So that was random...
I belong to am a fairly regular poster on the Rpg.net forum site.
At least until today. Apparently I've been banned for two weeks.
Now let me explain something about Rpg.net's moderation policies.
Generally, personal attacks and the like are verboten. Making one will usually net you a warning unless it's fairly harsh. If you ignore the warning or said insult is bad enough to forgo a warning, then you might be banned for a day or so. Maybe a week if you tell someone their mother sucks cocks in hell* or something. People who keep getting banned get longer periods of time and can be permanently barred from the site. Again, this isn't set in stone...just generally how things go. It's a bit different from many places, but it makes the place relatively civil.
Unless of course you're me. Then apparently you get no warning and a two week ban for saying something that was basically snarky and perhaps a personal attack on anyone who was going to reply to a post I wrote in a particular manner I found really annoying. Not a nice thing to do, but far from talking about infernal maternal fellatio.
And yet... two weeks.
Huh.
I mean, I don't expect special treatment. So despite that I don't think I really went far enough for any ban, I can see how a short one might have been in order and don't really mind that. However, I'd really dig on consistent and fair treatment.
So when I see people tell people "You're a fucking tool" or something similar and get a week or less suspension I tend to think perhaps the place that banned me for two weeks doesn't want me around.
And hey, no big...it's a internet message board about gaming...not the State Bar Association. Just wish they'd said that 17,000 or so posts ago.
There's also the matter of the mod who banned me. The same guy who a few months back warned me off a something saying I'd been "repeatedly warned" about what I was allegedly doing. A bit of discussion later and we discovered that "repeatedly" meant once....over a year previous. Don't know if that encounter's directly related, but it kinda makes me wonder if the guy checked my record before going all crazy with the banning.
And in case anyone is wondering who is reading this I've never been banned there before in the 4 or so years I've been there and have only a handful of warnings that I can recall.
So yeah. Feeling real welcome there, rpg.net. I suppose I'll appeal this once I can actually get onto the regular forums in some way to get the email I need to appeal it (funny how that works) and see if they can reduce the ban to something that doesn't grate on me as terribly inconsistent.
Again, not so much because I can't live without talking about rpgs online for two weeks or because it's a violation of my rights.** Nope, just because I think any enforcement policies should be as consistent as they can be and the weird almost arbitrary nature of this grates on my sensibilities.
If not, then I don't think I'll be going back. Not a threat or anything, just not worth my time if when everyone else has to watch their step and behave I have to pay attention to what kind of shoes I'm wearing in addition.
* A nod of the hat to The Exorcist here.
** And in case anyone is wondering it's not, as a private site they can ban me since I like boxers instead of briefs if they want.
At least until today. Apparently I've been banned for two weeks.
Now let me explain something about Rpg.net's moderation policies.
Generally, personal attacks and the like are verboten. Making one will usually net you a warning unless it's fairly harsh. If you ignore the warning or said insult is bad enough to forgo a warning, then you might be banned for a day or so. Maybe a week if you tell someone their mother sucks cocks in hell* or something. People who keep getting banned get longer periods of time and can be permanently barred from the site. Again, this isn't set in stone...just generally how things go. It's a bit different from many places, but it makes the place relatively civil.
Unless of course you're me. Then apparently you get no warning and a two week ban for saying something that was basically snarky and perhaps a personal attack on anyone who was going to reply to a post I wrote in a particular manner I found really annoying. Not a nice thing to do, but far from talking about infernal maternal fellatio.
And yet... two weeks.
Huh.
I mean, I don't expect special treatment. So despite that I don't think I really went far enough for any ban, I can see how a short one might have been in order and don't really mind that. However, I'd really dig on consistent and fair treatment.
So when I see people tell people "You're a fucking tool" or something similar and get a week or less suspension I tend to think perhaps the place that banned me for two weeks doesn't want me around.
And hey, no big...it's a internet message board about gaming...not the State Bar Association. Just wish they'd said that 17,000 or so posts ago.
There's also the matter of the mod who banned me. The same guy who a few months back warned me off a something saying I'd been "repeatedly warned" about what I was allegedly doing. A bit of discussion later and we discovered that "repeatedly" meant once....over a year previous. Don't know if that encounter's directly related, but it kinda makes me wonder if the guy checked my record before going all crazy with the banning.
And in case anyone is wondering who is reading this I've never been banned there before in the 4 or so years I've been there and have only a handful of warnings that I can recall.
So yeah. Feeling real welcome there, rpg.net. I suppose I'll appeal this once I can actually get onto the regular forums in some way to get the email I need to appeal it (funny how that works) and see if they can reduce the ban to something that doesn't grate on me as terribly inconsistent.
Again, not so much because I can't live without talking about rpgs online for two weeks or because it's a violation of my rights.** Nope, just because I think any enforcement policies should be as consistent as they can be and the weird almost arbitrary nature of this grates on my sensibilities.
If not, then I don't think I'll be going back. Not a threat or anything, just not worth my time if when everyone else has to watch their step and behave I have to pay attention to what kind of shoes I'm wearing in addition.
* A nod of the hat to The Exorcist here.
** And in case anyone is wondering it's not, as a private site they can ban me since I like boxers instead of briefs if they want.
posted by Jack at 8:30 PM
11 Comments:
I can probably swipe the address if you'd like.
Thanks folks I semt an email and don't expect anything to happen.
Apparently I have some kind of "history" despite no previous bannings and no one wanting to tell me what the hell that means.
So I'm starting to lean heavily towards just saying fuck this.
Apparently in Trouble Tickets in rpg.net my friend Daniel (that's Tokezo Tenken) on rpg.net mentioned he thought 2 weeks was harsh.
