Suspended for Otter Nonsense

[Joven]

At risk of looking like I've "lost my marbles" I will say that the otter pics randomly all over the forum were getting annoying. They're cute and I'd never report anyone over it, but I was on the verge of saying something about it. Just didn't want to be grumbling over something petty.

Still. I'm gathering Luke might be one of the suspended/banned ones as a result, as I don't remember seeing him here lately, and that's a pity. The forum needs more people who try to stop arguments rather than start them.

I think Luke posted earlier on the thread about more otter items/mounts.

[Enla]

I got a ban as well. I'm not quite sure why as I did my best to be civil, but I'll accept that it happened and do my best not to repeat it going forward. Desire to fight toxicity with cute images or not, I made my bed by memeing even while knowing the mods were being testy over it. So I won't rally against what happened.

/However/ I do question why mods were resorting to mass banning people instead of just shutting down the thread. Especially since for the most part people had long since moved past even engaging with the OP after a certain point and were just messing around with otters. Admitted fault or not I feel there's a grossly disproportionate reaction happening here and one that really didn't need to escalate to that degree. Especially since a simple moderator post of 'keep on topic' or again closing the thread would have had a much more positive outcome. I kinda feel like the mods here tend to be slow to act, but when they do they tend to bring out the 10-ton hammer instead of the fly swatter.

[SerLuke]

At risk of looking like I've "lost my marbles" I will say that the otter pics randomly all over the forum were getting annoying. They're cute and I'd never report anyone over it, but I was on the verge of saying something about it. Just didn't want to be grumbling over something petty.

Still. I'm gathering Luke might be one of the suspended/banned ones as a result, as I don't remember seeing him here lately, and that's a pity. The forum needs more people who try to stop arguments rather than start them.

I’m back now, I had a two week temp ban.

And thank you for the kind words that means a lot =)

[Crushnight]

Ok, so they do send emails. That's good to know. Did they say why your post violated the ToS or just that it did?

They gave me the offending post (i swore at someone in particular because they were using a homophobic derogatory term on purpose then tried to back peddle saying what they said wasn't that bad >_>), now there was more posts about said argument that also gt deleted but other than that one the rest were civil enough despite me being generally angry at them but they could have counted since i didn't just drop it etc, i only know that that post was a breach in ToS.

They do, I've been on the receiving end of a ban myself, however the email is unclear as to whether the ban is for a single post or a history of posts. They only quote a single one.

^ basically this i'm pretty sure it was just that one post for me but who knows what else might've been piled in.

[Joven]

I got a ban as well. I'm not quite sure why as I did my best to be civil, but I'll accept that it happened and do my best not to repeat it going forward. Desire to fight toxicity with cute images or not, I made my bed by memeing even while knowing the mods were being testy over it. So I won't rally against what happened.

/However/ I do question why mods were resorting to mass banning people instead of just shutting down the thread. Especially since for the most part people had long since moved past even engaging with the OP after a certain point and were just messing around with otters. Admitted fault or not I feel there's a grossly disproportionate reaction happening here and one that really didn't need to escalate to that degree. Especially since a simple moderator post of 'keep on topic' or again closing the thread would have had a much more positive outcome. I kinda feel like the mods here tend to be slow to act, but when they do they tend to bring out the 10-ton hammer instead of the fly swatter.

I'm not adverse to taking a penalty when I deserve it, I was just confused about recieving one for something so harmless. Surprisingly the thread is still open, though the OP has deleted almost all of their posts.

Edit: I agree there needs to be a little delicacy when dealing with potential violations instead of going full Thor and swining the banhammer with reckless abaddon.

[Kurando]

I’m back now, I had a two week temp ban.

Was that your first ban? Is two weeks the usual starter punishment or does it build up?

[SerLuke]

Was that your first ban? Is two weeks the usual starter punishment or does it build up?

I had gotten another two week ban previously because I had called out someone who was bragging about a scamming others with their “charming personality” or some nonsense that was my first and only other ban.

[SaberMaxwell]

I had gotten another two week ban previously because I had called out someone who was bragging about a scamming others with their “charming personality” or some nonsense that was my first and only other ban.

You survived two bans? Damn, nice. You're one of two people I know who weren't perma'd on second ban.

[Enla]

I'm not adverse to taking a penalty when I deserve it, I was just confused about recieving one for something so harmless. Surprisingly the thread is still open, though the OP has deleted almost all of their posts.

Oh, I apologize I wasn't saying other people should just sit back and accept what happened. Just stating that's how I'm personally taking it in regards to what happened with me. Apologies it's late and I'm a little loopy from lack of sleep, so that was my bad that that intention did not come across. My bad. D:

The whole thing was definitely confusing though, and that's one of the reasons I feel a mod post on the matter would have helped stem the sudden ban wave. While you can interpret a mass cull of otter memes to mean that the mods aren't happy with them, as is what happened at one point, if someone doesn't notice that and there's no official word on what's happening you're just left floundering in the dark with no way of knowing what to expect. The mods on this forum almost never pop in to big kerfuffles like that to actually tell people what they're doing wrong, and while often that might be okay, in this case it seems to have lead to a good chunk of the people who posted in that thread receiving temporary bans. Bans for actions that were perfectly acceptable in other threads at that. Which leads me to wonder if a report threshold was hit or some other invisible trip for automated flagging.

What we really need is transparency going forward. No more guess work as to what the mods are thinking. It seems like the mods assumed everyone who was banned knew what they were doing, but given the posts here I'd say most of us are just grasping at straws trying to put the whole picture together. That's not effective modding. All that does is make people leery of posting at all when the ban is lifted and just as likely to re-offend because they didn't get the full picture they were owed either before the ban was brought down as a warning, or after. Which is why a warning is usually pretty essential in modding, especially when it's on this kind of scale.

I dunno I respect the work the mods have to do as I'm a moderator myself in other places. Yet I really have to question a lot of their methods when we have incidences like this were a good handful or more people were banned and all only have small clues as to why.

[HyoMinPark]

Oh, I apologize I wasn't saying other people should just sit back and accept what happened. Just stating that's how I'm personally taking it in regards to what happened with me. Apologies it's late and I'm a little loopy from lack of sleep, so that was my bad that that intention did not come across. My bad. D:

The whole thing was definitely confusing though, and that's one of the reasons I feel a mod post on the matter would have helped stem the sudden ban wave. While you can interpret a mass cull of otter memes to mean that the mods aren't happy with them, as is what happened at one point, if someone doesn't notice that and there's no official word on what's happening you're just left floundering in the dark with no way of knowing what to expect. The mods on this forum almost never pop in to big kerfuffles like that to actually tell people what they're doing wrong, and while often that might be okay, in this case it seems to have lead to a good chunk of the people who posted in that thread receiving temporary bans. Bans for actions that were perfectly acceptable in other threads at that. Which leads me to wonder if a report threshold was hit or some other invisible trip for automated flagging.

What we really need is transparency going forward. No more guess work as to what the mods are thinking. It seems like the mods assumed everyone who was banned knew what they were doing, but given the posts here I'd say most of us are just grasping at straws trying to put the whole picture together. That's not effective modding. All that does is make people leery of posting at all when the ban is lifted and just as likely to re-offend because they didn't get the full picture they were owed either before the ban was brought down as a warning, or after. Which is why a warning is usually pretty essential in modding, especially when it's on this kind of scale.

I dunno I respect the work the mods have to do as I'm a moderator myself in other places. Yet I really have to question a lot of their methods when we have incidences like this were a good handful or more people were banned and all only have small clues as to why.

I agree with this post, and it was worded far more eloquently than I think I could have managed while discussing this particular situation.