Airschocker has been banned.

The moderation and TOU on this site is a fucking mess.

I wasn't trying to make anything personal. I'm sorry if it seemed that way. I'm using the term "you" to describe the entire moderation staff, not you in particular. However, your answers really aren't helping the situation. You're reassurances without any proof behind them only exacerbate the problem as nobody saw him do anything to warrant a ban and thus there is no trust in what you claim is happening. In other words, it should be on GS to reassure the users that it's policies are fair, but you seem unable or unwilling to do so and that is concerning.

you terrorist!!!!

happy now?

Was he the fake cop kid?

Shame to see him go
Never agreed on anything
But that's what makes this forum half enjoyable
Hope he is able to return one day
Until then
RIP <3

He's one of the best users i've seen in GS and i'm sad he's banned.... "i thought this was America!"

Hope he comes back with another username...

Now i'm afraid i might get banned ....have got two warnings (Both for sexual topic :D).

He is not a fake cop...wtf.

@mjorh: Warnings are different than strikes. You have 1 of each and you need 3 strikes to get banned so I wouldn't worry just yet unless you plan on posting more explicit photos XD

You want me to do that , don't you? XD

@indzman: Why would I want more users breaking ToU? It's not like I don't have plenty to keep me busy as is...

Another cop assassination?

Anyway I have learned my lesson. I'm going back to only ridiculing conservatives and republicans. Those guys never flag you no matter how many times you make fun of their hypocrisy.

Heh

Dammit, my posts didn't not post.

What an irreparable loss to the community. I'm not one to speak ill of the dead or dance (or piss) on their graves; therefore, I'm going to relinquish our prolonged adversity and offer a modest obituary in this solemn moment:

Although we didn't see eye to eye on many topics, and going past his notorious obstinacy, airshocker was an esteemed member of this community. Despite his appalling debating skills his freedom shtick provided invaluable entertainment. It was always elating to see him defending police brutality in the U.S. It is for those reasons, and others that the occasion cannot accommodate for, that I receive this news with pious solemnity. It disheartens me that I boycotted him for the better part of last year; it makes you wonder what it all was for.

If you're reading this airshocker, I forgive you. May you rest in peace.

R.I.P

what did he do?

But life goes on, and the aftermath of this tragedy begs the question: is OT regressing to the hypersensitive cesspool it once was? because we all know how well that fared. I recently got a post of mine deleted and a warning for insinuating that someone may be a cretin. Considering the shit flung my way constantly, I'm dismayed. Has the ToU changed? last time I checked we get to be snarky and derogatory within limits, and I'm pretty sure insinuating that someone may be a cretin is within such limits. In case the ToU changed, how is it that only mods seem to know about it?

Forums are on an extinction course thanks to social media and what have you. Granted, GS' forums survived a number of biblical calamities in the past, but it'd be pushing the envelope to try and pull a second coming in these times. Who will defect next? What offshoot will OT give rise to this time?

Oh yea. The site still doesn't know what kind of a community it wants to harbor, which is the reason behind the arbitrariness of moderation. It seems we may soon witness a revival of the days of hypersensitivity and mods with an ego the size of the empire state running amok.

So yeah, I will give some of my thoughts as someone who is a former mod (for whatever that is worth) and someone who disliked Airshocker:

I roam OT, the Sports section, Bug Reporting and Feedback and the Ask the Mods boards. At first I saw (on Friday I think) Airshocker's post asking why his account had been banned and I assumed it had been a mistake (this sometimes happens) since for what I had seen from his posts (meaning OT) I hadn't seen anything worthy of a permanent ban. Then came the moderator's response and my thoughts were: "well, I guess Shocker will have to wait till Monday to get access back". Then came GS respond which took me by surprise:

The first thing I noted was the word: "hateful", that is serious and direct language coming from the mouth of the official GS site account. That told me he was in real trouble. And yes, the first post that came to mind was the now infamous "terrorist" post. But if you analyze it (and I will analyze it below) at worst the post would deserve a moderation/suspension and not a permanent ban. Which then led me to think that either Shocker:

• had made other offensive posts, either in OT or another forum (SW, GD etc.)
• he was already on a short leash and had been warned beforehand and/or already had "2 strikes" on a short period of time.
• some mod/GS staff tried to talk to him/moderated him about the "terrorist" post (or another post we aren't aware of) and knowing Shocker it wouldn't be too much of a leap of fate (IMO) to imagine that the exchange got heated and that was part of his downfall.

