Suspended for Otter Nonsense

[SturmChurro]

I think there is some favoritism involved, but not the kind you think. I think they watch some users more than others, almost like a watch list. I get posts of mine deleted all the time, and the content of those posts are actually on-topic a lot of the time. However, I have seen many, many other users posting things actually off-topic, or just the exact same content as mine, and they stay up. I think they have more volatile posters, using me as an example, who rile up others and mass delete, or even ban for something very minor if they (I) slip up. I have seen things that are MUCH worse to what I was actually banned for that literally break the ToS, and those posts don't even get removed a lot of the time - or they get removed, but no further action is taken against said user. I think there is something going on here.

I just know if I was to post something with similar content to many of the posts I know break the ToS, considering the context of my ban, and reading over the ToS multiple times, I would be banned immediately.

[Lunalepsy]

Too much censorship around these parts. It's like a virtual Fahrenheit 451 book fest.

[Senn]

I do not think there is favoritism. However, it would be nice to receive a warning with the offending post shown first before you are suspended. I think the moderators have been doing a fine job in general. Since a lot of people who get suspended violated the forum ToS, I think the suspension is justified. However, sometimes I feel the rules are not very clear and other times too strict. Well, I haven't been suspended, so I must be doing something right lol

[SturmChurro]

I do not think there is favoritism. However, it would be nice to receive a warning with the offending post shown first before you are suspended. I think the moderators have been doing a fine job in general. Since a lot of people who get suspended violated the forum ToS, I think the suspension is justified. However, sometimes I feel the rules are not very clear and other times too strict. Well, I haven't been suspended, so I must be doing something right lol

I could scour this forum and report dozens of post that were equal in context to the post I was banned for, and my "violation" of the ToS, and others that are far more severe. There doesn't seem to be any consistency at all to the bans here. You are right, if you take a very broad interpretation of the ToS, the bans are in fact justified. The problem is when some users get banned for, in my opinion, very minor "violations", and others who post things that could definitely be considered more severe, or equally severe, don't have any action taken against them, sometimes the post(s) don't get deleted.

I think there are either multiple mods with very different interpretations of the ToS, or they are handing out biased reports. The only thing that is consistent is NO "profanity".

[Senn]

...

Eh I don't know. My rule of thumb is it's ok to have disagreements, but if your post comes across as intentionally petty/condescending/inflammatory, then you have a higher chance of getting suspended. It helps not to use profanity, either. If you don't do any of these things, you're not going to be suspended. Some people may find this too stifling though.

I don't really think the moderators are hugely biased. All we can do as forum users is to manage our own behavior.

Otter pictures don't really seem like it should be cause for a suspension, but I suppose that could be considered spam. It seems like posting pictures in topics is ok as long as it's related to the topic at hand. However, otters were so out of left field lol

[Shougun]

Since we're talking about tips and such, I thought to add and I see this one fairly often (here and irl) - if you think something is deplorable/reportable don't then go promptly help propagate it lol. Especially on top of that don't make it worse by actively fanning the flames via that propagation (not only sharing/spreading but how that's done is important as well).

Fighting fire with fire is cool in video games but I don't think it's very impressive in real life, and while I don't know the GMs (I think? lol, stealth GM maybe ) I imagine if you've made something much worse it doesn't matter that it was in the name of your justice. This was long long ago but I remember reporting someone in PvP for not doing anything (not afk either, just talking bad to people and sitting in a corner) and the GM thanked me and said they were looking into it, in my report I mentioned that the person said some rude things, the GM asked me if I said anything back to them as if "am I sure I want it to be investigated?" lol.. which I said "no should have I?". They said good and prefer people don't make things worse because it can also get you in trouble. Bit of a paraphrase because it was like 5 years ago, but I think that is true then as it is now.

As for the pictures I imagine it only became an offense because it was so prevalent and repeated, if one or two people had posted one it probably wouldn't have meant anything- especially if it was in context and not rude (like you're shocked at the shadowbringers trailer so you post a "mind blown otter"). Just sort of a mob rule, made a mob on accident and now everyone in the mob is going to be told not to make a mob. I realize a mob of otters sounds incredible cute but mob spam is different than one off spam lol.

Also again, I didn't read that thread so I'm not justifying or clarifying any specific action as much as I'm trying to say these things are probably far more consistent if we had all the info. "This person has two warnings, never contributes anything" punishment, "this person contributes, spammed a bit- add a warning to their account", "one photo, doesn't matter next", "30 pages of otters....... .............", also of course reports as I definitely believe a report means a lot here (which is why two people can have a long and a bit heated debate and neither are in trouble and then another two can have a very similar debate and one person comes out with a punishment).

I do miss/wish to hear more from people though so if they were thinking about coming out more often CMs and GMs.. that'd be cool lol. But I'm sure they have their reasons for the change, like "they're monsters, don't make me go out there and post that.. they're going to rip me to shreds" haha .

[Driavna]

Sturm, the reality is, certain users are actively reporting you. I'm almost totally sure of this.

[HyperiusUltima]

Sturm, the reality is, certain users are actively reporting you. I'm almost totally sure of this.

Just hearing that makes it sound like a witch-hunt, which honestly is heavily looked down upon and can be considered against ToS I'd imagine.

[SturmChurro]

Sturm, the reality is, certain users are actively reporting you. I'm almost totally sure of this.

I definitely don't doubt that. Like what I said yesterday, I think they read reports not the threads. So maybe I am just being mass reported and that's why I will have half my posts in any given day deleted, and other's posts with similar (more severe) content stay up. It's actually kind of crazy. One slip up and I'm banned again! I seem to get my posts mass deleted in very specific threads (5 yesterday).

I don't even honestly know what I could have done to potentially earn the ire of users like that.

Thinking about it some more, you can actually see the carpet-bombing on these threads. My posts and any posts around those posts will also be deleted, so it's not just me. But if you go back a few hours, posts with similar content to everything just deleted will still be up.

[Enla]

I definitely don't doubt that. Like what I said yesterday, I think they read reports not the threads. So maybe I am just being mass reported and that's why I will have half my posts in any given day deleted, and other's posts with similar (more severe) content stay up. It's actually kind of crazy. One slip up and I'm banned again! I seem to get my posts mass deleted in very specific threads (5 yesterday).

I don't even honestly know what I could have done to potentially earn the ire of users like that.

Thinking about it some more, you can actually see the carpet-bombing on these threads. My posts and any posts around those posts will also be deleted, so it's not just me. But if you go back a few hours, posts with similar content to everything just deleted will still be up.

I don't think you necessarily need to 'earn' it per say. Some people are just spiteful and all that could have happened is that they disliked something as silly as your avatar, signature, or name. Hell I remember a time on another site someone systematically went back years and downvoted every comment I ever made there.