Wishlist: Reinstate Sombre

[Squirrelloid]

If we go around banning everyone who defends Sombre, this forum will become pretty useless. That sounds like a losing proposition all around.

Honestly, making it against forum rules to discuss forum rules or their implementation is pretty stupid. Because clearly the rules or how they are applied can never be wrong... (In this case, by a strict reading of the rules, Sombre should have been temp banned - it would be pretty hard to make a case that perma-banning him really improved the community in any way. This thread is a testament to the deharmonizing effect its had, with respect to the specific rules clause).

[Trumanator]

Originally Posted by Annette

But, believe it or not, we have no desire to run a Nazi forum.

Good, because at least the Nazis were evenhanded in their exterminations, obviously Shrapnel isn't capable of that.

[Valerius]

The idea that there should be different rules of conduct based on contributions to the community seems like a very bad idea to me. But I think Sombre counted on this and that Shrapnel did in fact tolerate more than they would otherwise have because of his contributions.

Rather than attacking Shrapnel for enforcing their rules, what about asking Sombre to just follow those rules? If he's not willing to, what does that tell you?

[Frozen Lama]

i'm pretty sure about 1/2 of the **** here is based around shrapnel not following their own rules

[Graeme Dice]

I'm shocked at you Frozen Lama. Absolutely nothing is more important than ensuring that the moderators never have their feelings hurt, and that they get respect for their authority (as no other reason is needed to respect somebody).

[quantum_mechani]

Originally Posted by Valerius

The idea that there should be different rules of conduct based on contributions to the community seems like a very bad idea to me. But I think Sombre counted on this and that Shrapnel did in fact tolerate more than they would otherwise have because of his contributions.

Can you point to other people permabanned for lesser offenses? The only other permabans I know of are for cheating or promoting piracy. If anything, it appears Sombre's high profile is part of what drew fire.

[Rookierookie]

As far as I could see, nobody has provided any information on what the violations were, exactly. Maybe they were deleted, maybe they were through private communication. I have not said that I think he should or should not be permanently banned. At this point I have no idea what Sombre's violations were, and I would certainly like to know more.

However, a large number of posters above seem to be assuming, with no justification as far as I could see, that the violations in question were petty. Maybe it's true, but so far nobody who has posted has given any factual proof that the violations were, in fact, insignificant, and it doesn't seem like anybody has actually went and tried to find where Sombre violated the forum rules (according to admins) or hurt the feelings of a mod (according to some posters above). If you don't want to post it in a thread for whatever reason, there is always PM. What I've seen so far is, to put it bluntly, closer to figments of imagination than to fact.

I already said that arguing about the scale of the offense vs punishment is fair game. As far as I can see, the matter is simple.

If Sombre's offenses were minor, he should not have been permanently banned.
If Sombre's offenses were major, he should be permanently banned.

Either way, the amount of contribution he has made to the community is completely irrelevant. To use this rheotoric as argument makes it sound like it would be acceptable for Sombre to engage in cannabalism of infants, because he has made sufficient contributions to deserve that right.

[Frozen Lama]

well i'm glad you took the time to write all that. minor flaw though- we know what his "offense" was. and we stated it several different ways, he mouthed off to a mod, he hurt thier ego, he was being abrasive, or, as shrapnel puts it, he was very strongly making the community less harmonius. we know what he did, and it definitly did not deserve a permaban.

[Trumanator]

Actually, we do know why Sombre was banned, and I referred to it already. Of course, if Shrapnel has a different reason, they could always post that. The problem is that its so pathetic that it would make them even more laughable.

A 10 pt infraction for using a censored word, and then a sarcastic PM response to recieving it =/= an intolerably inharmonious forum climate.

[rdonj]

If you want to know what he did, pop into IRC and it can be explained to you in extremely precise detail!