The following statement appeared this morning on a thread that is now closed.


We have a mechanism for reporting posts.

Is it appropriate for one member to call for the banning of another member on the public board? Is this a can of worms we really want to open?

No more than people should announce their termination from the site.

That said, my opinion is they should ban him.

Thanks, but this last sentence does not address what I am asking.

This thread is not intended as a referendum on inventor.

Yeah well you know how it is here. Someone will always come along and take your thread in a direction you weren't expecting. No one does that to their own threads except Inventor.

The reporting process is private for a reason; when you publicly announce your personal opinions of other posters, you create a climate which is not condusive towards intelligent debate. Lest we all forget, that's the reason we're here. Posts which announce "I think someone should be banned" contribute nothing but animosity to the Forums.

The Staff determines who stays and who goes, so recommendations serve no function whatsoever. Repeating these hostile assertions only furthers the damage... both to the level of decorum, and the esteem in which our more reasonable members (who don't engage in such childish behaviour) hold the speaker in question.

Some boards prohibit commenting on reported posts, apparently AD does not. I don't really have a problem with someone expressing an opinion like that. For the most part Moderators will ignore the remark, they simply look at the reported or offensive post to see if there is a rule violation requiring action. What you recommend in your post is your opinion and AD encourages people expressing their opinion. Should it have any weight? Well...yea...if the Moderator finds it persuasive.

I think you have a valid point. This can only bring the nonsense that has pushed so many away from other sites to . I don't see anything productive to posts like these. We can all probably think of at least one member here that we could live without, but to start the war of this type will only denigrate this site. I do have a question though, if a member sends PMs that are beyond mature or civil, can those be reported as well? My question does not refer to any specific PMs, but we all know that the PM system can be abusive when used by people with ill intentions. I know we can block, but when certain members PM hateful, insulting rubbish, there has to be something more than to just block them. Banning them comes to mind.

So to answer your question, I think the post was uncalled for. At least in a public forum.

Nope. This is best left for private messages, if it is to be done at all. Just as it is best not to mention in a thread that you are reporting a particular post.

I would say that things should be kept quiet - with one exception. If you believe that someone is truly a problem, and you have already gone through the correct (private) channels to no avail a few times, maybe a public referendum on a member would be called for. I doubt this would come up much, as our moderators seem pretty responsive to me.

In this case, I think I just would have left the Rathergate thread long ago. But I can certainly understand the frustration. You don't want these types getting in the last word. It rubs us opinionated types the wrong way.

Abusing any of the systems of , including the PM system, is against the Rules and is definitely grounds for immediate disciplinary action.



On the subject specifically raised here, UJ covers it nicely... Expressing an opinion equivalent to "Go away!" is not healthy for reasoned debate.