Airschocker has been banned.

Seemed like a good user and kinda weird considering there are certain users here who harass other users for their religion/political views far more. But nevertheless it is yet another active member gone from a forum that has not been gaining new members

i'm generally against any form of banning of non-trolling users no matter how disagree i am with the user.

If air didn't do anything ban worthy, then why the **** is he banned? Always gotta root out the good users, right GS?

O_O

Sheikspeare, it's so obviously you. I don't want you to be banned, but still...

Well with all these complaints about the banning of airshocker and the edit button and the other issues you raise, it's clear that in order to reinvigorate this site some changes must be made. It's time to act like Malcolm Merlyn and shake things up! Gamespot should put me in charge of overhauling the site's policies. We the people, demand changement!

This sums up the community's reaction. My views on airshocker are less than favorable; after all, I haven't responded to a single quote of his for a year. But unless a user is incorrigibly trollish, there's no point in banning him. They could've suspended him for whatever offense he committed as I doubt it was ban-worthy.

Moreover, banning users for anything other than grave violations of the ToU is counterproductive because it stunts activities and conduces to stagnation. It's much better to let the community marginalize users it deems unfavorable - they either leave or change their ways.

You are contradicting yourself. Marginalization is conducive to stagnation. Please look at the treatment of women throughout the history of America due to marginalization and let me know if you can tell me that women not being able to vote or own property because they were deemed inferior in some way was better than it is, now.

I love how Gamespot just gets rid of anyone who has even remotely contradictory views to their own.

Makes me kind of happy I don't spend much time here anymore.

@foxhound_fox: For real. From my return trips I've noticed big progressions throughout a year. There seems to be a certain type of agenda. Makes me wonder if orders come from CBS or is it GameSpot's own?

I have no idea. This place used to be a fantastic community, even under the old ToS where you could get banned for calling someone an idiot. These new rules seem purposefully vague so the administration can drum up bullshit reasons to get rid of people they don't like.

Do you get paid for using examples like this? That's a fifty cent example right there and I should know... But how did women go from marginalization to where they are now? Wouldn't then, marginalization be better than blocking users out of society? Are we to expect suffrage protests in every forum in order for the minorities to be heard?

You're actually missing Gaza's point here. Gaza's point is the distinction between legal marginalization and social marginalization. In other words, he says that "society" (in this case, Gamespot forums/users) should not ban people for grave violations (legal marginalization), but rather should punish them socially, for example by ignoring them or mocking them (social marginalization). The examples you give with regards to women (inability to vote or own property) are examples of legal marginalization, so it's actually reinforcing Gaza's point.

You can still get banned for calling someone an idiot...you just have to do it enough times. I have to say though, I'm starting to find humour in the fact that everyone cries about the wonderful community that was lost but also cry when troublemakers get banned. Just because you didn't see the offenses doesn't mean you are right to assume that GS is getting rid of people they don't like.

Don't get me wrong, I like you and never had any trouble with you (and I'm assume not many people have considering you have a clean moderation history) but I wonder what makes so many respectful members of the community (and please pardon the expression) "talk out of their ass"? There's a lot of things that make this community lesser than it once was, and one of the reasons is members backing up the wrong horses...We don't ban users based on how many members of the community like them; we ban people who constantly refuse to adhere to the rules...I'm sorry if that displeases you, but if it does, maybe you shouldn't speak about wanting a better community. Apologies if this sounds overly confrontational but it's so bloody tiring having to hold my tongue all the time as a moderator...

Do not take it personally. My point is that marginalizing users in not the right way to go because that would lead to systemic mistreatment which, in reality, we volunteer to prevent.

I have reason to conclude that I understood his point as it is written. Societal discrimination, both in de jure and de facto contexts, are related as noted in the aftermath of the U.S. Civil War having brought about an end to legal slavery and a new period of legal liberty for former slaves, yet segregation in fact remained for decades as a result of the legal marginalization building a framework for thought. They were different, but both brought harm to people.

