Oh for God's sake, now what?
I'm going to put my foot down on Toady's side, for a specific reason. He and his brother, mostly himself as far as I can tell, have to read every single moderation report, and read up on the thread in question, before he can make a decision. Toady claims to take notes on what he finds, and we know from his actual work that he's detail-obsessed enough that I believe him on that. One of his possible choices is "Do nothing", one I'm willing to bet he takes more often than he'd ever mention. But at some point, when he starts to see the same names coming up often enough, whatever they might look like in any one post, eventually he'll feel the need to make a call.
Dasleah got banned because he was an ass. A lot of people liked him, because he was an entertaining and creative ass. But Toady's one real rule, the one he mentions at every opportunity, is be cool. In other words, don't be an ass. And don't enable someone else to be an ass vicariously. It's a pretty simple rule to follow, and yet every time someone gets banned for it, there's another parade of nuances and justifications.
I don't know or remember much of anything about what Mayday or Makrond or Retro got up to, although I certainly recognize them all instantly and I don't recall anything objectionable about them. But I'm not a moderator, I don't keep up. I do get the sense that Toady has been a bit trigger happy in recent months, as if his patience or concern is wearing thin. But he thinks it was warranted, I'll take him at his word, because keeping up with reports is what he does. Was banning some otherwise reasonable person too harsh compared to whatever the specifics were? Maybe. Here's an idea: don't leave any room for doubt or confusion. How? Don't be an ass, and don't help anyone else be an ass.
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Topic: Things that made you sad today thread. (Read 9487403 times)