Too be honest I don't think it was another OT post that got him in trouble since I was actively reading the forum during the whole "terrorist" exchange and didn't seen any other "heated" post from him during that time (I understand I'm not omnipresent) in OT. So I seriously doubt it was any other OT post.

Maybe it was another SW, GD post which have been deleted. Don't know, I don't roam those forums.

Regarding the "terrorist" post, here is the exchange:

And finally:

Let me state this so that there is no equivocation: someone says "Doesn't matter. Muslims pwned america on 11th September 2011. And they have been owning you since then" and I don't see how you can describe that post as anything else other than expressing sympathy with the perpetrators of the September 11 terrorist attacks. And that's that.

If anything I think the "You're just a plain old rotten human being" is the harsher attack (even if I think you could argue it is fair to say that about someone sympathizing with the perpetrators of the the September 11 terrorist attacks) and perhaps that was worthy of a moderation + suspension (maybe).

That was a heated exchange, but frankly, not extraordinary and definitely not unprecedented in OT. Now, you might think those kind of exchanges don't belong in OT (maybe, maybe not) but the fact is heated exchanges have been part of OT for a long time and if he was permanently banned because of that AND ONLY THAT then that's unfair since that would signal an unannounced change in moderating behavior by the Gamespot staff.

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Now mods can correct me if I'm wrong, but keep in mind that GS doesn't (necessarily) have to wait for you to accumulate "3 strikes" to perma ban you. If you post child pornography (for example), or something so egregious and heinous I think they can simply skip it and go straight to perma ban. Which is why I think, and this is only my opinion and me speculating, that either he had been suspended/warned/notified that he was on the hot seat and that this was the last straw. Either that or an additional PM exchange with mods/GS staff. If it was a PM exchange I don't think we are ever going to get access to those, no matter what it is said in this thread; which then I guess goes to the crux of the problem: if we don't see it then how do we know that it happened? Couldn't they just ban, lets say, @chessmaster1989 and then claim it was because of some PM exchange? Basically we depend on trusting Gamespot and their staff and take them at their word.

Or maybe they just banned him because of that post which means GS staff screwed up.

PS: In all my time working on the moderating team I can confidently say that I never saw any type of wrong doing or foul play by the GS staff or the moderating team.

Well, I feel this is kind of a dodge. Yes, you can't guarantee that everyone would be satisfied with whatever new measures Gamespot staff took to "ensure fairness and transparency" to users banned (and others looking from the outside, like people concerned in this thread for instance) but that doesn't mean GS staff should sit and throw their hands in the air and say "since we can't (probably) ever satisfy them then we might as well do nothing".

Here are some of the suggestion that have been provided by @chessmaster1989 and others (plus I guess some of mine):

• we should get a specific reason the ban was implemented
• and indication of whether it was for privately or publicly available posts. [Meaning, specifying if it was because of a post on an open forum: OT, SW etc. or because of PM messages.] [If because of PM messages perhaps you could further specify if those were directed toward a user(s), moderators or GS staff proper.]
• If publicly available, at the least a reference to the relevant thread. [This is complicated, since if the post were deemed bad enough to be moderated/suspended then by definition those post would (should) be deleted hence not "publicly available". What I would do is: if those messages were delivered through the forums (not PM) then I would reproduce their content for anyone to see upon request.]

I would add:

• Stating if the the user banned had been previously moderated and/or suspended during the 60 day "of possible banning" window and if the user banned had received notification about said moderation and/or suspension (sometimes people get moderated but an "official" notification isn't delivered to their inbox [sometimes a notification isn't needed]). I think only moderation that required "official" notification to someone's inbox should be counted toward the 3 strike you're out 60 day window period (maybe that's the case already, can you confirm that).
  • If we apply this suggestions to Airshocker's case it would look like this:
    1. Was Airshocker moderated/suspended already during this 60 day window?
    2. Had he received notification of this?
    3. Did his offense, offenses occurred in such a short window of time (lets say a couple of hours) that he accumulated the 3 strike in that short span of time or were his offenses so egregious and heinous that GS staff decided to bypass this?

Also I would like to say that I don't know how many users get banned each week or day, but I don't think this would be required every time someone gets perma banned. Some weeks ago a user, @lucianocasanova was banned (I think) and no one said a peep. So I think people only get worked up when a prominent (I said prominent, not old or longtime) member is banned. Not saying that's fair or unfair but that's the case.

