Apologies. The banning system is kind of dumb, in that it sends a PM to the user - which means they can't read the message until the ban ends. We have on our to-do list hacking the code so it sends both a PM and an email, but until that hack happens we try to manually send an email. Alas, sometimes we err.

I apologize for the error, and I'll remind the mod staff to send an email when a ban is issued, along with all the other steps.

Most of the messages sent to users are discussed among the moderation team to ensure that they are appropriate and handle the situation to the best of everyone's abilities. So... sometimes it takes a little while for a response, please be patient.

Are you the moderator that did that song with Elton John in the 70's?

Oh my... my heart is truly broken now...

Perhaps a message should be sent before the ban. If the moderators only have time for one, then the obvious choice is the message. That way the moderation can open discussion on the topic instead of just kicking people out left and right. I mean, this isn't the American justice system, right? Y'all get to make up your own rules. If the party being messaged by the moderation team chooses to ignore them then sure, ban away. But I'm in a similar boat where I try to log on one day or I check my e-mail and it's all "Banned Again Bro" and I'm just like "Oh. Why though?"

The email you receive should detail the reason; that's kind of the point of sending it.

same imo

I dunno why but i find comments liek this funny given how ppl around here want more transparency...would it be better if the color was blue? lol

could try not getting banned

idk just a thought

I have a question on something.

"Only warnings earned within the last year are counted when determining if a ban should be administered, and if so for how long."

So what happens to warnings after a year? Does your actual account warning level go back down (theoretically back down to 0)?

Each warning has an individual life span of one year. One year after you recieved a warning its stops counting towards action your account receives.

Lets say you were given a warning on 01 January 2014, and another during the summer, then one this month. Next month if you flamed someone and recieved a warning for it the mod would take into account the one for december and the one for July but not the January one. You would be recieving your 3rd warning, not your 4th, and would be given the appropriate action.

The forum software doesn't remove warnings after they expire--it was designed assuming that a warning was forever and therefore has no usable mechanism for having existing warnings expire the way we want. (That I'm aware of.) So warnings that are a year or more old will still appear to be attached to the user's account. However, the moderation team will ignore such expired warnings when determining the appropriate penalty to issue for a given offence.

A permanent ban is permanent. That's the whole point.

You get a permanant ban on your 7th to 10th offense in the space of one year right? You receive 1 to 6 (more realistically 1 to 3) soft warnings, 2 one day bans, and 2 one week bans first?

If that's the case, it would be a really bad precedent. People would say "I'll wait a little while, say I am sorry, and then they'll let me come back. A permanant ban isn't really permanant."

yeah, I like Ko, but it's not like it's hard to avoid getting warnings, and it's not like you get permabanned on your first one. offsite conversations with Ko make me feel like maybe they should get a second chance, and I know they appealed it or something, but I don't think it's unfair to say no, since so far despite being razorborne I have 0 warnings (even soft warnings) so it can't be that hard to avoid them.

@razorborne, they only seem to hand out warnings for stuff that is offensive to another player poster. Usually some combination of condescension, insults, and/or implied insults. Otherwise Jack would be in trouble more often

@door, Unfortunately, I consider many of the people who have permabanned from the site to be decent people I wish were still here,and as a whole valuable posters to the site, but I don't see how they would ever get to come back. It would be nice to have a one-time Christmas pardon or something (it could happen?), but I am perfectly understanding of any and all decisions the mods make in that avenue and I don't see them doing anything.

That is what an insta-perma-ban is for?

It is very very hard to actually get permanant-banned from this site to begin with.

Then why are we discussing this at all?

WotC did a wonderful experiment with a no permabans policy. it did not go well.

You don't think trolling should be a permabanning offense? That just makes the place a haven for trolls.

I have seen communities that deliberately allow trolls. They are terrible places and unwelcoming to non-trolls.