Quote Originally Posted by SenorPatty View Post
This is what I usually see in other forum mmos. Mod steps in, clearly describe what's the issue, warns of potential lock if it goes on and that's the end of it. Insta-bans are usually handed out when it comes to the more egregious violations like derogatory attacks, racial/ethnic slurs, etc.

For example, something like the otter spam would've been typically met with a roadblock in the form of a mod pretty much mentioning you can't post non-ff14 images or derail the thread with it. As for the latter in question, it would've been locked up long time.
Pretty much my experience as well, both on the user side and as someone who has moderator experience under my belt. You don't necessarily have to be overtly present in the day to day going's on of the forums or even interact with it's users on a casual level, but you do need to come down from on high when there's work to be done and make sure things stay on track. It helps keep things consistent and warns people who might not know they're doing anything wrong to fix their behavior.

I'll be honest these forums are the only ones I've been in where the mods are so faceless and unreachable that it negatively impacts the userbase's perception of the actual rules that need to be followed. For all we know they are following an internal guide book on how to handle all these issues, but because we have no basis to even speculate what their criteria for bans are in many cases it just leads to constant re-offenses.