What? You're offering me a privilege by graciously allowing me to post in the Help Desk? Is this even for real, or are you on a wind up?
If you, or anyone feels that they are being adversely affected, they are free to ask and a mod or admin will look into it.
In that case, IP banning is going to frustrate them, because every time they register, they'll just make a new account. Which means they'll eventually get around it another way. Either way, I can't win your argument as you present it.
He's saying that HE started this thread, bringing the policy to everyone's attention. Hardly the actions of someone wishing to hide a secret weapon.
"Here's a thread to tell you what we're going to do. Our plan works on the principle that A is non-A. Please tell us you think this is a good plan. Btw, if you don't think it's agood plan, we'll do it anyway. Also, the A is non-A part makes sense because of secrets." Yeah, I can feel the respect.
By coming to one of us instead of continuing to make dual accounts. No, what I'm saying is that you're talking about secrets and transparency, in a thread that has all but explained how the tool works, in a public thread that can be seen by everyone.
Why should an innocent member have to do that? That's like saying "if you're unhappy about being put in prison, speak to the prison guard and he might let you out when he starts his shift tomorrow". Ludicrous. Guilty until proven innocent.
I'm not the one presenting an argument! You're presenting it, and it doesn't make any sense, and you're saying there's a secret reason why it does. Again, what do you expect as a reaction to that?
This thread would probably be easier to understand if the admins were actually on the same page about whether Lesbian Shoes is allowed here or not, because there seems to be some confusion about that.
All right, enough with this bullshit Chup. There are all kinds of things we hide and are right to do so. Is your real life identity something that I should divulge for the sake of transparency? Nobody is fooled by your line of "logic," try a bit harder, please.
So in my "Alerts" box, I see two alerts that name @John, but give no further information as to whether he's quoted me, paged me, liked me, or sent me a PM. This has never happened before. Is this a bug? Am I on stage 1 of discouragement? Is there a way to find out?
It hasn't been explained at all. You are saying there are things you are hiding from us, refuse to confirm to us that innocents won't spend any time stuck in this discouragement zone and now act like you're doing us lowlife peons a favour by giving us 50% of the information. Never has this board been run like that.
@John can correct me, but my understanding is that discourage will both do a better job of identifying Lesbian Shoes next dual from the onset, make it harder for him to do his favorite porn spam troll, and also let him know that just b/c we are allowing him back that that isn't tacit approval of his repeated violation of the rules.
Yeah, yeah. "Nobody is fooled". Your usual weak retort when you don't like it when a point is being made against your view of things. But are you now calling me a troll in the Help Desk? This board has always been clear on what punishments people would face is they breach the rules. Now we have a system where punishment is secret and innocents can be punished. You see no inherent fault in that?
It's a part of the @ user system. Instead of showing you the thread where you've been named, it's just indicating that someone has tagged you. I'll have to see why it's doing that. As for your other comment, I'll ask you kindly to knock it off. If you're going to get paranoid and borderline hysterical, please do so in another thread outside of the Help Desk. That is correct. It prevents almost all possible communication, save for the ability to contact various staff members, preventing usage of search, news feeds, and the like, and severely limiting posting ability. It's designed to work as an extra layer of protection. It lets him know that yeah, he managed to register, but that doesn't mean he's welcome to post here, nor will he have the unrestrained ability to do so. He will either stop using the account, contact us to have it lifted, give up and move on, or try again, only to experience the same as before. Edited to fix quotes
"Paranoid and hysterical"? Can't answer questions = mod trolling of members in the Help Desk through the use of personal insults. Where is the "Help" in "Help Desk"? All I see is members now being cunted off by you and @gul because they are asking perfectly legitimate questions of this new secret policing.
It's actually a Tamar troll. After her and Scorps splinter/protest board failed to launch when we assumed ownership (all they managed to do was get Maud and Clyde to leave, and Volpone to resign) all she does is show up either during drama to try and stoke it or as in this case, do her best to start it. However, now that her BS accusations are slowly being ground out I doubt she'll get the rebellion she's hoping for.
I've got one of those, too. It's too bad John is having to deal with shit storms -- look how quickly maintenance goes down the tubes!
All of which sounds true, but she didn't start this thread, and she isn't the one refusing to directly answer questions about the very thing you're pretending you want to tell us about.
It is, but it's very restricted. Since the posting ability is very limited, it depends upon what the banned user plans on posting. It's been designed to be far easier to simply contact one of us to talk about returning to the board. Sure, you can spam porn again, or do whatever it was that got you banned before, but then I'm just going to kick in the last switch and make it damned near impossible to do anything. It's completely up to that banned member whether they really want to return, or whether they want to cause more trouble. So @Ancalagon, and @gul are correct, but the ability to post really is severely limited. The smart thing for them to do is talk to us.
Yes. Your next paragraph is another example. Which punishment is secret, the one John announced to the world in the OP? Do I need to repost the half dozen statements made by a variety of staff indicating that nobody plans to punish innocents and we'll be purposefully careful about that? You see no inherent trolling in your statement that directly contradicts reality?
I'm sorry that you don't feel John has answered the questions to your satisfaction. Maybe if you could list out your various questions about discourage he can try one more time. Keep in mind that due to the nature of the beast some of the technical aspects of how it works have to remain secret. After that Im not sure how much more we can explain. I'm starting to feel like we are going in circles. Maybe we'll just have to wait and see if any of these potential pitfalls materialize.
...and say what? "Hi, I'm Skrain, you've banned me, but I'm all better now, so please turn off the discouragament feature"?
I think it's going to have to come down to trust. I know some of you guys trust me, and others don't, and I get that, but when all is said and done, you have to trust that I'm doing my damndest to hold everything together, while keeping out that which wants to tear it apart. Probably not that straightforward, and there will be discussions between that poster, and the staff, but yes.
