2023 Banned User of the Year

[Milk Tray Guy]

when someone has their 10th infraction, the website automatically boots them, not us.

That is interesting.

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

All that being said, I nominate my bro @MarvelUnited

 

[Kane52630]

That reminds me, is there a way to view how many infractions you have like in the old site?

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

That reminds me, is there a way to view how many infractions you have like in the old site?

Asking for a friend?

 

[Captain Tired]

My compliments to @Zarex for making an awards thread halfway interesting to read.

 

[Kane52630]

Asking for a friend?

 

[Spider-Fan]

It doesn't reflect well on management that this is an annual award category. I can certainly understand instituting a permanent ban for a poster that posts pictures of nude people or hate symbols or nude people wearing hate symbols, but I've witnessed long time intelligent and productive posters receiving permanent banishment for arguing with a moderator or their online bestie and posting moderate political options. I myself earned a three month banishment for those infractions. That was about a year and a half ago, I took the hint and this has been my first post since.

Though most of the moderators here are great, some have the online temperament of an NBA referee. If you are banning folks for criticizing the physical appearance of an fan casted actor (for the children), are constantly resorting to ALL CAPS THREATS and/or posting mean spirited gifs (for the likes) after stripping away someone's beloved social media outlet, moderating may not for you.

It is more likely that I am banned for this post than any of my suggestions are implemented, but here we go. There should be (almost) no permanent bans. Even murderers get parole and a year should be the maximum in all but the most extreme cases. If a ban is deemed necessary, moderators should show some class. Taking away someone's daily social media is extremely stressful and rubbing it in with gifs and yuks is both cruel and unnecessary. Finally, banned posters should have recourse, an outlet for pleading their case. I thought I had a great case for arguing mine, but once you are banned that is it. Hopefully this post will be received in the manner for which it is intended.

On the subject of this Award itself, the mods don't really govern the Hype Awards really. It's been an institution managed by many non Mods, and this has been a category as far back as I remember. So it's not really a Management sponsored award. It's something other posters created, and I assume it was done then as a way to remember people who got banned they thought were valued members of the community. Regardless, this isn't an Award mods created so we can crap on people who were banned. Mods didn't even create this particular award.

As for recourse on returning, I can tell you that there is a way to email the site and we can see whatever you send us. There is a Contact Us button i think its labeled. So if you plead your case, we see it and we do discuss banning and such as a group fairly often. I know I separate how I feel about a given poster on an issue and look at the situation objectively whenever it comes to things like probation and such (unless you're on a 10th infraction, then you're just booted at that point). We also do have a system in place for appealing old infractions. That's actually something anyone can message me about as I am one of the mods who looks into those kinds of matters. So, anyone can just freely message me about those types of concerns so you don't hit that 10th infraction and then the decision is already made.

 

[Dr.]

That is interesting.

Interesting Indeed. I recall one fellow who — for some reason — decided to list his position on a variety of social/political issues. I think it was stuff like abortion, gun control, death penalty, free-market capitalism, affordable health care, preferred personal pronouns, etc. etc. Unfortunately for him, he tended to lean “conservative” on most of them. And… he got the heave-ho. Thing is, prior to this, I observed him to be a fairly innocuous post-er. So I’d be surprised to learn that he’d been infracted nine times before.

Though… now that I think of it… perhaps each one of his political positions was counted as a separate infraction. That would speed things up considerably. :wink:

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

Interesting Indeed. I recall one fellow who — for some reason — decided to list his position on a variety of social/political issues. I think it was stuff like abortion, gun control, death penalty, free-market capitalism, affordable health care, preferred personal pronouns, etc. etc. Unfortunately for him, he tended to lean “conservative” on most of them. And… he got the heave-ho. Thing is, prior to this, I observed him to be a fairly innocuous post-er. So I’d be surprised to learn that he’d been infracted nine times before.

Though… now that I think of it… perhaps each one of his political positions was counted as a separate infraction. That would speed things up considerably. :wink:

Wow, that would be ... devious!

But there must have been more to it than just stating where he stood on the issues, surely? Otherwise, that's pretty concerning, being removed simply because your personal views 'don't fit'. :deadpan:

 

[SwordOfMorning]

Look, none of us are going to lie: it is not a free for all of political beliefs we're interested in tolerating here. If you're some hardcore Libertarian who believes in (what I consider to be) nutso freemarket anarcho capitalism, no one is going to ban you. If, for example, you are going to in any way attack or even be an enabler toward those who do attack transgender people or the ways the decent parts of our society try and make them feel safe? You are going to get banned. Our community has all sorts in it, including trans people, and we are going to prioritize this being a safe place for them over it being a safe place for bigots.

