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He won't be harassing you for a week or so. The issue is resolved, so I'm locking this.

Feel free to PM me or another moderator on the matter though. Thanks.

I'm just lurking, as well as a former mod (actually just in title, but still I'm trying to just be a regular user), so my opinion carries less weight.

Nonetheless, I feel this is kind of harsh?

I remember I used to have a lot of trouble banning RaptorJesus and there were some who wanted RussianFedora (now Piano) banned – and they weren't because the admins believed they could get better and that permabanning and sometimes banning was extreme. I thought they were trolling, and maybe they were, but nevertheless they did get better. A similar thing happened with Sweatie Killer, although his trolling was before my time.

Their posts were relevant posts interspersed with trollish posts, which were sometimes misguided humor or just unpopular opinions. I feel uncomfortable seeing a user be threatened with permabans, especially when users much worse than him redeemed themselves.

Of course, if after he is no longer suspended – he still is a douchey user, this post looks rather silly, but even still, I think it is rather harsh at the moment. It also bothers me that this thread was never really answered. Even if the complaint is possibly a troll move, if one gives them the benefit of the doubt – they didn't get clarification on what rules they broke, and they are suspended because…?

Anyway, I'm just lurking, and was bothered seeing this, so I felt obliged to comment, despite not being particularly involved in the website anymore.

tuturu~
awkward ogw out~

edit: minor details

Y'know, I've got to say my thoughts paralleled ogw's. Maybe I needed to see them in context, but looking through OP's forum posts, they seemed somewhat annoying, but I didn't see where they crossed a line into trolling. Was it the thing about Jar-jar being the only good thing in Star Wars?

Yo, Verbs.

I'm not really understanding his week ban, other than the fact that he published your private message to him, where he brings up the idea of your harassment of him, which, from reading your private message it really does come across as.

We're here to warn, not to threaten, before any punishment is made. I want you to think about that in the future before making a punishment decision.

As far as this punishment goes, I'm seeing him more as a person trying to make unfunny edgy humor, not here to troll and wreck the website on purpose or anything. I'm not seeing where a week long suspension is called for.

Would like other input.

I noticed that guy and checked his post history. Like Chris, I figured he was just some misguided kid trying to be funny or tough and not really a troll. The first posts he made point to his innocence (most trolls don't bother introducing themselves positively in the introduction thread). Thus, I didn't mind responding to his troll posts sarcastically or seriously.

I didn't think he was breaking any rules. He was just guilty of making dim-witted and immature posts.

But after the trash he posted, I don't think anyone will miss him, nor would he have been helpful. May as well leave him suspended since he was bound to get in trouble sooner or later. Could probably use the lesson.

I will say that with kids like that, you really need to speak their language or they just go and do things like this. Bureaucratic approaches such as the one that Verbose used will send them on the defensive. Then they go and dig themselves deeper. He needed guidance more than a punishment

I just woke up. Sorry.

I'd stand by my position if not for at least four other moderators saying otherwise. It seems like I had a terrible error in judgement. I do need to explain myself.

After this, I figured that he agreed with my assessment, because he didn't offer any other complaint.
 
He also posted a rather derogatory remark on opspe's wall after he warned him about, but it doesn't appear to be there anymore. He also insulted the userbase and KYM on the whole, which added to everything else I noticed in terms of making a decision that he was simply here to troll. I guess opspe deleted it, so I'll have to defer to him.

He also uploaded a NSFW images without a spoiler to one of the threads after saying he'd like to fuck Twilight Sparkle (which is contrary to what he said about not watching a children's show.) It led me to believe that he was simply trying to strike users' sensitive points.
 
 
I did not ban him for this thread.

I banned him, because he continued to post as he did with no regard to warnings (from opspe and me). I hoped that I had developed a reputation of being critical of myself, so that people wouldn't think that I'd ban a user for being critical of me, but I haven't done that well enough, it seems.

Even if he does come back to "troll," it seems as if he never crossed a point where he should have been suspended. Whether or not I'm right ultimately doesn't mean I should have acted with weak foresight.
 
With that and other instances in mind, I've unsuspended him, and effectively, I'm going to suspend my moderator powers for at least a week. Maybe permanently (I'll let my embarrassment ease up before making that decision.) I get this sort of complaint a little too often to think it's something that's easily rectified, and we're pretty well moderated as it is, so I'm not necessary at this point anyway. Feel free to contact the administrators if there's the desire to officially revoke my powers as punishment or to make sure this doesn't happen again.
 
No, I'm not going to reconsider what I'm doing. I've considered this for a while, but held off to see if I could do better.
 
I'll contact other moderators if I think it's a problem that needs to be addressed in the future, but I'll ask them to ban/lock/warn/etc. before doing it myself.
 
