which spelled "KKK". There was use of an N-word, although it was the plural of the five-letter one, not the seven-letter one that shall not be spoken.