This is not censorship. We are not the government. You have the right to be bigoted or a fellow traveller to bigots in all the many places this is allowed. Just not here.

 

[B]

On the subject of this Award itself, the mods don't really govern the Hype Awards really. It's been an institution managed by many non Mods, and this has been a category as far back as I remember. So it's not really a Management sponsored award. It's something other posters created, and I assume it was done then as a way to remember people who got banned they thought were valued members of the community. Regardless, this isn't an Award mods created so we can crap on people who were banned. Mods didn't even create this particular award.

As for recourse on returning, I can tell you that there is a way to email the site and we can see whatever you send us. There is a Contact Us button i think its labeled. So if you plead your case, we see it and we do discuss banning and such as a group fairly often. I know I separate how I feel about a given poster on an issue and look at the situation objectively whenever it comes to things like probation and such (unless you're on a 10th infraction, then you're just booted at that point). We also do have a system in place for appealing old infractions. That's actually something anyone can message me about as I am one of the mods who looks into those kinds of matters. So, anyone can just freely message me about those types of concerns so you don't hit that 10th infraction and then the decision is already made.

I am pretty sure this feature doesn't work or isn't viewed regularly.

A while back I had lost access to my account because I couldn't remember my password after computer went kaput & had lost access to the phone that had my 2FA enabled so couldn't reset the password. I tried using the contact us a few times I believe on the main site & forums I think there was 2 separate ones if I recall. Anyway after hearing nothing for a few weeks, I ended up just creating a fresh account & private messaging one of the moderators the situation & he sorted it for me within the day.

 

[Spider-Fan]

I am pretty sure this feature doesn't work or isn't viewed regularly.

A while back I had lost access to my account because I couldn't remember my password after computer went kaput & had lost access to the phone that had my 2FA enabled so couldn't reset the password. I tried using the contact us a few times I believe on the main site & forums I think there was 2 separate ones if I recall. Anyway after hearing nothing for a few weeks, I ended up just creating a fresh account & private messaging one of the moderators the situation & he sorted it for me within the day.

Can you give me a time frame? It definitely works and I know I check it fairly regularly and have seen many messages from users. If we missed this one or it fell through the cracks, I do apologize and I will try to check it even more regularly.

 

[SwordOfMorning]

I am pretty sure this feature doesn't work or isn't viewed regularly.

A while back I had lost access to my account because I couldn't remember my password after computer went kaput & had lost access to the phone that had my 2FA enabled so couldn't reset the password. I tried using the contact us a few times I believe on the main site & forums I think there was 2 separate ones if I recall. Anyway after hearing nothing for a few weeks, I ended up just creating a fresh account & private messaging one of the moderators the situation & he sorted it for me within the day.

We aren't ignoring it. The one big issue there is that it all gets mixed together with a lot of spam. Sometimes stuff gets lost in the shuffle, which is highly unfortunate.

If y'all saw some of the actual (sometimes quite threatening and demented) content of those messages asking us to reconsider a banning you might understand better why we're hesitant to do so. And understand why I referred to a certain prominent ex-member as a freak.

 

[Spider-Fan]

We aren't ignoring it. The one big issue there is that it all gets mixed together with a lot of spam. Sometimes stuff gets lost in the shuffle, which is highly unfortunate.

If y'all saw some of the actual (sometimes quite threatening and demented) content of those messages asking us to reconsider a banning you might understand better why we're hesitant to do so. And understand why I referred to a certain prominent ex-member as a freak.

Yeah, I will tell you as a general rule, sending us death threats and calling us offensive slurs doesn't help your case for reconsideration

 

[B]

Can you give me a time frame? It definitely works and I know I check it fairly regularly and have seen many messages from users. If we missed this one or it fell through the cracks, I do apologize and I will try to check it even more regularly.

Roughly a year ago maybe? It's all good, I got sorted anyway, it's not like I was banned & didn't have the ability to make a new account, I was simply locked out of this one largely due to my own stupidity.

We aren't ignoring it. The one big issue there is that it all gets mixed together with a lot of spam. Sometimes stuff gets lost in the shuffle, which is highly unfortunate.

If y'all saw some of the actual (sometimes quite threatening and demented) content of those messages asking us to reconsider a banning you might understand better why we're hesitant to do so. And understand why I referred to a certain prominent ex-member as a freak.

