MeDeFe wrote:Subject: For Minor Infractions, 6 Months Max Vacation instead PermaTotoroHat wrote:I will get flamed for this I am sure but I had to say something because this has gotten out of hand. I will never do something on this site to deserve a ban (for however long) because that is not the person I am. Period! It seems to me that a few bad apples ruined this site for the rest of us and then were banned from using the site for various reasons that seem perfectly logical to me to get a ban. Although I will defend persons right to be racist to the death, this site has a right to legislate things how they see fit and created guidelines to allow people to work within them or not, which results in their bans when they choose to disobey them. If they do not like the rules then create a new site or get enough people on this site to demand change. (30-100 people out of 10,000 is not enough people to demand change... you would need 4000 people for that.)
So far I see a handful of people on this site (about 30 names come to mind) who do 98% of the complaining (or posting in cheating/abuse) and the other 99.99999% of us who complain only in case of a Multi or such. This complaining is ruining the site and makes me want to leave and never play here again. Just give up already and stop complaining. You are whining like Mr. Burns stole your candy!
You have a grand total of 26 posts. No offense, but, what do you know about the fora and the people who actually spend some time here? Nothing. Yeah, you know nothing. This is not flaming you, this is stating the facts.
Several of those "bad apples" that you believe every banned person was, were to many others among the most interesting, entertaining, intelligent and witty posters on the site. Far from ruining the site they made it worthwhile to come back to the fora.
You are correct that the owner sets the policy, but the enforcement of the guidelines has proven to be inconsistent at best. In the early days some people would receive harsher punishments than others for equal offenses, this was pointed out, and the result was that the people who previously received shorter temporary bans got none at all while those who had received longer ones got the ones stated in the guidelines. This is also the current situation. People are even banned for "skirting the rules", not for breaking them, but for walking close to the line without crossing it.
The most recent fuckup was when an amendment of the guidelines that was to apply only to bigotry was expanded to ANY sort of misbehaviour. The result was that 6 offending posts of any kind could get you a permanent ban. There are people who have several thousand posts, I'd say that if you were to look you could easily find 6 posts that break or "skirt" the rules in some way for every forum regular.
Do you know why this is the case? You just need to look at the guidelines, the infractions are described in so broad terms that they can encompass practically anything. In fact, YOU broke the rules with your post, instead of meaningfully contributing to the ongoing discussion you went off-topic just to push your own opinion about how there are too people complaining down everyone else's throat.
Additionally you are flame-baiting and possibly flaming with your last paragraph, saying that we are whining is clearly belittling us and the paragraph is formulated in such a way as to elicit an angry response.
Goodness! You broke three rules with only one post. Now, do you see why we criticize the guidelines?
Furthermore, your opinion is wrong. You can't take the scoreboard to reflect the number of posters. There are not 10000 people on the fora, there are maybe 200 people who visit more or less regularly, and at most 100 who spend any significant amount of time reading and posting. Now, 30 out of 100, that's a rather significant portion, wouldn't you say? Especially when there are about 5 people out of the 100 on the other side with the occasional newcomer such as you chiming in from time to time.
You say our complaining makes you "want to leave and never play here again". You're joking, right? Have we carried this debate into your games? Have we spammed up the gamechats with endless discussions about flaws in the guidelines and in the way they are enforced? Have we in any way inconvenienced you and your 26 posts? I think not. The debate is now contained within Sugs&Bugs, there may be one thread in GD that resurfaces from time to time, but I think that one is quietly slipping down towards the bottom, page by page.
If you want to partake meaningfully in the debate, by all means, please do. Any sensible input is appreciated. But if you want to continue in the same manner, deriding those who want to help improve the site and not deal with the facts that are the reason for the "whining", do everyone a favour and just stay out of it.
