Shahani and Megalos

[Admin RR]

A couple members emailed me about this and based on their comments, I realized that something needs to be said here. Here was my reply:

Both Shahani and Megalos are misconstruing the facts out of bitterness. All of the mods agree that both bannings were reasonable, and Fingers did ban Shahani initially (for 30 days, mind you) but Daveleau did it the second time after Shahani PM'ed 30 people on TechIMO to solicit another site. Megalos, who had in fact been banned in the past by yours truly, had been repeatedly warned not to post grievances about mods on the site as such posts are always highly overdramatized, not factual, and just cause trouble. Despite this, he posted such grievances twice (he was warned after the first post), and was banned.

Shahani is a valued member but he broke the rules and got banned for 30 days. Instead of living with that, he started spreading rumors about Fingers not emailing him prior to the ban (which Fingers did because he cc'ed myself and all the mods), about Fingers banning him a second time out of spite (which Daveleau actually did and Shahani's 30 spams are not only highly damaging and against our rules but legally actionable), and about Megalos's threads being merged or otherwise tampered with (or something) which isn't true.

Bottom line: rumors are getting spread around by bitter members who were offended by getting banned, and these untrue rumors are causing others to question the integrity of the site and the people that run it for no reason whatsoever. There really isn't heavy handed moderating going on here. As I've said in the past, the mods communicate about bans before and after they're enacted. I wouldn't for a second think twice about lifting any ban if I didn't think it was deserved, or about firing any mod that I thought was acting inappropriately.

There's been talk here about getting rid of the community forum. I don't think that's a good idea. Instead, members need to act more responsibly and realize that sometimes even on a site called "in my opinion" it's necessary to bite your tongue to keep the peace, just as (in my favorite analogy) you COULD stand up in a crowded church on Sunday morning and yell at the minister "I think all ministers are gay and abuse boys" (an example only, not my opinion at all) but you wouldn't share that opinion in that forum because of the disturbance it would cause. Likewise, think twice here.

[Bob The Great]

There's been talk here about getting rid of the community forum. I don't think that's a good idea. Instead, members need to act more responsibly and realize that sometimes even on a site called "in my opinion" it's necessary to bite your tongue to keep the peace, just as (in my favorite analogy) you COULD stand up in a crowded church on Sunday morning and yell at the minister "I think all ministers are gay and abuse boys" (an example only, not my opinion at all) but you wouldn't share that opinion in that forum because of the disturbance it would cause. Likewise, think twice here.

well said Scott!

[J-Excel]

Agreed to an extent. I think a good rule of thumb would be not to say anything here that you wouldn't say in person in front of a group of friends. All other rules withstanding of course.

[DutchMaster]

Well said Scott. I guess we all needed (at least were asking for)some explanation on this issue. Banning "2000+ posts" members has always been a hot issue and usually led to more bannings.


PS, I'm glad "removing the Community Forum" was just a rumour.

[Chuckiechan]

I second the motion!

[GohanSSJ]

Agreed, but as i said before i think 30 days isn't right, either ban them forever or make it a 5-7 days, 30 days is too long for a person to stay away from a place, instead they will just get people to come to a other place.

Maybe we could just restrict privelages - like a per diem limit or 1 post per hour for an offending member who doesn't usually skate on such thin ice...

Or just slow down the community altogether with stricter flood control...

[GohanSSJ]

You can't do such stuff like make them post once a hour.

A 5 day will do the trick, if it doesn't then they are banned forever, this really works.

[nukes]

That is a good idea. I had heard about Shahani PMing people with reference to pierspalo or whatever. That really isn't called for.
This business is a nasty one, but clearly part of life on the information superhighway.
Good post Scott. respect. ::

[GohanSSJ]

But it was predictible, he gets banned from TechIMO for 30 days and he still wants to continue the whole war discussion etc, so what he does is invite them to a other place.

I'm not saying what he did was right, and that he didn't deserved the ban, but just that 30 days is too much.