Understandable, if I recall that did occur to me that it might get a lot of random junk spam as well as obviously demented messages from banned users, but I thought it was more likely that it was possibly broken or going to a dead e-mail. It's all good though as I said, all got sorted in the end.

I'm not having a go at any or all of you either just to be clear. You all do God's work on these forums trying to keep some semblance of order.

 

[Snow Queen]

Interesting Indeed. I recall one fellow who — for some reason — decided to list his position on a variety of social/political issues. I think it was stuff like abortion, gun control, death penalty, free-market capitalism, affordable health care, preferred personal pronouns, etc. etc. Unfortunately for him, he tended to lean “conservative” on most of them. And… he got the heave-ho. Thing is, prior to this, I observed him to be a fairly innocuous post-er. So I’d be surprised to learn that he’d been infracted nine times before.

Though… now that I think of it… perhaps each one of his political positions was counted as a separate infraction. That would speed things up considerably. :wink:

If you would like to say their name, I'd be happy to provide clarification as to their banning.

 

[MissMarvelous]

Why does this category even exists?

 

[Babillygunn]

Why does this category even exists?

I love this category. It’s like the In Memoriam moment of the SHH Awards show.

 

[MissMarvelous]

I love this category. It’s like the In Memoriam moment of the SHH Awards show.

But isn't it like rewarding someone for being (virtually) a pain in the you know where? Or being disrespectful towards others.

 

[DKDetective]

Interesting Indeed. I recall one fellow who — for some reason — decided to list his position on a variety of social/political issues. I think it was stuff like abortion, gun control, death penalty, free-market capitalism, affordable health care, preferred personal pronouns, etc. etc. Unfortunately for him, he tended to lean “conservative” on most of them. And… he got the heave-ho. Thing is, prior to this, I observed him to be a fairly innocuous post-er. So I’d be surprised to learn that he’d been infracted nine times before.

Though… now that I think of it… perhaps each one of his political positions was counted as a separate infraction. That would speed things up considerably. :wink:

Trust me, if we banned people for having political opinions different from moderators, there are certain posters still around who would have been gone a long time ago. As @Snow Queen mentioned, if you want to identify the banned user whose ban you are concerned about, I'm sure we can add clarification why they were banned.

It is the goal of the moderators on this site to make this forum a safe and inclusive space for its diverse community. To that end, we will not tolerate those who express views or make posts that undermine that safe space for others or threaten or denigrate others, in particular vulnerable minorities. To paraphrase Thomas Mann, freedom does not include the freedom to take away others' freedom.

If the so called "moderate" political opinions espoused involved things like calling trans women athletes "men" or "males", included COVID or vaccine misinformation, or argued for violating quarantine, masking, vaccination or distancing policies on the basis of "personal freedom", those are all violations of our rules and moderation policies as they pose an actual hazard to the vulnerable members of our community.

But isn't it like rewarding someone for being (virtually) a pain in the you know where? Or being disrespectful towards others.

I don't think that is the intention of the award. I believe the purpose of the award is to recognize those former posters who were a valued member of the community and that we wish had listened to guidance from the moderation team so as to avoid being banned.

The perfect example would be @KRYPTON INC. We all loved the guy but he wouldn't stop spamming endless gifs in threads, resulting in site instability and crashes. The mods asked him to stop many, many times, but he just wouldn't listen to us. We had to ban him to stop threads from crashing.

 

[MissMarvelous]

Okidoki.

 

[Zarex]

I haven't seen aggressively transphobic content on these forums from recently banned members, though I can't say it doesn't exist. I witnessed no posts supporting restrictions on bathroom access, criminalizing essential gender affirming care or taking away custodial care from parents that support their transitioning children. The killing floor for a number of long time, mostly well regarded (at the time, not so much now) posters, including Batmannerism and Schlosser85, was transgender participation in girls and women athletic competitions. I myself received a "semester abroad" for taking what I thought to be a nuanced approach, perhaps in some cases and maybe not in others. I would like to think members on the political forums should be able to discuss this compelling issue without our transgendered chums feeling attacked. Using permanent banishment as a tool to provide a safe space could lead to further radicalization on these and other issues, which doesn't help anyone.

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

I love the conversation going on in this thread. Feels like when you’re finally old enough to sit at the adult table and you get all the tea.

 

[Kane52630]

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

Wish there was actually a 'reaction' option here for 'interesting/thought provoking'. I've seen it on several other sites.