Banned members

I try to catch up with the latest on ATS as my schedule permits me and I've noticed that I haven't seen some members posting lately.

Come to find out, they've been banned. Ex-members like 'Romantic_Rebel' and 'oozyism' were always posting something controversial. While I didn't agree with everything they said, I found their posts to be somewhat entertaining.

I know many people come here, the same as I, to find out the latest news on about any kind of subject under the Sun. I tend to read many of the postings for information and entertainment.

OK. Let's cut to the chase. While these banned members obviously have broken the rules as prescribed by the ATS Administration to follow, I was wondering if they could ever come back under the same user-name and given a probationary period or is the ban permanent.

I hate to see some of these ex-members hang in purgatory for eternity but the rules that are in the policy aren't difficult to follow.

Just wondering.

Actually if I could piggy back a question: What if someone that had a really cool username that I wanted to use was banned, would that username be available for use later? Not that I would have multiple accounts or anything, just curious.

reply to post by Intelearthling


Some very good members have been banned..
It's a shame but we'll never know why or what they did..
Offending posts are removed and obviously we don't see the u2u's..

Sometimes you can kind of tell. I had a friend on here who was really a great poster. he knew everything about the Space Shuttles, for example, and followed them avidly. He had lots of pointsm, stars, and flags. You would have considered him a model ATS citizen. Suddenly, he was banned. Of course, ATS won't talk about this, so I followed his last few posts and threads. Sure enough, he managed to get into a rather loud and divisive argument with a couple of people and strayed into negative T&C land. I surely wish he had been given another chance, and there may have been worse stuff behind the scenes, but I see how he got himself tossed. Too bad. He was great.

Valid points / questions. On the other hand it begs belief how many warnings some posters are given. Its not that unusual to see somebody being abusive and end up with 4 or 5 T&C warnings only for them to continue and then lo and behold you find they are in other threads with warnings etc.
So as much as some members may be banned too quickly, perhaps some who are bringing down the tone to a lower level should be kicked out more quickly?

I have to admit that I have been warned a time or two myself. I try to think of things logically and cool, but emotion can get the best of any of us at times. I was under the impression, in order to be banned you have to do a lot of infractions in a short period of time? Or maybe abusive U2U to the owner or mods would do the trick as well lol.

reply to post by Intelearthling


Mods don't discuss banning for the most part so don't be surprised if you don't get much of an answer to your questions....

Originally posted by Skippy1138
reply to post by Intelearthling

 

Mods don't discuss banning for the most part so don't be surprised if you don't get much of an answer to your questions....

That's pretty much the gist of it. Here at ATS we simply do not publicly discuss banned members and the events that led up to said banning.

Members that are perma banned do have the option of contacting admin and requesting reinstatement using the "Contact ATS" button on the main site.

Some people are simply unable to or unwilling to abide by the pretty simple rules of civil discussion we promote here at ATS even after several chances.

reply to post by FredT


Without going into specific cases or whatever, what does it take to get banned? Do members that have been here longer get more of a benefit of the doubt for example?

reply to post by TKDRL

Or maybe abusive U2U to the owner or mods would do the trick as well lol.

I'd suggest that as the biggest cause..
It's what we don't see...

TKDRL

We are all human here. It happens. I myself had a few warns applied for T&C violations before I became a mod. We all have bad days.

Warns are not intended to be punishment. They are intended to let someone know they have violated the terms and conditions and need to be a bit more careful. Also ATS has higher standards than some boards and it can take time for people to adjust to this.

Tenure does not mean anybody is exempt from the T&C of the site. Each case is unique and a ban occurs only after an extensive discussion by the staff. this will include not only the mod staff but Admin and site owners as well.

reply to post by FredT


Thanks for the straightforward answer, I appreciate it. Mods here seem to be pretty levelheaded, and it is pretty cool that a lot are willing to have discussions. That is not the case with other boards I have been to in the past lol.

I know of one case where a member, a fairly well known one, was banned. If you try to figure out why, you won't get too far. The member deserved the banning, but the thread that contained the damning information was 404'ed just before he was permanently banned. He was mis-representing himself. Oh, he was a law enforcement officer.