I apologize, and I'll try and get better after this. Thanks for being upfront with me and standing up for the user.

Whoa, hold up a second.

I don't think you need to be sorry or unmod yourself.

I think most people are happy that you suspended the guy so relax a little. Nobody is calling for your head to roll after you just silenced someone who made a series of very annoying posts and probably needed a time-out anyway.

We're just thinking we could have watched his actions for a bit before taking action. But in all likelihood; a suspension was bound to happen.

I'll take your word for it if you say he posted insults on opspe's wall. There's little reason to doubt you there and it makes your actions all the more reasonable.

I'll take your side over some immature little kid.

Im not mad about it, i really noticed how he was posting on every thread he could find. He should take the time to realize what hes doing. Plus,dont ban his IP, because he might realize after you permanently ban this account to make another and be good. Hopefully he gets raped by a cactus learns and dosent continue his nonsense.

Verbose wrote:

I did not ban him for this thread.
I banned him, because he continued to post as he did with no regard to warnings (from opspe and me). I hoped that I had developed a reputation of being critical of myself, so that people wouldn’t think that I’d ban a user for being critical of me, but I haven’t done that well enough, it seems.

I support this decision. He was warned for his behavior multiple times (legit warnings), refused to listen, so he got banned. I fail to see why Verbose needs to be corrected on this because this perfectly followed protocol.

Followed by this, new users who have a bad start right away, like Verbose I don't always feel the necesity to wait and see first. Should they have a history that shows they can behave, it's worth to wait it out a bit, but BNM's don't have that backup. The examples Verbose mentioned in his later PM towards OP show me OP was not the type of person we should expect a promising future from on this site right away.

Threatening with a permaban was uncalled for, but I would've supported that suspension.

With that and other instances in mind, I’ve unsuspended him, and effectively, I’m going to suspend my moderator powers for at least a week. Maybe permanently (I’ll let my embarrassment ease up before making that decision.) I get this sort of complaint a little too often to think it’s something that’s easily rectified, and we’re pretty well moderated as it is, so I’m not necessary at this point anyway. Feel free to contact the administrators if there’s the desire to officially revoke my powers as punishment or to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

Verbs, no. This is creating unnecessary drama. You are a quality mod, and shouldn't feel down about yourself when things like this happen.

@Chris

Chris, I'm also questioning if such a post was necessary right away. Given Verbs' reputation, you should know he most likely had a good reason for his actions. Verbs is without doubt one of the best active mods we have right now. But instead of requesting explanation first, you immediately went full assault and as-good-as accused him of bad moderating. I find this a bit offensive towards the trust we should put into each other. This could've been easily solved through just PM or mod mail first, it did not require going public right away.

(Edit: The suspension also wasn't based on just the screencap, please don't believe that.)

OPSE claimed I was spamming, whichI was not. I apso questioned him on why he had a nazi avatar, which is breaking da rules because it is racist.

I did sent a complant to you and OPSE stating I is not breaking any of them rules. Matter fact, I only made two posts after the warning, all SFW besides moderation complaints yo.

I don't know if I can speak for everyone else in the thread, (although my impression is that we're on the same page) but I was merely asking for clarification, and I think you've given adequate justification for the suspension.

With regards to OP, I was actually in part a little worried that I might have given him the wrong impression of our community by having my first interaction with him be a joke at his expense rather than a welcome to the site. While I probably should have done better as a mod (I know I can occasionally succumb to trollishness out of boredom), getting more of the story has convinced me that this was not just a misunderstanding.

With regards to you, I don't think responding to the possibility that you may have gone overboard in disciplining a user needs to be met with going overboard in disciplining yourself. Even if you had had a lapse in judgment here, that doesn't mean you're unsuitable for moderatorship. Like RandomMan said, you are a quality mod, so don't beat yourself up over it.

I asked you not to post in spam threads, because it's against site rules. Your responses were:

• "You can't tell me what to do"
• "Your avatar is a Nazi"
• "What rules am I breaking, the hidden ones?"

Let me address these individually:

• Yes, as a matter of fact, I can tell you what to do. It's my responsibility, as a moderator, to ensure that the userbase follows the site rules, and to take appropriate action when users don't. I didn't give you a formal warning, since you're new and probably don't know the site rules that well; I just asked you not to post in spam threads, thereby informing you of the rule. If you choose not to do as I ask, then you're willfully and knowingly breaking the rules, which is grounds for account suspension, as I mentioned.
• Captain Haddock is not a Nazi.
• If you care to read the sidebar, to the right of the post box when replying, or if you care to read this thread, you'll find the site rules quite clearly presented. Besides posting in spam threads, you've also been antagonistic (breaking rule #6: Be friendly) and you've been making irrelevant posts in a variety of threads (breaking rule #2: Keep It Relevant).