It would be inappropriate to allow users to deride each other in an attempt to ostracize social deviants who go against the norm that is respecting the rules of this site to the extreme that people are treated harshly, publicly. That reminds me of authoritarian nationalism with intolerant views or facism.

You're definitely onto something here. I understand that there are a lot of "anti-religious" libs on this board, but regardless of their stance, some should have a little more tact when dealing with those of us members who do hold a view other than their own. It would certainly make talking about religion and politics a bit more enjoyable.

I wouldn't consider calling an idiot an idiot "troublemaking". Being outwardly racist, bigoted, offensive? That's a problem. Calling people out for stupid behaviour shouldn't be a bannable offence.

And me have a clean moderation history? LOL. Yeah, they erased the 7+ pages I had back when the new forums started, and my time here has gone down significantly since then. I was averaging at least a moderation a month on the old ruleset, and a suspension at least every 3-4 months. And for stupid shit too, like trolling.

I don't think it's fair to get rid of users who aren't outwardly trying to be caustic people. Airshocker was not caustic, he was just a... different guy with a more heated way of communicating. He added a lot to debates and conversation, and his loss, no matter what you or the moderation staff might think, is huge for this community.

I will reiterate. Calling an someone who is acting like an idiot an idiot shouldn't even be something you can moderate for. It blows my mind that the moderation staff even has the power to do something like that. Back when the rules became lax, all their power really entailed was preventing people from being caustic, negative members of the community (i.e. outwardly racist, sexist, etc). And that's when Gamespot forums were at their best, despite the massive loss of great users to the old rules.

@foxhound_fox: You read (or should have read) the CoC and ToU...if you want to stay as a user you need to follow those rules and insulting users is not allowed, where they "deserve it" or not. That being said, not many people get banned for calling someone an idiot since most people have the good sense to only make that mistake once (or at least only until they get moderated). Getting banned for being caustic is a good reason to ban people, I agree with you, and that's exactly what's been happening =)

Interestingly, I thought that was when the forums were at their worst, so I stopped coming here for approximately half a year. I was not the only one who left as a result of the major foul behavior that had become a normalcy. It became so bad that other parts of the site were affected. Feedbackula, a show designed to showcase comments of the community, displayed that until it was cancelled and the Code of Conduct was updated to prevent such abhorrent behavior.

It's funny how they based the forum rules on the commenter's behaviour. Those comments almost came straight from YouTube. There was almost never people that caustic on the boards.

I've called people idiots and not been moderated for it yet. Seems like the moderators have different standards. Or people just aren't reporting me.

@foxhound_fox: You would be surprised.

It's sort of sad that this thread has also caused me to lose my respect for certain users

I will keep an eye out for it...appreciate the report =P

I was thinking the same thing =(

To bad, he was a hell of a presence in discussions.

Damn... I missed his perspective as an officer.

That was when the forums last traffic. Seemed those who cried for more lax rules didn't like it when they got them. Though I always did think the old ToU was a bit too harsh. The forums were definitely not at their best though at that time.

Gamespot being gamespot and banning people? Not a surprise.

Here's the thing though: are there new rules? Because if there are, I'm only hearing about them now. I recently received a warning for saying "If you can't see x you're either obstinate or a cretin" and got the post deleted. Last time I checked this is well within the limits of what the newer ToU allow.

It seems to me GS no longer knows what it wants to be. We all remember the Gestapo days of getting a week suspension for calling someone an idiot, and we also remember how advocating genocide no longer earned you a moderation. So which way is it now? It'd be disheartening if GS decided to regress to the hypersensitive days, but I wish it'd come forward with whatever it fancies itself to be now.

There's also the possibility that mods are running amok. Any takers?

Could you elaborate on that? If it's not too much trouble.

