Night of the Long Knives?

[Trumanator]

I'm glad you've had fun with this thread foodstamp. You've gotten all kinds of thanks from Brooks for being his tool.

[Foodstamp]

Originally Posted by Trumanator

I'm glad you've had fun with this thread foodstamp. You've gotten all kinds of thanks from Brooks for being his tool.

Thanks for being mine .

[Frozen Lama]

Originally Posted by Foodstamp

This thread has been very entertaining. Let's wrap it up with a ban to Frozen Lama for personal attacks on a moderator so he can join his buddies on the free forums.

I smell a future moderator in the maiking.....

and what? no infraction? no temp bans? oh.. right. the rules mean nothing lately.

[Trumanator]

Originally Posted by Baalz

To those who are angry, I'd like to ask that the discussion be elevated above what I'd expect out of other forums. Regardless of your grievance this isn't accomplishing anything other than making people look like petulant children. If you really feel fed up enough to leave then just do it.

To the admins I'd like to expound on the real reason people are angry, and I alluded to it in my previous post. Most of us identify with Sombre, even if we found him abrasive. He was part of the community and (at least those that are protesting think) he contributed much more than his abrasiveness subtracted. Your actions feel unilateral, arbitrary and an attack on our community. If he had been consistently unpalatable then not only would everyone understand why he was banned, they'd thank you for it. This feels like some outsider decided that enough respect was not paid to him and attacked our community, only to be fully supported by the powers that be. Let me be clear that I don't know or particularly care about the specifics of what happend, I'm just telling you why people are mad as they're not doing a good job articulating it.

It's not that there is a feeling that there should be no rules, it's that the feeling is that how this is enforced is an attack on our community. If you banned Sombre then who else? Obviously Sombre is not coming back, and I'd expect that several other people are gone for good over this...and the feeling is why in the hell are you swinging a big club around like that when nobody else saw a problem? This whole thing could have been greatly mitigated by publicly asking, then warning, then being clear about consequences for further behavior and bringing the community along with the decision. *Obviously* important members of the community deserve special consideration - they are what makes the community. If there is a compelling reason that one of the pillars of a community needs to be removed you can't just unilaterally do it with no transparency...unless you want considerable backlash.

To add to this, you might try having junior mods who the community actually respects, instead of mods who contribute nearly nothing to the community and therefore enjoy no respect from it.

[Foodstamp]

Originally Posted by Frozen Lama

I smell a future moderator in the maiking.....

and what? no infraction? no temp bans? oh.. right. the rules mean nothing lately.

This thread is a perfect example of why no one would ever want to moderate a forum lol.

[Annette]

This is exactly the problem, Baalz. Sombre was granted extra leeway because of his history here. His ban didn't come out of the blue, and I'm sure he would agree. I'm certain he knew it was coming. Because we were lenient with him, there is not a record for you all to see. It's a Catch 22...I'm hearing we should be willing to bend the rules because of his contributions, but I've created an uproar because I allowed the rules to be bent.

I'm not sure what lesson we'll take from this. Will we bend the rules again for someone who has contributed greatly over a long period of time? Probably. Will that person then ignore our requests to play nice with others? Hopefully not.

[SciencePro]

Originally Posted by Annette

Amongst the Annette and Shrapnel bashing, we have heard some very compelling arguments why the decision to ban Sombre should be reconsidered (and I appreciate those considered posts). The reality is, it's a moot point. As far as I know, Sombre has no desire to return. And if he did, we would reconsider only if he were willing to respect our terms.

Okay, I have a suggestion then. In cases like this, institute a temporary ban and require that, as a condition of reinstatement, the member calms down, acknowledges that he or she broke the rules and agrees to follow them in the future. If the person isn't willing to follow the rules or continues to be hostile in general, then continue the ban indefinitely. If the person gets angry and quits then fine.

If the person is re-instated and the problem reoccurs then bring out the perma-banhammer.

[Strider]

People...the moderators had a lot of 'reports' concerning Sombre's posts, by forum members, not moderators. Most, if not all of those who made those reports, are also long standing and respected members of this forum. And in some of the reports, it wasn't against the person who made the report, but "for" someone else, especially for the newer people.

[Frozen Lama]

annette you didn't bend the rules. you simply broke them. its that simple. basically you're simply lying to us. and i think about 50% of the anger isn't so much about him being banned anymore. its that we see ourselves being blatantly lied to. answer us. why didn't you follow your own rules to try and remedy the "continual problem"

[Graeme Dice]

Originally Posted by Foodstamp

Sombre made mods, people like mods. Sombre was rude to people, including new players and forum users, people don't like that.

He was a lot less rude than Septimius Severus, who is the user who actually caused the altercation by misrepresenting Sombre's words.