The opinion of banned members has no worth?

reply to post by masqua



I know you would have deleted it , I have never had a problem with you . we had an exchange about Bob Marley not long ago .
Im afraid i didn't alert the post in question , I should have done , i forgot that there were good mods like you out there .

Peace to you .

reply to post by masqua


no worries there kind sir.

i'm merely here for the meat. not the accolades, mentions, supportive missives or backslaps of others.

but honestly, if you look through a fair percentage of the forums and threads there are Many posts all decked out in digital bling that, in my opinion at least, aren't at all deserving of such 'appreciations'.

it's like having one's attentions drawn to the sound of a deep, rich and seemingly powerful auto's exhaust ... when in fact it's merely a primered black '70s Pinto with a glass pack on it.

makes not a damned bit of sense ... but it draws attentions.

Originally posted by masqua

No... I am. Kinda alone in this, though. It's like the Olympics, where a bunch of judges sit at the sidelines and hold up cards (9.5, 8.7, 6.3, 9.9, 7.3 stars) and the high ones are from biased judges.

You are only kind of alone in this because I recognize that ATS has a stake in popularity. It doesnt get paid by the quality of the posts. It gets paid by the volume of the traffic. And so ATS has a stake BOTH in quality, and popularity. And stroking the D-ego helps with the popularity aspect.

As far as the topic goes. I could have gotten myself banned just a matter of days ago when I was indirectly accused(Not by a mod) of plagiarizing SO's old thread, and had my thread moved to the gray area. I was absolutely more furious than I've been in years. Because it was absolutely untrue. But here's my point. If there were any underlying conspiracy to clean house and downplay our past posts and threads by deleting the flags and stars, they could have done away with me right then. All they needed was the suggested accusation. And if I wouldn't have stood back and allowed myself to cool down, I probably wouldn't be typing this right now.

And speaking of flags and stars. I'm with masqua and others. Do away with them.

I've seen some incredible threads die a quick death, and get buried before anyone really saw them. Better rotation and lifespan of new threads to me would be a good area to focus on and fix.

And lastly. Only 72 mods? I don't know how you folks do it without pulling your hair out.

I'm not sure what being banned results in, besides the lose of a screen name. There's some bernard character that has come back numerous times under other names. He was back just last night, for about 10 minutes. I (along with many others I assume), alerted the mods. But if he hadn't gone back to his same rant, would anyone have noticed right away?

reply to post by WhateverHappens


Unless your erad3 etc , everyone deserves a second chance on ats no ?
We all get angry from time to time , and say stuff we shouldn't .
But thats only because we want the truth and we're passionate about it.

reply to post by Doomzilla


I totally agree with you. I was referring to an extreme example. It's the intentional misleading/lying that I don't have patience for.

Originally posted by Doomzilla
Unless your erad3 etc , everyone deserves a second chance on ats no ?
We all get angry from time to time , and say stuff we shouldn't .
But thats only because we want the truth and we're passionate about it.

Exactly ... and we've afforded Many a second, third .. even fourth chances to members who merely lost their cool, allowed their emotions to rule the day, etc.

Many remain to this day contributive Members.

Others, those who ended up or chose to use said opportunity as a means to further castigate the site or it's members, find themselves by the wayside.

Only under the most dire and egregious of circumstances have we not considered sincere apologies, requests for reinstatement or What the Hell Was I Thinking? -like email or u2u contacts.

We, as Staff, are not here to 'walk a beat' and play Internet Police ... we merely strive to ensure compliance with the Terms & Conditions every Member has agreed to ... thus keeping ATS the family-friendly, accessible by nearly all, open discussion venue on the web - Civility & Decorum Required, mind you.

Originally posted by masqua

Did You Alert The Post?

Because I'd get rid of that post in a milisecond.

That entire thread is laced with posts very similar to that one, however that was the most egregious as I recall.

A threads real value is by its content and how much discusion it shares. Really whats with stars and flags makes one feel like an american partiot... i guess it could have been worse it could have been stars and stripes....

kx

reply to post by 12m8keall2c


I'm one of the people you guys banned and I honestly don't know why ,
Every mod who ever u2ud me i spoke to politely and apologised to every time
The only trouble i caused you guys was my avatars being too large in kb or pot related which i changed immediately and a few off topic posts removed .

When you banned me after 2 weeks of joining ats i felt let down and angry .
Im a pacifist , im not racist i love all humans , I joined this site because I wanted to meet like minded people .
In average every day life the subject of conspiracies rarely come up .

I should have emailed you guys to find out why i got banned but like i said i felt let down .

Im being honest here , You could easily ban me again , but im being honest because i m offering a peace pipe here .
look at this account , and my posts youll see that i am a man of values just like you mods .
Peace

Originally posted by yeahright

Originally posted by Freeborn
Personally I would like to see a return of the red 'warn' tags, I thought they were relatively effective and let everyone know where they stood.

