2010-04-23, 01:08 AM
Sarah Wrote:Just so everyone else can see some of the ideas I've proposed to Fiel regarding bans:
Conduct based bans - When someone is not particularly harmful to the site but often receives infractions for smaller things, spread out. User would be subject to several SERVED temporary bans rather than a BoS.
Three strikes: Two served temporary bans, final ban is permanent
Probation: Upon receiving a permanent ban, user is removed from the site for 3 months. After the three months are over, if they choose to come back, they are put on a month long probation period. If they screw up in this period, they become BoS. If this period ends and then they start acting out often, they become BoS.
First of all, I'm of the strong opinion that arguments should be judged on their own merit. To attack you because this obviously benefits you would result in a logical fallacy. If your argument is good or bad should fall on its own merit rather than by who said it.
Conduct Based Bans
The problem I see with these bans is that "poor conduct" is an extremely vague term. What is poor conduct? How can I quantify if someone or something is acting poorly? How much poor conduct is enough to warrant a ban? In this case, the actual ban (10 day tempban) is so extreme given the amount of offenses that a person would likely commit during a period that no one would get banned. Moving to conduct based bans instead of point-based bans would result in more people going against the rules because the 10 day tempban is a huge penalty that shouldn't be awarded for something like spamming.
Or perhaps you mean that a person who doesn't seem all that offensive and only gets infractions every now and then shouldn't be subject to a BoS. This system would really try my patience as I would have to deal with users I would rather not deal with. So yeah... this one is easy for you to say...
Three strikes system
This system states that we should instead go for 24 points before a BoS. The theory is that if a person receives more infractions, that provides more opportunities for a person to learn. Let me ask you this, though - is there any evidence that once a person has received so many infractions that they do begin to behave better? Does a person who has received 3 or even 4 speeding tickets eventually learn not to speed? Furthermore, is allowing more infractions per person better for the forum?
Consider this. You have $24,000 and you can spend it any way you like. So you go out to expensive restaurants and eateries and start splurging money fast. You better believe when you get down to the wire of only having $2000 left that you're going to savor every dollar spent. You're going to watch every penny. Giving a person $16,000 ensures that he or she reaches this point quicker and therefore encourages more people to watch how they spend their money.
Probationary Bans
This would be the system I am most for given all three of the systems you have proposed. We do have many examples of users that have left the site after being banned, then returned later as perfectly good posters.