He sent me a PM saying he cannot post and wanted to know why. Mods, are you stealth banning people again?
Thus the question about stealth bans, do keep up. Btw he claims he can't post so has John been fiddling with discourage again as no one likes his failed exile forum?
Was it @John that introduced and pushed Discourage? I know Anc liked it, but one of the techmins we had explained why it wasn't needed. @Anna, you're the resident historian. At any rate, we don't do stealth bans, just stealth bands. You're up next with that jammin' sax solo, @Dinner. Break a leg.
I did introduce it, yes. The general idea behind the software was to prevent spambots from immediately having the capability to post. I had combined it with several other little bits of code to make it work, because at the time we were dealing with a shitload of spambots trying to get in. The original purpose of Discourage was designed by the developers at Xenforo. It is intended to be used as a way to get problem posters to quit posting. I did briefly entertain the idea of using it for its original purpose, but then found that it would have been far more trouble than it was worth, and with some discussion between the admins and myself, eventually agreed with them that there was no point in pursuing it. That and @K. helped me test it, and we found it had way too many flaws to work as a spam deterrent, so it was permanently shelved.
edit: to dinner It works on every other browser I've tried, but still only lets me browse when using explorer for some reason.
Actually, only admins see that, but Dinner can check the banned users list. Also, somebody who is banned probably can't send PMs.
Now, on to the topic at hand: if gturner isn't banned, what is he? Well, he's locked in the Violet Room. This decision was reached by the Admins, and myself. He was informed of this decision in a PM. He then chose to send PMs to some of you saying he was banned (which makes no sense since he was able to PM you). So he knows exactly why he can only access the Violet Room. Congratulations, you've been snookered once again by him. So, as has been mentioned before, the Violet Room can be used like the Daycare over at TK. That is its primary purpose, though it is also used as a repository for excessive spam and callout threads. Wordforge will not be creating more rules. We have more than enough rules. The rules as they exist, instead, will be enforced. Gturner had to work his ass off to get put there, and there he is for now. You can freely post in the Violet Room, you can join in with his posts if you like, he can even see the other fora, but he can't post in any room other than the Violet Room.
What are the terms of his banishment to the violet room? As much as he annoys me I feel I'm served better by his presence than not. Once we start locking up ideas we become him.
As of right now, he's free to read threads anywhere on the board, and to post threads in the Violet Room, though it does follow Red Room rules, so he can't just run amok. It doesn't have to be permanent. That part of it is entirely up to him.
Enterpriser is one of the reasons TBBS had so many rules at one point. He's why starting more than 5 threads a day was against the rules, among many other attempts to curb his behavior. Me, I prefer a swift kick in the ass for trolls who know what they're doing, and it's clear with his PM stunt that gturner has no purpose than to cause as much board disruption as possible while contributing nothing else.
