Main point: 1) One thing that is very lax, and should be extremely much stricter, is the punishing of harassment in all it's forms. There are so many users i have reported so much harassment from, but i see very little to not action taken against them. Meaning if i check on their profiles how long they have been gone before posting, rarely do i see more than a few hours or maybe a day, even if the harassment was very harsh, they being away. And the 10% warning increasing is also usually very slow in this area.

I vote for moderators getting the option to give out more than 10% at a time, especially for harassment.


Contextual points:

2) I've been at 60% warning at one time and got banned for 1 year straight. I've been through the fires of hell and back. One thing i've learned on this forum is that some users gets away with almost anything, and others are judged extremely harshly, even if they're simply defending themselves. And just stepping one toe over the line gets immediate reaction - while others are allowed to continue more or less unscathed because it is "their style". To me, that is extremely unfair.

And contrary to what many think, i do not post stuff to bait. I've never done that, and that's not my style. I may post topics that can be controversial in nature, but i do that to spawn intelligent discussion and because i try to break open stigmata and themes with undertones.

I also do not play any sort of victim role. I post what i feel like within the rules just like anybody else... and i expect people to not fly off the handle and harass me at every turn. I will not lay down and not defend myself for whatever reason, especially when it is a very unfair situation.

I can take humor like anyone else, and sarcasm too. But it's when this becomes systematic, like when A) I am the only one people make fun of, and B ) Every thread i make is flooded with these kinds of posts, more or less evil in nature, it becomes something that -should- be handled much stricter.


3) Unorthodox suggestion: The time a user is banned from the forum, is almost pointless. Because people need to be given an arena to change their behaviour. And that can only be done by interaction. I suggest that depending on the degree of flaming, if done harshly by themselves, or in group with others singling one out, they can get 20-30% at one time, or perhaps even more. But no ban time. But when they reach 100% warning, they are banned at least for a long period of time, 3-4 months perhaps. This will make people respect the warning indicator much more. There are some users that simply don't care, and post whatever they feel like, and simply take the time ban. See point 8 for more suggestions about this.

4) There is little doubt also, that some users manage to make multiple user accounts without getting found out. It can clearly be seen on the style of their wording, posting, and personality, although sometimes very slightly changed. A good moderator should be able to see this, and cross-check their account information with earlier similarly banned accounts.

5) A good moderator can see if the humor or sarcasm is systematic or directed against one person. And he or she can easily spot when someone is posting threads that are formulated in such a way as to be directed against one user that has previously posted something he or she was harassed for.

6) They can also spot if many users are ganging up on one user, and this should be punished even harder, since that one user usually have to spend a lot of time reporting all those posts. It is easy for 5-10 users to flood one or more threads with harassing posts, usually vaguely hidden with sarcasm and humor, and thus the one person harassed must spend hours on end waiting for the 3-post reporting function to cool off. Often the thread is closed before he or she gets the time to report all those posts.

7) I've been a moderator in many different places. Being a moderator can be extremely easy if you do it right. My style is this: If someone is harassing someone and acting badly, you write to them on pm. You give them a chance; Please start behaving better. If they do it again, depending on the degree, you write to them again. In 80-90% of all cases, this has worked very well for me, they have listened, quieted down and started behaving better. The last 10-20% that doesn't change, are usually those only out to make trouble and raise hell, and they will also very rarely be respectful towards modeators either. Whether the leadership wants to ban them outright, or let them stay active with some kind of limitation, is up to the collective leadership to figure out.


So that's that. I hope this can put the directing leadership on this site to a more clear path so it becomes more fair for everyone involved.

This post was edited by Taurean on May 12 2023 04:13pm