The Joys of Overzealous Moderators

[Hrum]

Originally Posted by Anaconda

This extremely - I underline extremely - good book on the topic; why rules are important and why it is very important people voluntarily follow them:

http://www.schneier.com/book-lo.html

From the end of the IEEE Spectrum review, the link to which is listed on Schneier's site:

"In other words, sometimes rule breakers are a threat to society, and sometimes they are its best hope. If that sounds like Thomas Jefferson’s "I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it," we can still thank Schneier for updating this eternal truth for a digital age."

I would agree with this. Yes, rules are important, but there is a reason why it is preferrable to have them applied by a human intelligence that can make a judgement call, that can see gradations, that can interpret grey areas. Shrapnel is doing that, and to the extent that they do it correctly that's great. The problem is that there are a lot of us who are pointing to some very high profile instances when many of us feel that they got it wrong. This is one of those instances.

In this case, re: the banning of Calahan, I am in agreement with others here - I would like to know why Shrapnel banned Calahan. Based on what I've seen of his postings here, Calahan may have given the admins the justification they needed to do so, but there's no question in my mind that his contributions to the community outweigh any offense he may have given. Couldn't some warning have been given? Why can't there be an intermediate step between ignoring borderline behavior and a permaban?

Isn't that passive aggressive? Ignore the rule bending of certain major contributors to the community for months or years and then one day snap and ban them permanently without warning?

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally Posted by Hrum

Isn't that passive aggressive? Ignore the rule bending of certain major contributors to the community for months or years and then one day snap and ban them permanently without warning?

Kindof like being irritated at the neighbors cat always crapping on your lawn, then one day shooting it? Its not hard to agree that its a bad thing. But its not surprising to consider it rather average also. Large corporations tend to buffer such decisions thru multiple channels of people selected for their diplomatic ability.

[Soyweiser]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

Kindof like being irritated at the neighbors cat always crapping on your lawn, then one day shooting it? Its not hard to agree that its a bad thing. But its not surprising to consider it rather average also. Large corporations tend to buffer such decisions thru multiple channels of people selected for their diplomatic ability.

Wow... you shoot your neighbours cat without asking your neighbor? What a dick move.

We tend to talk about our problems with neighbors before we result to drastic methods.

Also, it is the governement shooting the cat. And not talking about it.

[rdonj]

Let's not forget about racist comments made by shrapnel staff, either.

[Soyweiser]

Originally Posted by rdonj

Let's not forget about racist comments made by shrapnel staff, either.

Gonna need proof of that there mister.

Also, following my own personal rules. I'm gonna overlook it if they apologized for it.

Originally Posted by TimBrooks

Since 1999 Shrapnel Games has been the Internet destination of choice for the discriminating strategy gamer.

(I'm pulling that quote totally out of context btw).

[Admiral_Aorta]

Gonna need proof of that there mister.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/blog.php?b=438

Watch, in a couple of years some unit is going to be wiped out by a bunch of fuzzy wuzzies with spears.

[jimbojones1971]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

Kindof like being irritated at the neighbors cat always crapping on your lawn, then one day shooting it? Its not hard to agree that its a bad thing.

Tangent time! :-)

In my case, it is the neighbor's dogs. I kinda like the dogs, but am not interested in doing the jail time associated with geeking the neighbor. It sure is a puzzler. I suppose I could cr*p on the neighbor's lawn one night, but that requires a lot of effort and also the risk of frost bite to exposed posterior bits.

[rdonj]

Buy fake poop and rub some mud onto it. Should get the idea across without risking your posterior region.