How so? Please provide some compelling reasoning. As a counter argument (to that yet-to-be-heard compelling reason), I’d say that a ban does not effect anyone else but the banned member, other members, friends, interactors of the banned person. So how is it a private matter?
A reasonable and decent approach would be not to ban anyone. And if there are some exceptional circumstances (for some weird reason) then the ban and it’s reasoning be made public (like one of those important announcement thingies) so that friends, family, and foes be aware of the news and may contact the person. This whole iron clad sort of approach seems more like save-your-own-face.
Once we’ve established this particular policy matter, we’ll come to Madhanee’s ban and the logic behind it.
Well, let’s say you did something really really stupid; say you posted someone else’s pictures without their permission. Abhi chances are that the other party will not enjoy this and could decide to leave us. We don’t want that now cuz everyone should feel at home here, or at least experience the friendly atmosphere, right. So to stop the person from posting others pics again we ban him/her (after a number of warnings that is). Then we start talking to him/her, only thing we want from this point on is an assurance ke he/she will abide by the agreed GS rules. When that is done, we allow him/her back.
Abhi, if the person has been given a second chance there is no need for anyone else to stereotype him/her for what he/she has been punished for already, you can find plenty of examples of members commenting bans. Nor do we want to humiliate him/her by posting admin-banned members agreements/apologies on public forum.
This I believe is pretty normal procedure. We could put up a sticky up saying, user yada yada was posting maaN-behen ki galiyaN, lekin then we reduce our chances to negotiate. The aim is not to kick you out for good, this place should be enjoyed by all, for that we need everyone to respect each other limits.
As for saving our faces after a ban, tau since we have pretty clearly written rules for forums and GS in general tau we can easily refer to them, no problem. We can be wrong in judging a case sometimes, but then we have over 20 members of mods team to give feedback and help the admin correct our selves. We have apologized to members when we know we were wrong. Our ego is not bigger than that.
Saba, Re: your response to Roman, about bans being a private issue, is fairly thick, and it requires RagRa by Madhanee. Your example of members posting other members’ photos without permission makes Roman’s argument stronger. We need to know about such members so not to share our pics with them.
Roman, please return all the photos that you took of me and Matsui in compromising situations.
Abhi chances are that the other party will not enjoy this and could decide to leave us.
That's a wrong assumption. Normally people would contact the person and will try to sort it out along with asking the mod to remove the picture. I don't see any need whatsoever to ban someone on something like this. People build their own nettiquettes based on social norms which are generally acceptable/unacceptable in a social environment. By banning someone right off the bat you're in fact obstructing such a social environment. You're also creating more member dependency on mods/admins which is not a good thing. Let this be known by the members like Madhanee said and the person would be known among the others and no one will trust him with personal info again. He deserves that. What's the need for ban?
Abhi, if the person has been given a second chance there is no need for anyone else to stereotype him/her for what he/she has been punished for already, you can find plenty of examples of members commenting bans. Nor do we want to humiliate him/her by posting admin-banned members agreements/apologies on public forum.
That's a wrong approach altogether. If a person crosses the bounderies then you should actually let the other members, interactors argue with him/her. Normally people listen to their friends, acquaintances etc. It's way to adjusting to a social environment because no one wants to lose friends or company of others or be unaccepted.
Most of the time harsh behavior is temporary and no one really cares after couple of days. People get on each others nevers in some thread some day and laugh out loud together in some other thread few days later. It's OK to let people deal with these bumps within themselves. You should actually discourage, on general basis, those members who come running to you to complain about this and that every now and then. It'll give them an excellent opportunity to deal with situations as such on their own.
Now coming back to the 20 + mod team. bhaee, what kinda impression does this give? Are you guys building a fort or something kay jee you need 20+ guards? When I joined GS, there used to be a general statement during the registration process. Rest was all upto few ginnay chunnay mods who never went back to Admin or some other "authority" kay jee flaaN banday nay mujhay yay keh diya ya ussay yay keh diya, let's ban him/her. Banning used to be a "Taboo". Now it's a general practice. I still don't get it kay all of a sudden kon see aisee qayamat aa gaee thee kay you had to write constitution-like policies and put two dozen watchdogs on the doors?