So I guess the question is which of those suggestion would the Gamespot staff would be willing to adopt (on a timely matter), if any, going forward?

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With all that being said, I thank you for at least answering some of our questions.

So why don't the mods tell us why Gwynnblade wasn't banned? Are they seriously trying to convince us that supporting terrorists and saying that gays should be killed is better than whatever it was Airshocker did (which appears to be calling said terrorist supporter a terrorist supporter)?

We get it the ToU says not to insult people, and be nice. Yet it all defies common sense. Relatively mild "insults" are seen as unacceptable while comments about supporting murder result in nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

So what is it, does Gamespot want to be strict or lenient? So far it seems to yoyo between both.

May his GS account rest in peace. OT lost a good member.

sucks. i generally remember him as some who, despite having different options than many on this site, could hold his own in discussions and had well thought out arguments

perhaps the overall goal is a community is we all have the same opinion on everything...

Nope the point is that we have differing opinions. Unfortunately not all members take kindly to somebody different than them...

@Master_Live: It looks like his alt. account is shut down as well. That tells me right there that GS doesn't want to hear it when shocker was using it to get answers and now that account is banned, GS has no intention to reinstate nor give him a second chance. I never seen him say anything out in the ordinary that would give him the banned hammer nor was anyone aware what was going on. I'm sorry but this is unfair to him as far as I'm concern.

@Master_Live: Nothing has changed on the rules since you've left the moderation team. There are some very specific situations where we can bypass the 3 strike rule: Spam (as in an account that does nothing but advertise), death threats against a user or posting pornography are the main ones. There has only been 2 situations where I bypassed the 3 strike rule outside of those 3. One was a user that decided to advocate child pornography and even though he already had a strike for it he was escalating his posts so I banned him before he posted images none of us wants to see and a user who was constantly breaking ToU and when warned told me that "I will continue to do as I please, either on this account or my alts so f*ck you and f*ck the moderation team"

In airshocker's case, all I can give you is my word (which has different values to different people in these forums I'd assume) that protocol was followed, although I have to say that it really surprises me that as a former mod you are unaware of airshocker's long list of moderations. For obvious reasons I can't detail them here, regardless of how much it pains me to see people here painting him as the the model user and the mods as the spiteful ones, but I assumed every mod was aware of air's posting style.

That being said, I agree with the people who are saying that airshocker was not the worst this site had to offer but are we really required to ban people in order? We can only ban what we see and what's reported to us. you guys aren't happy with people who should be banned walking around report their posts...if that's not enough contact us directly. If that's not worth 5 minutes of your time then it's not that much of a problem to you. (Not talking directly to you in this Master_live, I mean it in general)

As for the whole terrorist conversation it must have escaped me but that conversation is not ok and I will look into it...is there a link you can provide?

I be completely honest, I can't remember anyone's moderation history. It feels like ancient history to me. And I have no reason to doubt your word.

http://www.gamespot.com/forums/offtopic-discussion-314159273/how-much-are-you-in-debt-32364379/

Do you guys think I would have liked this airshocker guy?

So many of you seem to speak so highly of him.

@Master_Live: I'm jealous...there's some shit some users posted I wish I could unsee =P Thank you for the link, I'll take a look and take measures.

Actually, I do remember a moderation profile for one specific user or at least part of it. I always remembered it because he became very mad the one time (maybe twice) I moderated him (keeping in mind that I moderated sparingly, if ever) and he never quite got over it.

I just took a look at his profile and it seems he was banned recently (thank you @Gamerno6666).

Not to get on your case, but that would indicate that you have seen people worse than this and are aware of it. You don't have to ban people in order, but i'm sure you can understand why people would find it odd for worse offenders to still be around. It wouldn't surprise me if people have at least flagged content, but we get no feedback on if flags have been reviewed at all. And if you agree that there are worse people out there, shouldn't that be a problem for you and the rest of the mod team? It shouldn't just fall on us to have an issue with it

Honestly, judging from your character and his (what little I know of each), no. I don't think so.

Also, it seems @samusbeliskner has been banned too. It was a double homicide guys! See Samus? Maybe if you had a gun...lol

My God, you're still alive. I thought you were dead. Welcome back amigo!

