Grim, I have always thought you were cool and I know you aren't going to be upset that I disagree, but I do. If everyone here acted in good faith then listing reasons for these things would not be a bad idea, but I think every time a reason for an infraction is posted it just leads to more speculation, and a demand for more clarification.
Personally, if it were me I would not give a reason, but I wouldn't give an infraction either until there had been at least two times that I felt it was justified. In other words I would let people slide but if they got on my nerves I would give the infraction and that would be the end of it.
There are two sides to it. On the one hand the site IS the posters and they should not be taken for granted. On the other hand I don't pay anything to post here or to get any of the benefits of following the site and there are a few. I'm sure most people don't pay. And so if I was maintaining this site for free and spending time on it that I could be spending ... standing on my head if I felt like it, then I wouldn't be in the mood to explain infractions and banning.
I don't really agree with the policy to give infractions for reporting posts, and I do think that unless the person makes several reports a month, or is clearly using it to harass others, then it's just as easy to warn the person with no penalty, and then if they keep it up, ignore them. However I do believe that those new guidelines are probably more of a rule of thumb. I don't know that, but I don't think that those rules were created to give more excuses to give infractions, when people needlessly reported posts.
The timing of the notice is interesting though. I think a lot of posts have been reported lately so maybe it was especially annoying dealing with them the past few days.
I really don't know, but trying to put imagine if I ran the site, I tend to get burned out on the nuts and bolts of a project after a while and I think if I was being bombarded with reports about posts, and then these reports turned out to be silly, and just a way to try to get me to referee a board squabble, I might just ban a few people and not give explanations.
Finally, I think a ban/infraction thread would just put more emphasis on the drama/flame wars/whatever you want to call it, and I can't see the positives to it.
I would not want to be banned because it would take away my choice and because there is a sense of being brought down a notch when you get an infraction or are banned and nobody likes that. But honestly, I have made posts that
probably violated the TOS, and I've seen others who also
probably violated the TOS, and if I or they were banned, I or they would really not have a legitimate reason to complain, in my opinion.
If I were in charge I wouldn't argue about it though, and I wouldn't give reasons because it just gives more openings for more interpretation and starts the nest round of questioning. It's not a democracy here and the only accountability that is given is really voluntary. It is a courtesy to answer questions at all and on many sites there is no dialog between the administrator and the posters. I know, I know, I'm a fascist pig
but ultimately given the power I do what I thought was right and because what I do is right
it would all work out for the best in a soothing way.