This is how I look at it: Your attitude should be kay ok, we provide this place for social interaction. aapis meiN jo chahay marzi karo. We'll come into the picture only when this social enviroment is disrupted by some boozoos who's got nothing better to do but to create havoc. Few words here, few instances there don't really constitute "disruption". It's just constantly changing culture, that's all.
BTW, you should've unban that AQ guy by now if you already have not done so.
Roman what looks good in print doesn't always work in practicality. What makes sense to you isn't necessarily what works here. GS is a big community with people from all over posting here where they don't post on sites which might go by your standards. Think about it carefully why that might be.
kindly surf the net and see what kind of BB's have survived for more than a year.
You mean GS never survived before you came along?
PS. Any banned member can go through the proper channels and talk to us
Talk to you about what? And what will you say in reply, "aap ko ussay idiot nahi kehna chahiyay tha"? Your procedure and channel is very condenscending. A person who should have not be banned to begin with should never have to talk to someone to get back in.
Xtreme, I've said it about thousand times before, I'd say it again: interact, not intervene.
Since I'm addressing you with respect, you can drop sarcasm as well. Else you can post your feedback and move on.
Now let me try with an another example if you still are interested in a reply. If someone walks up to you and punch you down, what’re you gonna do? Hit him back or report him to the authorities? Places that allow you to punch the other person down, die a very natural death. I know I’ve left room for more argument in this example as well. Lekin chale ga. What you’re expecting from members is not entirely the real picture. Some members, when they bump into a problem, will try to sort it out using civilized manners. Others will give it all they’ve got. We see that happening over and over again, hence we’re convinced about the rules we have.
As for listening to friends, no one is stopping ppl from interacting. Normally friends would be expected to jump in long before we have to take over. That should be the normal course, and not when we already have taken action, tab ppl start running around the forums. That’s what you’d normally do in real life as well - Stop your friends from stealing before they get caught by the police.
We do not ban ppl for shouting loud in the classroom now. So if friends are having fun we hardly ever disturb. HaaN if your friend complains to us tau we look into it else, no one bothers.
As for 20+ mods, when you joined this site, GS had a little hand full members and a few forums. Look at the population and forums now.
Rest assured, GS is doing fine compared to a lot of other places Masha Allah. GS had Muzna before me, I'm sure you recall her no-nonsense policy. This place has survived cuz she managed to build a place with future.
bhaee, yahi to masla hai. I'm not saying don't do anything about the punch, I'm saying define punch properly. It's not really the mods or the admins. It's pretty much that most of the people have spent years here and it's kinda hard to go somewhere else and recreate the whole clique or circle of friends etc. So all these banned people chahay dil meiN aap ko gaaliyaaN day rahay hoN, want to come back because of their friends. Fungi is absolutely right in his comment about this. And here you take credit for it. Com' on.
You lot think people come back because they admire your personality and policy matters?
Well I agree with you up to a point, it's the members who make this place it's not about cliques or circles of friends because you can take them somewhere else and it'll still be a ghost town. It's like comparing the US to Switzerland. The swis might be culturally more refined (bear with me it's an analogy) but the US has it going on, with the wasps, the spicks, the chinks and the rest. Everyone's there, the place is bubbling, good or bad.
So here you have GS with lots of bachay, babay, men, vimmin, indians, arabs, turks...you name it they're here. It's a thriving community because it appelas to everybody. That's not to say I agree with all the policies here but unless it's a serious issue, i.e. a genuine ban then what's the big deal?
chaleiN, that's a good thing. As far as your mods' feedback is concerned, I feel that most of them are way too "nice" people. Don't get me wrong, I consider most of them my net friends. But what I mean by that is that they lack "indepedent" thought on issues or contraversaries. They are just way too nice to disagree to something that's being said in "team" or voice their opinions. This is even further marred by the fact that most of them are chosen because they have certain type of personality. It's a very homogeneous sort of environment throughout. Not much diversity.