I agree. It's one of those things that sort of went by the wayside with the redesign, and may come back. We're still working to get some other things done as well, like a list of mods assigned to each forum posted at the bottom of the forum pages.

Prioritization. It sort of reminds me of my motorcycle analogy, if it doesn't make you go faster or stop quicker, take it off.

like a list of mods assigned to each forum posted at the bottom of the forum pages.

That would be a big relief,then i would know which time and week to get on.

I think this is what's happening regarding the star/flag removal for banned members: it's very likely that the board script used by this site ties stars & flags to an active membership. If that is indeed the case, then when a membership is undone by banning, the script does not "see" the user name as belonging to a legitimate member anymore, hence no stars or flags.

Members on a former BBS site of mine used to get increasing hash (status) marks, plus a new title for every so many posts, on an upward scale. Ban them, & all that went away with the active membership.
Looking for a hidden agenda or motive here is, IMO, a waste of time.

The former is an automatic function of a typical BBS script; what is not normally automatic is the removal of all posts by banned members. This would need to be done manually, & with the exception of extremely offensive posts, usually is too time-intensive to get done, as well as serving no valid purpose. In fact, thinking on that for a moment, deletion of a banned member's posts would look like a vendetta against the banned.

Also from my point of view as a long-time BBS type: it's up to the poster to draw interest to his/her thread with a clever, well thought-out title. This is what will get people to open the thread, and of course, it's the content of the thread that will decide what happens after that. People are generally quick to associate a user name with their past reactions to posts by that user, & will decide what to read based on this as well.

reply to post by Doomzilla


For about 2 months I could not log in? I wonder if I was banned? I am not sure why I would have been but one time I typed a curse word but censored it myself. I asked tech support and e-mailed yet never figured it out. Finally one day I could log in again?

reply to post by BuzzCory

I think this is what's happening regarding the star/flag removal for banned members: it's very likely that the board script used by this site ties stars & flags to an active membership. If that is indeed the case, then when a membership is undone by banning, the script does not "see" the user name as belonging to a legitimate member anymore, hence no stars or flags.

lol, no...it was purely intentional, I don't think anyone is going to try to deny that at this stage...you probably signed up after it changed since you don't seem to know about the old system.

Anyway, I've said what I needed to say, I can't do anything more but hope I made a slight difference - it's up to the staff to ultimately decide whether they will change anything, which I highly doubt.

reply to post by dreamseeker


Haha, that's pretty odd...but seriously guys, we aren't here to discuss banning's or whatever...stick to the topic please.

reply to post by dreamseeker


well it seems im not the only one ?
Maybe it was a mistake then or by accident ?
I dont know lol

reply to post by Doomzilla


In that case ... nothing more need be said.

Post to your heart's content and enjoy your time on the boards.

Myself, or Any staff member for that reason, is never but a mere u2u away if there's a question regarding a given post, reply or topic seeming questionable or 'iffy'. (?)

We're actually here to help and assist more than we are to seem some sort of nazi jack-booted 'thugs' ... that always cracks me up.

IMO ... facilitators more than moderators. (?) .. a huge difference.

While I can't and won't discuss it openly on the boards, if you have any remaining questions or concerns pertaining to the 'previous account', I'll gladly answer and address such via U2U or email.

[email protected]

To lay yourself out there, as you've done here, is commendable in my opinion and certainly worthy further discussion if felt or deemed appropriate and/or necessary.

All the best,

reply to post by 12m8keall2c


Thankyou my friend you have restored my faith in this board .
I appreciate the second chance,
Im glad there are mods like you here , i will take you up on that offer of u2uing .
I was nervous about "confessing" but im glad i did .
All the best to you too .

Thankyou .

reply to post by Doomzilla


It's actually a near daily occurrence, where a given member gets caught up in or simply goes off the deep end .. resulting in a post or account ban.

Some ... take the upper road and inquisitively, appropriately and/or sincerely inquire further ... more often than not resulting in a return of posting privileges or the ability to re-register and start anew.

Some ... actually Ask that their previous moniker be disabled, that they'll be starting with a clean slate.

All good, no matter ... usually.

Others, for whatever reason, take it upon themselves to register countless identities and proceed to pickup where the previous either left off or was terminated.

What 'purpose' that serves?

I've no idea, but I've likely been presented with the contents of many a spittle-ridden keyboard, mouse and/or monitor and not even known it.

reply to post by 12m8keall2c


Others, for whatever reason, take it upon themselves to register countless identities and proceed to pickup where the previous either left off or was terminated. What 'purpose' that serves?

These are the attention seekers imo , they like to run around causing mayhem .
Being here from 2005 as you have you must have seen it all ! lol
You certainly have an interesting job ," hey honey youll never guess what this guy claimed at work today " lol

I commend you for being here 6 years and still being a sane decent guy lol