Verbose issued you an official warning, so make sure you follow the rules, or you WILL have your account suspended.

You're SOOOOOO damn lucky that the mods are really lenient these days. There's been heavy pressure on the mods to actually enforce the rules. You don't want to be the first casualty, now do you? The era of new users getting a free pass to troll any way they want seems to be over.

He could always just appeal the ban.

Anyway, I post on almost every thread I can find and I don't go shitposting like he does. Anyway, I think he knows what he's doing.

I apso questioned him on why he had a nazi avatar, which is breaking da rules because it is racist.

1. That was never against the rules, I can name three users who have had swastikas in their avatars at one point.

2. This is clearly antagonistic, especially since his avatar isn't a Nazi.

Don't be a hypocrite.

There are so so so so many times moderators have wanted to ban you.

I know. but I'm not here specifically to fuck around.

I don't see how that makes a difference.

It makes all the difference. I've definitely fucked up before, but I've done lots of good things and I learn from my mistakes.

But this guy here hasn't done anything constructive and doesn't seem to get it.

I learn from my mistakes

That's all the more to give benefit of the doubt, or at least consider it.

hasn’t done anything constructive and doesn’t seem to get it.

He's also 4 days old. Most people don't do anything constructive within their first 4 days, and learning over a long period of time is not unusual (see RussianFedora aka Piano).
Also, incidentally, others have argued the same for you.

Guys, let us remind usselfs of the friendly rules.

As this issue is now gotten forggoten.

I agree on that partially. A user with a good history can be forgiven a mistake. We know that they aren't here to cause mischief, and making faults is only human nature. But even those with a good history and promising future on the site aren't invulnerable. Position, reputation, rank, neither of those make a person immune from the consequenses for repeated rule breaking, this includes moderators.

I'm a follower of giving people second chances. Perhaps OP was off at a bad start, but it's up to him how he'll continue his time here.

Guys, let us remind usselfs of the friendly rules.
As this issue is now gotten forggoten.

Your grammar makes me question your motives however.

So what if they did?

I really don't give a damn whether people say that I don't contribute, because I do. Occasionally I write entries, I've uploaded a decent amount of images, I've flagged more images than anyone else (it's somewhere in the thousands) and I helped out gleuch on a matter of site security.

This is the last thing I'm going to say about me in this thread.

ME NOT NATIVE LAGGUAGE.

really captain caps lock learn this first law wheaton's law

I'm not sure if I should be posting here, because it's clearly going to be locke,d but still….

How the hell is he not banned yet? OP, I mean, not Verbose. I would be committing forum suicide to ask for a mod to be banned.

Sorry, nigeria is known for it is caps. I am a prince, but it does not mean't much because es too many of these.also tbis site crazy as hrl on phone.

That's why saying someone doesn't contribute is subjective, and exactly why I would think it a bit scary to assume that someone else has nothing to contribute to the website, and then threaten bans.

Especially when you consider people who only post in the forums and who just talk or want to have fun, what constitutes a contribution is extremely subjective. That's why I brought it up – because the way we treat users shouldn't depend on whether or not users believe they contribute something "constructive" toward the site, but rather it should be based on how to best have fun, engaging, and thoughtful discussions on the forums.

Instead of pointing to the rules as, "those are the rules," I know several users who have had to have the rules explained to them in a way that makes sense in the context of a forum. Why is it a bad idea to post controversial posts? Why is it good etiquette to stay on topic? Why do people take things so seriously, and how can i find the right balance between jesting and trolling? To assume they have nothing to contribute or will never get better or are too immature to understand can sometimes be condescending, and all too often, wrong.

Don't worry about mod harassment, bro. It's just a mod's way of expressing his homolust affection.

Bro you and me think so alike, it is like we're one in mind. Bro five!

Too slow, bitch!

I appreciate you, Katie, but I think what Ogreenworld is saying is that even the best of us have momentary lapses of judgment, and unfortunately it's quite likely that a new user, being unaware of both the written ("Be friendly") and unwritten (well, how does one define "friendly"?) rules, will be more prone to a lapse of judgment than veteran users.

I'm not sure this thread is offering anything constructive anymore, though. I'm not going to lock it, but if there isn't another mod who thinks there's something useful to add at this time, it might be a good idea.

i'll add something i saw the teen titans general the message was an spam

Given how OP has been suspended again by another mod in the end, I believe this thread has run its course. So I'll lock this now.

Should someone uncapable of unlocking (as most posters here so far actually have that ability) still want to post his opinion, just request an unlock and I'll do that.