@lostrib: Sorry, I should have explained myself better...I know that are some really shitty users out there, and there's probably many more I don't know about (I'm kind of an OT shut in as a user so as a mod, even if I browse other boards I probably don't recognise some disruptive posting styles...especially SW, that place is nuts XD).

That being said I didn't mean the ones I know about are walking around freely...first time I warn them, then they get a first strike and a suspension, then they lay low for a while, they they act up and I give them a second strike and a longer suspension, then they lay low for a while...as you can imagine it takes quite a while to get rid of a problematic user...unless of course mods just start deciding who stays and go goes and ignore the protocol...which I think nobody here wants and some are afraid we're already doing it.

As for a feedback to the flagging system I'm with you...if users don't know what happens with their reports it's hard to make them care but we receive hundreds of reports a day (not all of them worthy of a report) and if we were to PM the user on each of them...well, it's easy to see that wouldn't work. I do occasionally PM the more active reporters (when their reports are legit) and thank them, but I can't reach everyone.

@Master_Live: Yes, Samus is gone as well.

It seems this incidence has attracted quite an attention towards me. And if I'm still not popular then damn this attention.

Regarding that contentious 9/11 post of mine, I have only one thing to say: follow the context. To put it bluntly, I was practicing my 'freedom of speech' the way airshocker wanted me to; that is, say whatever you want but expect consequences. It doesn't matter who you offend or if your 'opinion' is even credible, just say what you want. That's exactly what I did to show him how 'hypocritical' his stance on the matter might be. Because let's be fair, we all know airshocker was a stubborn guy who, unfortunately, was unable to learn the 'easy way'. It's another thing that he never learned the 'hard way' either but whatever. So yes, I'm definitely not a terrorist sympathizer. Not after losing tens of thousands of my own countrymen to them. The 3000 who died on 9/11 are nothing compared to the people who've died here in my country because of this cancer we know as 'terrorism'. I don't mean to belittle the gravity of 9/11. But I'm just trying to get my point across: I'm not a terrorist sympathizer.

Another contentious post of mine which had a few users spitting on their keyboards was that 'homosexuals should be killed'. Now, first thing I want to say is, yet again: context. In those days following the legalization of 'Gay Marriage', we all know how cancerous this community became for a week. The righties were here and there posting incendiary topic against GS administration and the lefties were 'Bo-ho smd''. And yes, I too lost my temperament there. But, if you look back at my post, I did say that I don't support Gay Marriage in an 'Islamic society' because it simply doesn't fit there. For that, I have good reasons but the gap between my moral standing and that of an American/European will render any discussion regarding the matter impossible. So yes, let's leave it at that and move on.

I will not 'laugh' or celebrate airschocker's ban. After all, it's this 'difference' in our opinions that keep this forum alive and if he hadn't been there, I wouldn't have this post count. With each difference you notice between yourself and your fellow human being, your mind opens a little. You might not admit it right there, but be honest with yourselves here and admit that you do think about whatever happens on the internet outside the internet. No matter how 'inflammatory' someone's opinion might sound or how offensive it might be, for a second or more, you do think about what actually caused that difference between you and another son of Adam. If the causation makes sense to you, your opinions change and if it doesn't, you stand by what's right (not saying your own opinion, I hate that self-defeating attitude). It's another thing that the causation of air's opinion never made sense to me (might do in the future, only God knows it) but I will never contend for the banishment of all who dare differ from me. Because hey! no preacher will remain pious if there's no blasphemer proselytizing his nefarious Gospel.

OK. Just a suggestion. As stupid as it may be. Maybe GS can breath a new life into these forums by unbanning users who were banned by the three strikes method (because to me it seems to mean they got carried away only on certain occasions). Just a suggestion though. I have no idea how moderation is supposed to work technical-wise but maybe people who left this place because of this, can have a second (fourth) chance.

People like SNIPER and airshocker who despite their occasional inflammatory behavior breathed life into these forums and also generated some traffic ;)

But I understand it's virtually impossible.

Good riddance.

@alim298: So what are you saying is that other than spammers the forums should be a free-for-all? Because other than those everybody gets banned due to the three strike rule. If that's what you're suggesting then every mod can resign right now because the 3 strike rule is 90% of our duty here...without that we're just janitors. Actually, you should know how bad the forum would be without the 3 strike rule since I remember getting rid of more than 1 user who took exception with you just because you're Muslim and had no problem stalking you and attack you everywhere you went. Should we bring those users back too?

