Okay, not really. Well, not yet. I'm just curious. A buddy of mine suffered this punishment recently. Being the curious type, and wanting to learn lessons from others, I was wondering: Wouldn't it be nice to know why people get suspended?

Is it possible to see links to actual threads where people have incurred the wrath of our all-seeing mods? Why not put under people's user names "Suspended for THIS ". (Hyperlinked to offensive thread) That way, we can all learn from the mistakes of others.

Maybe this is stupid. Please tell me if you think so...but many times I see posters I adore in this temporary status, and I think to myself, "Today them, tomorrow me." Possibly for the same reason. Would this idea be plausible? Is this degrading? Maybe. But it would give cause to be on your best behavior.

Tell me your thoughts.

Love,

Me.

I actually like that idea.

If you follow the rules, you have nothing to worry about.

DO YOU FOLLOW THE RULES?! I should suspend you for putting this in the wrong forum.

j/k

But I will move it to the right place.

Follow forum roles as you signed on to your user agreement and you'll probably be fine. That said, sometimes I've seen some mods be cowboys, but there's nothing you can do about that. Just be yourself and try not to worry about it.

First, suspensions are probably rarely isolated to one thing, but are more likely a culmination of numerous events, many of which may have happened over e-Mail. It's also not particularly fair to the suspended member to showcase his actions while he's away.

What possible reason do we need to know why someone was suspended other than to argue about whether it's justified or not? The rules around here are pretty clear. If someone has been suspended, he's broken one or many of those rules. I don't buy the need to "learn from the mistakes of others." Don't break the rules, and don't go psycho when you're admonished for it ... what more do you need to learn?

das

I like the idea. It would save me time searching their recent posts trying to figure it out.

Oh admit it ... I must not be the only one who does that!

I do that all the time, and it begs another question: Do the suspension-causing posts typically get deleted? Because I can tell you on several occasions, I've traced through a user's posts for days or perhaps weeks prior to their suspensions and can't for the life of me see anything worthy of a suspension. It's like they've become an unperson.

Damn curiosity.

Now now, is his post *really* so bad that DarkestPhoenix had to be Suspendered?

I do it all the time as well. I'm still trying to figure out what happened to Danol...That guy cracked me up.

aren't these questions be asked for direct email to mods?

I've personally always been in the "give an explanation" camp on this argument, but then I used to spend too much time being a mod too.

The problems with doing this are manifold, though.

First, it can lead to other members making fun of or otherwise bringing attention to the actions of the suspended member. That's not only unfair in the sense that the person in question can't defend themselves, but also because it can encourage the suspended person to reregister in order to "fight back." Both of these mean more work for the mods/admins.

Another reason I commonly hear cited (and the one I most strongly agree with) is that making the reason for warnings/suspensions/bans known helps the other members know where the lines are on the forum. As good as this sounds, it's not an unreasonable position to believe that the forum rules are largely pretty self explanatory. Outside of protecting the commercial interests of this site (ie. no posting personal referral links), the basic idea is that you act like a reasonable person talking amongst a mixed group of people. The finer points that would be illustrated by mod/admin explanations would be nice, but they're often very situation specific, and thus, less useful to the general membership.

Another problem that doing this brings up is the armchair lawyers. A lot of what the mods/admins have to do here is make judgement calls. Not everything can be traced back to a hard and fast rule as they are trying to maintain a certain level community/civility on the boards among a variety of subject matter and personalities. Effectively moderating this type of situation requires a certain flexiblitiy in interpretation that, while justifiable, can take quite a bit of time to explain. Especially to someone who wants to argue every little point with you.

So, to sum up, it's been the experience of many mods here that doing this not only potentially creates more member problems, but also takes a lot more of their moderating time to properly do. Ultimately, the cost/benefit analysis doesn't work out on this idea.

At least, that's my take on it.

Actually, no.

Email is for when you want to know why a mod/admin did a specific thing.

If you're asking about a forum-wide practice, this is the place to bring it up.

Not every suspension/ban comes as a result of an inappropriate post. Sometimes posters are returning banned members, sometimes they're sending inappropriate e-mails (or making inappropriate phone calls) to other members and harrassing them... it just depends on the situation.

But yes, we do get rid of some of the posts to try and salvage some threads sometimes. I've found that sometimes, if you leave inflammatory posts up, even if you tell everyone to get back on topic while you try and sort out what sort of action should be taken, people can't resist getting in a jab back against the poster. It results in more work for us and possibly more administrative action, neither of which are things we want to be doing , so we trim the fat.

Like you've never been a cowboy...

<BLOCKQUOTE> • Quoth Blade •<HR SIZE=1>So, to sum up, I just said the same thing das said, but with more words.<HR SIZE=1></BLOCKQUOTE>
Fixed.

das

Suspendered?

Is that like a wedgie with elastic straps?

Nah. If people know why, they like to take sides.

What did happen to Danol?

He is alive and posting up a storm (his 4th username as far as I can tell) over at AVS forum.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...99#post3048899

Some great replies. My favorite-
But stay tight my peeps! You never know who is visiting next! You have to love the internet.

i really need to know

His profile at AVS says he's "an anamorphic lover".

Too Much Information if you ask me. I miss him here too.

Hmm... if you "play with the settings", it "vertically stretches"?

The ladies know it's not about more picture, it's about the correct picture.

I'm glad to see Danol still active. I didn't discover him here until recently and couldn't believe what I was reading. Whether he's an artist or not is an open question, but whether he's entertaining or not isn't.