Public Ban Logs?

Sn1p3r187

Sn1p3r187

Carolinian Shaolin Monk
Well let's see. I frequent another site besides here whose name I won't mention. And to my surprise they keep their ban logs public. My question is why? To me having a public ban log is just weird and is more reminiscent to hosting public executions and letting everyone see as a reminder of why they were kicked off the site. And yet the site still has problems with spam bots and trolling. And I will say the admin and moderators are a bunch of dicks, they just hide in the shadows never doing or participating with threads and if you did something like accidentally spam the board or get off topic, you just thrown in jailed status or banned and you get forgotten about. In the case of jailed status, you're supposed to be in there 2 weeks and 7 weeks roll by and mail the admin to take the status off of you and they never respond. So much you have to get literally the only good moderator on the site to take you out of the status. It's fucked up man. I gotta ask. Why have public ban logs? Most admin and mods I know keep their logs private or don't have any at all.
 
kraag said:
Same reason you see hanging corpses in The Witcher 3, to dissuade the peasantry from revolting. To keep people in line, control them. A basic form of oppression or censorship.
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Sadly the people of this forum are oppressed by the mods and admin. I won't mention the name, but it's related to a webcomic
 
Well that sucks. Wanna go smash their kneecaps with a Swatter? I'll hold 'em still for ya.
 
kraag said:
Well that sucks. Wanna go smash their kneecaps with a Swatter? I'll hold 'em still for ya.
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I wish. But as much as I want to see them gone don't think the people who frequent the site would like it too much unless they can agree.
 
The old BBForum NMA also had public ban logs. I guess it's mostly to check when temporary bans expire, and to see why people were banned.
 
Hassknecht said:
The old BBForum NMA also had public ban logs. I guess it's mostly to check when temporary bans expire, and to see why people were banned.
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There's some point to that. But mostly I think it's meant to dissuade and control, especially when that forum just kicks you for relatively minor stuff and they don't have the nerve to warn you or respond to your messages to be let out if it was only for two weeks. In my honest opinion, the people who run the other forum are load of gestapos who leave corpses in the street.
 
Sn1p3r187 said:
There's some point to that. But mostly I think it's meant to dissuade and control, especially when that forum just kicks you for relatively minor stuff and they don't have the nerve to warn you or respond to your messages to be let out if it was only for two weeks. In my honest opinion, the people who run the other forum are load of gestapos who leave corpses in the street.
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Nah, don't think so. I mean, the admins, sure, but public ban lists are a standard feature of forums, not some Miniluv device of control.
 
Hassknecht said:
Nah, don't think so. I mean, the admins, sure, but public ban lists are a standard feature of forums, not some Miniluv device of control.
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Hmm. I think I could roll with that. But there are a lot of sites that don't have ban logs or they keep theirs private. Like maybe they just put their logs on a private word document or something in the matter what can only be seen by the admins and mods.
 
kraag said:
Same reason you see hanging corpses in The Witcher 3, to dissuade the peasantry from revolting. To keep people in line, control them. A basic form of oppression or censorship.
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I was going to say that this was quite a leap in interpretation, but I guess it's probably true. Though sometimes it's also to mock those who were banned for whatever their offense was.
 
That's just how I see it, my interpretation like you say. "Follow the Rules, or you'll end up in the banned thread" sorta juxtaposition, psychological warfare, if they see all these banned people, they might think twice about messing with the status quo. Which could very well have a dual purpose in keeping track of suspensions or evidence in a heavy troll banning case for example.
 
Now that's some proper paranoia going on :D
I mean, who even looks at public ban lists? Half of those are usually spambots, anyway.
 
Hassknecht said:
Now that's some proper paranoia going on :D
I mean, who even looks at public ban lists? Half of those are usually spambots, anyway.
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a big majority of them are. But some people got banned for really minor stuff too. Mainly stuff in relation to bringing up controversial topics. Like one dude did one on that girl who attempted suicide because of some stupid tumblr goers trying to play sjw. I think he was just trying to open peoples eyes to stuff like that and acknowledge that what they're doing is wrong because they think it's so right to defend everyone else. There wasn't much of an argument on the thread. And just like that they took it down. Asswads they are.
 
This is really confusing to me.
You think it would be an improvement if they kept all this stuff secret so you wouldn't know whether people got banned left and right?
Do you think it's a bad thing when moderators are transparent about their decisions in general? Or do you just not want to know about it when they disagree with you?
I mean, if they're constantly bragging about banning people in random topics then I guess it gets annoying, but if it's just there for you to peruse if you feel like it, then what's the problem exactly?

I think I'd take the hanging corpses outside a village I can just give a wide berth, rather than get murdered in the nice looking village for the greater good of winning the Village of the Year.
 
PlanHex said:
This is really confusing to me.
You think it would be an improvement if they kept all this stuff secret so you wouldn't know whether people got banned left and right?
Do you think it's a bad thing when moderators are transparent about their decisions in general? Or do you just not want to know about it when they disagree with you?
I mean, if they're constantly bragging about banning people in random topics then I guess it gets annoying, but if it's just there for you to peruse if you feel like it, then what's the problem exactly?

I think I'd take the hanging corpses outside a village I can just give a wide berth, rather than get murdered in the nice looking village for the greater good of winning the Village of the Year.
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I usually know someone's been banned when their profile is completely gone or there's a banned tag. And usually that's everywhere. What I dislike is the whole idea of hanging corpses and using it as some form of dissuadement to the masses on the site, it's like acknowledging that you've weakened to the point of having to do that and now you're using fear to keep everyone in line. And we now how that fear ends. From there you're likely going to have some people hate the idea and generally hate the admin and mods for making the place seem hostile and uses fear as their weapon and undermine the people they watch over. Like that forum. I have no problem with people getting banned or admins and mods in general with any forum, except for that forum. My point is- I don't like seeing hanging corpses from street lights and mods and admin who never answer what's in their inbox and leave everyone in the dark until they snatch you away for trying to give light.
 
I mean, your problem was that they had a list clearly showing who got banned.
How is that trying to keep you in the dark? It's the exact opposite! It's a pretty clear transparency method that lets you know what the moderators are doing. It sounds like you want more transparency and not less, so why do you want a transparency measure removed? You want them to shadowban people instead?
How is it in any way like that corpse metaphor anyway? Presumably you have to actually go looking for the list specifically for it to be displayed. Besides, it sounds like you don't like the place or want to be there, so just stop going there. Problem solved. Sounds like a shithole anyway, so who cares?
 
How exactly did we as a society get to the point that we can, with a straight face nonetheless, equate public ban logs on a forum with summary executions and corpses hanging from street lights?
 
How exactly did we as a society get to the point that we can, with a straight face nonetheless, ascribe a hyperbolic statement spoken by an individual to a failure of society as a whole?
 
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PlanHex said:
How exactly did we as a society get to the point that we can, with a straight face nonetheless, ascribe a hyperbolic statement spoken by an individual to a failure of society as a whole?
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Internet, m8.
 
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