Guys, it is quite difficult to get one strike, let alone 3. Understand that after the 60 day waiting period it resets back and again you get "2 free strikes" so to speak.

Let me ask, how many of the users that have posted in this thread currently has a strike.

I'll be the first one: I currently don't have any. And the last time I did was like a year or so ago, during the whole ISIS/Charlie Hebdo period when I posted an inappropriate photo and I admit that the moderation was warranted (I tried to post it behind the "spoilers" thing but I don't how to do that, even to this day).

True, law is sacred.

Yeah some people here are speaking based on their emotions now and not based on critical thinking. Obviously some people feel sad that a user they knew is gone but that shouldn't warrant total mayhem. "He knew the rule he didn't abide by it and now there's nothing we can too" seem utmost humane to me really.

Although maybe "banned for life" is a bit too harsh but he knew the consequences pretty well I assume.

Btw I can't remember those stalker guys specifically :-/ but thanks I didn't knew it was you who took care of them :-)

Yeah this too. But then again maybe a certain user is having a rough time with his life and himself. I mean how hard is it to become a maniac for a month and then regain sanity the next month so to speak?

@alim298: It's not like mods aren't saddened to see some people go (not all, obviously) as well, and sometimes, if we see the user was provoked, or is having a behaviour that is uncharacteristic we forgo the strike and send a PM instead and talk to the user, try to help so when we have no choice but to give a strike we sometimes feel like we failed to steer the user into a non-violating path and that saddens us. Even more so when the user manages to accumulate 3 strikes despite our best efforts.

I probably give 10 times more official warnings than strikes and 10 times more unofficial warnings than official ones...it slows things on the removal of troublemakers but at the end of the day I'm the only one who has to look in the mirror and be sure I did my best to help the community instead of punishing it. If, even with all of this, the user is determined to ignore rules and stay the course then it's very unlikely that they will ever decide to change his/her behaviour...and even if one day they would have, how long should we keep them in the community based on hope alone?

As for the users who harassed you I can't guarantee I was the one who got them all but I surely got a few. Still don't know how you managed to attract so much hate in the beginning since you're a polite and respectful poster from my experience with you (even though lately you have put the troll mask on a few times =P) but being able to make these boards a little bit safer for people like yourself who were being targeted by hate speech is the main reason I accepted to become a moderator.

Oh! Oh! I know this one!! =P

@korvus: Just so you know, you are not to blame for any of this. You have nothing to do with this situation nor should you be blame or named. That said, I don't like it but I understand it's the staff that was involve, not the whole Mod team. As far as spotting users who are being a jerk, I don't snitch and not ratting anyone out. I'm sorry you have to hear that but I have a code about it but if it's something of a death threats that I see from a user (haven't seen none yet) then I'll report that. Again you shouldn't be blame, you were shock as anyone here Korvus.

@davillain-: Thank you James =) I understand why you wouldn't report; I accept that and that's fine because you're not one of the users PMing the mod team saying we suck. You don't help as much as you could but on the other hand you accept that that means we (mods) don't work as well as we could.

Thank you for that. Your reign as a mod (as some would like to call it apparently) certainly has shined bright on OT and I thank you for that.

I don't need to say this because it's pretty obvious to anyone who has spent some time here on OT but Korvus is one of the best and nicest mods/persons here on OT if not the nicest. And I understand that this whole thing consumes your time and I realize you care for the community and that those who want to bring hatred to it don't obviously and I think OT has a fine moderation team.

People are obviously overreacting and are being too emotional.

I was always taught that if I have nothing good to say then to keep my mouth shut, so, no comment.

@korvus: Hope I wasn't trying to be harsh about the whole reporting someone but I sure will report on those annoying Spambots, that's a guarantee on my part and death threats are also a big problem as well.

And thank you for understanding.

What a shame, I've seen him quite a bit in the forums.

Guess I should also come in here and throw in my two cents, that I'm another user that never gave it a second thought, that Airshocker was a user that was gonna wind up actually getting hit with the banhammer. And that he was slowly becoming more and more at risk.

I think at least for the most part, I found Airshocker to be more good for the community than bad, and he helped make the forum more lively, and didn't suck the life away. RIP Airshocker, I'm gonna miss you.

I also agree that sadly, this site still just feels like it is keeping on going further down, on a downward spiral, on getting more boring.