It's pretty simple here at ATS and I know this might sound like ATS bashing but it really isn't meant to be because I enjoy this site. If you do not want to be banned do not post anything. This is my honest advice with a little bit of sarcasm rubbed on for good luck. The moderators evaluate threads completely differently. I have had and have seen great discussions stopped because the moderator felt it was an argument and not a discussion though the posters didn't apparently feel that way. Also, as has been seen with the earthquake/nuclear/tsunami situation in Japan, there is very little agreement between the mods as to what is on-topic and what is off-topic. Also, you may be under the perception that this is a forum for conspiracy theories when in fact such theories are readily rejected here as quickly as the traditional scientific community would reject such claims. Your best bet is to just stop by ATS every few days or so, read a couple articles and move on. No real sense posting. Too much headache.

IF YOU FEEL THAT YOU MUST POST SOMETHING
Do so in APA or MLA format, have it peer-reviewed with in source quotes. Remember, if your thesis statement is not high enough quality to get you through an Ivy League doctorate program, it is not up to the quality standards of ATS. Otherwise, you will get bombarded with negative comments about your lack of sources, your thread that you worked so hard on will be deleted, and your general feelings of self-worth will die inside of you. Hope that helps!

I dont expect this thread to go much further as it wont be long before some mod comes along with the oblitary, "We dont discuss banned members, thread closed!"
I've noticed that the mods on this site are very touchy when it comes to why certain members get banned...

Originally posted by CholmondleyWarner
I've noticed that the mods on this site are very touchy when it comes to why certain members get banned...

Touchy? Not really. It's a policy that we don't discuss specifics about members who have been banned. It's more viewed as a fairness issue. There's nothing appropriate about a public discussion concerning a member who can't participate. I don't think it would come as a surprise to learn the majority of banned members don't agree with their banning, and in fact, the overwhelming majority of bannings occur because a member refuses to acknowledge they aren't immune to the site's rules. There's no point in airing specifics publicly, and certainly nothing good can come of it. Extended drama and irrelevant bickering isn't good.

Most full account bans are preceded by multiple post-bannings (a "time out" that's completely invisible to all but the staff and the member involved). A full account ban happens when we reach a point of impasse. Allow me to share a section of the T&C that it seems few take the time to read and even fewer to understand:

24) Right of Community Management. This is a privately owned discussion board community. TAN reserves the right to take action against any member, or member Posting, which is deemed to be devoted purely to disruption, represents behavior contrary to community building, or in cases where the content is contrary to the core ideals of the Websites. This action may include removal of your Posting and/or complete banning of your username and IP address. TAN reserves the right to eliminate or edit any content deemed inappropriate for the discussion boards, news network or any affiliated sites. TAN reserves the right to establish limits on topics that may be discussed if, in their opinion, the discussion of those topics attract an audience that is counterproductive to maintaining the ideals set forth in the Terms and Conditions of Use and the Terms and Conditions of Membership.

We'll work with anyone who has a sincere desire and capability to be here under the rules (primarily, be civil, stay on-topic, and don't lie/hoax/plagiarize) which have been established. We don't have a lot of patience with those who willfully and repeatedly disregard the basic rules and then get obnoxiously defensive about it.

Our preference would be to never have the need to ban anyone. Practicality dictates otherwise. We want this to be a place where civility is the rule and people can have discussions without ridicule and off-topic detours. Not everyone is capable of that. In the interest of maintaining a quality site, sometimes we get addition by subtraction.

reply to post by FredT


I wasn't looking for any reasons as to why these members were banned. I was more or less inquiring whether they'd be able to be reinstated as members. Some of the members that's been banned, while I didn't agree with all the time, were entertaining.

I can understand the reasons for the T & C policies and try my best to abide with them. When I initially became a member, some people could translate some of my postings as trolling. I had no idea what trolling was. I soon learned that it wasn't wise to ridicule or belittle other members and participating in constructing discussions became somewhat enlightening.

ATS attracts some highly intelligent members. These members are thorough in their research and everyone can benefit from their intellect. Learning something new is the main reason I come here.

With all this being said, I was just wondering about some members ceasing to post and come to find pout that they've been banned. I don't want to know any reasons and I can live with the fact that they may have been unwilling to follow the rules of conduct that's applicable to all members.

Thank you members for all the replies with helping me gain insight to my questions.