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Old 12-03-2020, 05:11 AM
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Tegyrius Tegyrius is offline
This Sourcebook Kills Fascists
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
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I am one of those who did not participate heavily here for several years because of the tolerance shown to LAW not just by the forum staff but by the broader community. During my last exchange of views with Olefin, I received several messages of support stating that he has, in fact, caused them to withdraw from active participation. SSC, I strongly dispute your assertion that he hasn't harmed the community. His behavior may not have been as aggressive and extreme as LAW's but I'm not sure our benchmark should be someone who was literally able to threaten assault with mods on copy and get away with it. I believe this state of affairs persisted as long as it did, at least in part, because of a mod staff that was near-totally absent until this summer's reorganization. In other words, if more than one mod had been consistently active, I don't think we'd be here now. While acknowledging that I am not objective in this due to my own history with him, I'm glad to see most of the current team stepping up.

To the broader permaban issue, I believe any mod decision needs to take into account the totality of a user's post history, not just each incident in isolation. Otherwise, the mods have no capacity for escalating discipline when repeated lower-level corrective measures have failed to resolve an issue.

I will also point out that the concept of a permaban should not be new to anyone. The second post in the sticky Forum Guidelines thread, with a last-edited date of 22 Aug 2020, has this to say on the matter:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Raellus View Post
Consequences for Ignoring or Violating Forum Guidelines

If you choose to violate forum guidelines, you will probably receive a warning before more serious administrative action is taken. Repeated or egregious violations of forum guidelines will result in a ban. Bans are usually temporary, but repeat offenders could be banned permanently so please, be cool.
As I pointed out to some of the mods during this summer's events, and as as Spartan-117 recently and expertly highlighted, this community is likely to experience an influx of new members as a result of 4th Edition. The question before us is what sort of community we want this to be. The corollary is whether we want this to be a community that keeps new members or an echo chamber that circulates the same twelve threads until the heat death of the internet. The level of abrasive and abusive behavior we are willing to tolerate, whether in individual incidents or as part of a sustained trend, will go a long way toward determining that.

- C.
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Clayton A. Oliver • Occasional RPG Freelancer Since 1996

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