Forum bans are normally issued by volunteer Forum Moderators for periods ranging from 1 day to (I think) 3 years. Length of sentence is based on severity of misdemeanour, as well as the number of previous bans given. I don't recall an indefinite ban ever being issued.
Many/most of us have never experienced a forum ban, and those that have rarely earn more than one. The process is that subscribers can click the "alert moderator" button if something annoys them, and enter their reason in the report which the mods see. Mostly the mods don't ban on their own account, they work off the Alerts Report and have to check the original posts/threads before they do anything. So if a ban of any kind has been issued, it has to have been bad enough to annoy at least two paying site members. Spamming - one definitiion is "posting frequently and irrelevantly in practically every thread, even if you have nothing to contribute to the discussion and are simply disrupting the dialogue with an empty link-only post" - is a bit like a small mole in an awkward spot. Mostly it doesn't bother you, but after you've bumped it 27 times in 10 minutes you're about ready to take a knife to it!
The unpaid moderators on this site do a good job in my opinion, it's a thankless task, damned if you do and damned if you don't.
It would be too easy for a group of people to get all their pals to 'go vote him \ her into a ban'...it has to be the moderators decision alone, without doubt !
Thumbs don't serve any useful purpose, and no moderator is going to trawl through pages of threads counting thumbs. Extremely unlikely! As I said mods respond to alerts (the other button) which show up in a special alerts report.
Originally posted by RevRSleeker I think alerting is a subscriber only 'privilege'...
It is. Nonsubs have to send feedback if they want to complain, or persuade a member to click the magic button. Probably just as well, if you think about some of the new people who wander on to this site. Bad luck for the good ones though.
Originally posted by Kewpie It is. Nonsubs have to send feedback if they want to complain, or persuade a member to click the magic button. Probably just as well, if you think about some of the new people who wander on to this site. Bad luck for the good ones though.
When I was moderating I'd suggested to Russ a way to grant alerts to longtime trusted scums. I still think it would be a good idea.