I agree with you 100% here, we've had arguments in the past but this is something I've been touched with lately as well. I rarely even post anymore because I honestly don't know what a GS mod will deem unacceptable. (recently got hit with overly sexual conduct for posting a bloody shakeweight gif that was pixelated, like seriously dude, lol)

I miss the days when this site was more lax, coincidentally it was also around that time we had a much more vibrant forum community, especially in system wars. now it's so damn dull.

You know an OTer is a newbie when he reminisces about the days when GS was lax and had "a much more vibrant community" :3

So if we want to know why people (especially airshocker) get banned, and you guys want to tell us why they get banned, then where is the problem here? What is standing in the way?

As far as the recent talk about moderation style changes, I'd have to disagree that the super lax rules were better. If anything, I long for the super strict GS before that. The one where it actually took effort to troll because the mods would warn and suspend you for pretty much whatever they wanted to. That might just be because the forums were so much more active though. The rules are less strict now but it seems the punishment is harsher. On my previous account under the strict rules I remember racking up 4-5 warnings before I got a week suspension. Now it's 3 strikes and perma-ban? Seems a bit harsh.

@ReadingRainbow4: I'm not sure where this lax site is you're talking about. I remember back in the day when the rules were considerably more rigorous than they are now in certain ways. If a swear word was not completely censored you often faced at least a warning.

Plus they used to look at comment length a lot more than they seem to do now, one word responses almost always earned you a slap on the wrist. To be fair though, the site did seem to draw a considerably younger audience back when unions were in place. Hell, I joined when I was 14 because of them.

@Toxic-Seahorse: The main problem is that the people who actually bother talking to the users aren't the ones making the rules. I get my "orders" from my manager who gets her order from hers...like them or not it's either do it or get out.

@magicalclick: So trolling is an essential part of forums?

@magicalclick: But none of you knows what the "crime" was, how many strikes he already had, how many suspensions, his moderation history...I'm curious to know how everybody is all of a sudden an expert in what should have been done when none of you even knows what the problem was.

@magicalclick: You get 2 temp bans before you get a permanent one. If you don't care about the multiple times you get warned before you get kicked out of the site then you don't really care about staying in the site.

It's not like we're talking to you fine and then we ban you out of the blue. There's a lot of "backstage talk" between the mods and between the mods and the user. We're not in the business of making people disappear but if our multiple attempts to try and get you to obey the rules fail then you're bringing it onto yourself.

@magicalclick: Nice =D Have fun....give Beast a kiss for me =P

So tell us what it was

@chessmaster1989: We're doing this again? If you guys can't even remember what was already discussed in this thread no wonder you can't remember ex-users' behaviour...

If you're going to drone on like a broken record regurgitating the same excuses, then I'm going to keep giving the same responses. If you don't like it, then look at the tears in my eyes.

@chessmaster1989: You know what I think? I think that if you guys believed even half of the things that came out of your mouths in this thread you would have left a long time ago; since you haven't I can only assume you guys just want attention and I'm tired of giving it to you. Own up to your convictions, do what you need to do and have a good day.

Glad to see your last post here is in the same condescending holier-than-thou attitude you've exhibited throughout the thread. Really speaks to your motives here

I very rarely post in OT. There was a period of time when the mods let us say practically anything short of personal attacks and death threats tho. That was nice because like you said earlier, the idiots would be shunned by the larger whole of the community and eventually find their way to the door, or be hit with spam notification. I believe it was right before this site changed to a giant bomb forum format.

Personally I find it feels more strict than it's been in quite a while, and it does stifle forum participation especially in an environment known for it's reliance on trolling, like SW.

Although I will concede that's most likely due to this site having a much larger user base before as well. It just hasn't been the same since the site change and holy crap does this 3 minute post editing rule suck now.

Guys Guys, we shouldn't question any mods motive out here, specially Korvus. He's very helpful and understanding mod out here. We should all ask GS staff or in ask mods forum about the reasons Air got banned and if we could bring Airshocker back instead. Airshocker , Korvus, Gwynblade all are part of our community and we shouldn't misunderstand anyone :)