The response was two mods I don't ever remembering exchanging a harsh word with or having any sort of negative encounter with basically saying I got a 2 week ban because of "my History" and saying that I "Sometimes need a vacation and we have to give him one sometimes."
Again, as my blog entry says: Never been banned. Don't get where this "history" is coming from...
So this whole is starting to sound vaguely...well, stupid. In my experience when something comes out of nowhere like this did it's because it didn't really come out of nowhere.
Problem is, I don't have any idea where it's coming from. And really, that's the main issue here. Two weeks off of rpg.net is hardly the end of the world. But the prickly sensation that I'm being somehow singled out for some reason is making me wonder why I bothered in the first place.
Again: suspend me? Fine. But hit me on my first suspension with an exceptionally and unusually long suspension and I start to wonder what the hell is up.
If it's a simple matter of people on the other end of this not liking me for some reason despite having never met me, hey that's cool. At least I'd know what's up. But as it is this seems almost random.
And yet if it were randon, then wouldn't people look at it and adjust the situation accordingly to make it less so?
So yeah, at this point mostly just confused and annoyed. I'm starting to see why so many folks I know have gravitated away from the forums. You don't know where you stand.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Yup, it seems that the only consistency to the modding there is "we're making it up as we go."
Considering all the passive-aggressive attacks, as well as other posters' personalities, it does smack of double standard and some sort of grudge. I'll just get to the point it here: it doesn't seem like it's worth it. You guys do what you can with the ban and all, but I doubt it'll change anything. When some of the "troublemakers'" comments about the moderation start to make sense, then maybe rpg.net really isn't a good choice for a message board as it used to be.
I haven't been in rpg.net in months, and I'm thinking that's one of the best ideas I had.
So I think I'm done with the place for a looonggg time. Not gonna go into the whole thing here but given the responses Miranda got to her emails and the fact I still haven't received any response to mine. I'm thinking I have anything better to do.
So people still on the forums have confirmed what I already knew. I haven't been banned before.
I also received second hand that at least one of the Admins says he didn't get my email.
Which is odd, since I sent it. My account says I sent it. We both have gmail so I assume it got there. Strange.
And one more time in case anyone is still listening: I don't really care that I got suspended. I care that I got a disproportionate first suspension whose reasoning changed a few times along the way and that seemed at least in part backed up by people commented about past suspensions I never got and a "history" I didn't know I had. I also care that the response to these odd occurences varies between it not mattering or silence.
There's no shame in saying something to the effect of:
"Jack's suspension was warranted but the length was in part based on factors and impressions that turned out not to be the case so we're reducing it to a suitable length. It was still a rules violation and he shouldn't have done it but we want to be fair about this since the initial suspension length was not on par with what we usually do."
No shame at all. Hell, I wouldn't even be mad. Shit does, in fact, happen.
As is, it tells folks if you can get the right moderator on the right day then go ahead and report me...If it's against the rules I'll not only get in trouble...I'll get hammered.
It also makes statements about me being "welcome" after my suspension ring hollow.
There's also some implications and attitude I saw in some emails my wife Miranda got back (who was admittedly upset and obviously so) that I'm not going to repeat here unless it becomes an issue but which makes me think not only is this 2 week suspension out of the gate seen as fair, but at least a permenant one was considered/not out of the question.
Thus the whole thing's quickly becomes less than fun. If I don't know where I stand...I don't want to stand there.
And in two weeks I won't even care, and thus I likely won't go back. Once something become an unpleasant memory there's little reason to revisit it unless there's some larger lesson to be learned.
And since I'm still not sure everything that happened my current lesson is that I should just do something else.
Well, look at it this way: once the two weeks are over, it's going to be business as usual.
They'll say it was the right call. And that if you don't go back, then they'll be happy because they don't "snarky Jack" in their sandbox.
Which, I think, is a loss because you've been there a long time and actually provided a lot fun and useful stuff to the place.
Did you break the rules? Sure, but as always, the punishment didn't the crime...especially where the mods are concerned.
Just let it go. I know you got better things to do than worry about rpg.net :)
Part of the problem is the wide range of abilities they have in the moderators. Some are pretty balanced and fair, where as others are nothing more than trolls with a venire of respectability.
It's a sad situation. The moderation staff seem to have an ingrained sense of their own superiority over the regular users, to the point where they're incapable of admitting that they're wrong.
In order to get anything approaching a retraction you either have to have a massive cult of personallity following you aorund, as the case was with Steve D when he was banned, or the mod in question has to have made such a glaring mistake that it couldn't be suggested as "fair", much like when Cessna pulled his "prove me worng, oh now you're arguing with a mod and now your banned" bull on Son of Kirk.
There's also a problem with inconsistency. I seem to recall Darren saying a while back he was going to personally be more lax unless things got really bad. Unless of course he happens to be passing through and it's me apparently.
Course, I could be misremembering him saying that.
Honestly at this point it's the uneven treatment without reason that I'm concerned with. I don't even care what the reason is, I'm just curious what the reason is.
And if there is truly no reason, then why the resistance to work something out and consider the length of the suspension? Because without reason it's really annoying. Even a bad reason is better than none. Hell, If the reason was "We don't like you" that would at least be a reason.
It occurs to me that I don't really have any way of contacting you outside of this blog.
If you need it, my email's ironjawa@gmail.com.
Also, I was wondering if you were planning on doing anything over the CoH Double XP Weekender?
I'd sure like to find the time but I'm not sure if I will make it. Been busy with stuff lately and CoH has fallen largely by the wayside. I hope to at least put in an appearance for awhile though.
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