The Joys of Overzealous Moderators

[Executor]

Apparently, users get banned with no reason or explanation what so ever around here. Or so one (or at least I) would believe?
I'm talking about Calahan here, who just got banned, permanently.

Would any of our glorious mods mind shedding some light on the matter and explaining to us, mere mortals who apparently do not understand the ways of Shrapnel, what the heck just happened?
Of course, I'm just asking out of pure selfishness and self preservation as from what I see Calahan didn't post anything rude, offensive, inflammatory, etc, or pretty much anything at all in the last month or so and still got banned.

[brxbrx]

This'll go down well...

[Valerius]

Noooo, he hadn't responded to my last PM yet! I have to admit I was confused as well since Calahan hadn't been involved in any recent arguments (he seems to have deliberately stopped posting in this area - see his absence from the discussion re: neeeding blood slaves for communions) and his last posts were offering map help and YARG 3 postgame commentary. My best guess is that it was because of his sig, which I note has disappeared from his posts. Honestly I think there could have been a compromise position here, remove the reference to any individual (which may conflict with Shrapnel rules) and leave it generic. Something along the lines of "because the people here are dumb-asses I prefer to discuss the game at Dom3mods." And I think llama would have been a good person to discuss it with Cal and see if a compromise were possible.

[Ragnarok-X]

Oi i see another drama coming around, and right so.

[parone]

i have always found callahan to be honest, insightful and helpful.

i think banning him only makes shrapnel's forum weaker. personally, i could use all the help i could get.

a few months ago, i was getting battered pretty good on a thread and callahan stood up for me. he told me in a PM it would likely end up in him getting banned. unfortunately, he may have been right.

[Gandalf Parker]

I dont think it would have been BECAUSE he stood up for you. That would be desirable.
Altho it might have been how it was done.

Most of the bans seem to involve that type of decision from the forum owners. Should the quality justify the mood that goes with it. Thats why there is a fan-based forum. Where the decision flip-flops.

(had to post so as not to disappoint my fanbase)

[elmokki]

Yeah. If the reason is something totally arbitrary like it seems, it sure makes me prefer a forum run by fans who don't get butthurt enough to ban people for trivial things instead of a forum where you never know when you angered some random forum police who'll ban you for something completely meaningless. The net quality of a community doesn't usually go up when you ban the people who contribute the most.

I only know of some little details of this case, so sure, if Calahan really did something completely aggravating and unredeemable, I'll take my words back. Honestly though I think I'll just remove whatever content made by me that I can before someone decides to ban me for this post or whatever I've posted in the past.

[Admiral_Aorta]

Nice to know that shrapnel have no interest in maintaining a worthwhile, informative community for this game and prefer a sycophantic echo chamber that misinforms potential new players.

[Executor]

Originally Posted by elmokki

The net quality of a community doesn't usually go up when you ban the people who contribute the most.

Now this is what boggles my mind.
How does it serve your interests and help You, Shrapnel, to act in such a matter? Are people supposed to tiptoe around this forum, being careful not to say or do anything You (and apparently only you) considered offensive and ban worthy in your delusions?

What you're doing is bringing down a community, one that used to be much bigger and better as I remember. That didn't change due to people moving on to new games and forums, you're the ones who instigated that exodus. Frankly I don't see how that's good for you or your business in any way possible.
You're on a pretty good way to alienating all those long year game fans which have kept this forum alive and running. Actually I think you already did that a while back and are now just finishing the job with banning people like Calahan without even giving an explanation.

I get that you can, should and do run the boards any damn way you please. But providing a simple explanation in such situations ( something you are dead set on never doing from my experience, no matter the cost ), or just being a bit courteous, respectful to the people on the forum goes a long way.
However acting as you do now, without what seems to me the slightest bit of respect to any of your users, goes a long way in establishing a bad reputation and just a net lose to your company.

You've already managed to split the community right down the middle with the Sombre drama. I personally think you handled that in the worst possible way btw. If you'd shown a bit of respect to all those people involved in that drama or given a proper explanation I'm betting half the damn community wouldn't have just up and left. Now I may be wrong of course, but to me it seems the larger, better, more active, helpful and contributing a community you have, the better it is for business overall generally.

Now, how I think this discussion will probably end sadly;
You'll lock down this thread, give some vague explanation (at best!) or why you did what you did, anger a few more members (like myself) along the way, and probably threaten with some more bans if people don't just drop the matter and go away.

Doing a bang up job so far guys.

[PriestyMan]

The biggest joke of them all is that Crapnel will refer to their Terms and Agreement and say he messed up. but in them they have a detailed infraction system that includes infraction points (i know pyg got like 1 point once) and temporary bans before anyone is supposed to get perma-banned. Of course Crapnel has never once followed their own procedure. Just like in the Sombre thing, they just banned and didnt give a **** what their own rules were