Ban-a-thon

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally Posted by Zapmeister

Eh? I was asking a technical question: How does whatever-they-do actually prevent banned people from using the forum?

rdonj said they use an IP block, but if that means just blocking a single IP, thats never going to be effective in our DHCP world.

There's no analogy to this problem in the real world (that I can think of).

[opinionated rant on]
The answer is that it doesnt. Just like nothing ever stops anything. Locks dont stop crime, death sentence doesnt stop killings, copy protection doesnt stop piracy, tickets dont stop speeding.

Ive been involved in enforcement at various levels in both real and virtual worlds for a couple of decades and I hear it so often. My usual response is "Its not my job to stop anything. If it was then things would be done quite differently. Its my job to make it as difficult as possible for as many as possible for as long as possible hoping they get the hint". The deeper purpose is to usually to avoid open blatant in-your-face violations.

In the case of IP bans, no they dont stop reconnection. A person can probably make it back in, under a new name, and act in a way that no one figures out its him/her. But if they can pull that off then isnt the purpose served anyway?
[/end of rant]

The above statements are not meant to any way reflect the opinions of the management, the military, my employer, nor any other organization I have ever been associated with.

[quantum_mechani]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

A person can probably make it back in, under a new name, and act in a way that no one figures out its him/her.

This is a real problem. It's especially hard to moderate if there person in question is in a position of power, fortunately when some sleazebag tries this it usually becomes quite obvious.

[militarist]

The interesting question is - if admins would do the same if they could return to the past, when they know that they provoked half of active players to provoke them. And then they decided that they should kick of those trouble makers, just to save face. Some of banned had really started trolling and provocations, but it was just a reaction on what admins did.
So, I think nobody is happy. Those banned have to spend affords building new forum, admins will have less messages and hits on a forum, which will not make their life happier, at least those who really care about doms 3 forum. I'm sure some admins work on different shrapnel game forums and just don't care about dom3 community and more concerned about rules that could fit all games forums. Gamers were acting too emotionally, but admins as well, even if they tell now that it was a result of just logical thinking. We all are people and always have emotions, that's crazy to deny it.

[Gandalf Parker]

I think your numbers are abit skewed, and yes they probably would.
Its not like this hasnt happened before.

[Foodstamp]

I don't think Maer, Frozen Lama and Trumanator were banned for repeated behavior. I think they were banned because they called moderators liars, told them to shove things in exit holes, compared them to Nazis etcetera. I am sure it earned them e-high-fives and they could care less.

Ultimately, they didn't like the forum rules/evil community/ evil mods or whatever and decided to go out with a text bang that would bring them some street cred or whatever e-thug merit badge they earned on the new forum.

[Lingchih]

I think it was called Mastering Communions. Not 100% positive.

[Foodstamp]

Originally Posted by Squirrelloid

Since a lot of ink has been spilled over what happened, my impression on the communion thread:

blah blah blah

It was mentioned in the thread that English was not the native language of some of the people that got angry over the thread. Sarcasm often doesn't translate well through written text, and if they truly did not speak English as a first language, can you imagine how hard it would be to "get" the joke, especially since not everyone spends as much time on the forum as some of us.

Are you suggesting that the people who got upset in that thread be punished for not getting the joke?

[pyg]

What are you all talking about, neither Squirrelloid nor myself have posted anything in this thread.

[Squirrelloid]

Originally Posted by Foodstamp

It was mentioned in the thread that English was not the native language of some of the people that got angry over the thread. Sarcasm often doesn't translate well through written text, and if they truly did not speak English as a first language, can you imagine how hard it would be to "get" the joke, especially since not everyone spends as much time on the forum as some of us.

Are you suggesting that the people who got upset in that thread be punished for not getting the joke?

I did put a big disclaimer on how much I thought Verjigorm was responsible.

Peter was directly and specifically attacking and baiting Maerlande. Even if english is somehow not his first language, that is no defense of his conduct. And if you actually read my post you'd know that. (Edit: Not that you can read it anymore apparently, although the original thread speaks for itself).

Edit Edit: I also never suggested anyone get punished.

[Peter Ebbesen]

Originally Posted by Squirrelloid

Peter was directly and specifically attacking and baiting Maerlande. Even if english is somehow not his first language, that is no defense of his conduct.

This is the thread:
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=45501

I certainly was out of line in that thread by the end of it, no doubt about that, and I accepted so publically in my last post in that thread... while most of the rest of you were busy trolling for responses.

I was trolled by Maerlande in post #10, when he explained that this wasn't a thread with serious posts, that his posts #1 and #5 were "irony" (not any definition of irony I know of covers that), and people should seek information other places to understand what it was about and that he knew perfectly well what he was doing and didn't seek help in a thread asking for help after both I and Verjigorm had tried to give helpful advice based on what was written in the first post.

It may not have been his intention to troll for responses with that response, but that is certainly the effect such a post has on people who have tried to give helpful advice and haven't yet realized that it is to be an evening with otherwise well-known posters spamming worthless and trolling posts all over the place and mocking those who don't "get it" in a puerile protest against something they see as a great injustice.

I swallowed his bait (whether he intended it to be so or not) hook, line, and sinker and answered in post #19 that I would have to beg to differ with his conclusion that he knew exactly well what he was doing, which, given the information provided until then in the thread about the in-game situation he was describing was a very reasonable answer, and suggested that in case he was using his so-called "irony" again, he was wasting other peoples' time with his posting.

Which was, as it turned out, most definitely the case. My advice was completely worthless due to not understanding the constraints of the game has was talking about, but as Maerlande apparently had no intention whatsoever to enlighten those of us who were trying to help him based on what he wrote about the constraints of the game, I find it hard to fault myself for giving worthless advice in this case.

In response, Maerlande in post #21 told me that it was only wasting my time if I was stupid and didn't understand what the thread was really about and he threw in the standard "But I'd never call you stupid. That's a banning offence." - this is a typical weasel attempt at evading forum rules by pretending not to be breaking them or, more charitably, an attempt at appearing witty while directly insulting somebody to their face.

Grame Dice in post #22 was the first poster to actually provide useful information on the situation Maerlande was talking about (which situation was not the one he wanted to discuss, apparently, because he didn't want any help despite asking about it - he just wanted to post another "sombre" thread as part of his forum spam).

I returned to the thread, threw my hands up in disgust at the by now rampant trolling, and posted a post #32 declaring my disgust with his trolling tactics and not intending to write a serious thread with an appropriate subject/OP - and performed a counter-weasel after suggesting that he post threads in a sensible manner by saying "Failing that, you can act like a real smeg-head, though I'd never call you a smeghead. That might a banning offense (depending on the amount of Red Dwarf sympathizers amongst the moderaters)."

By this time most everybody and his goat who were "in" on the joke/crisis/whine were posting trolling posts in the thread, and I wrote a sorrowful post as #48 in which I stated that the I despised the sort of in-jokes and trolling that the rest of you were imposing on the forum, that I hoped it wasn't a sign of things to come, and that we were probably all in violation of the forum rules by that point in the thread (with a few exceptions in which I did specifically NOT include myself, because I quite agree that my counter-weasel in #32 was probably over the line).

"Specifically attacking and baiting Maerlande"? Rational minds beg to differ if one assumes, as I do, that the purpose of threads are to discuss whatever topic is raised in the first post.