• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.
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Following discussion between himself and me, INT21 has opted to forego all posting privileges from now on. This was a compromise to avoid an outright permanent ban.
Following further discussions and new evidence coming to light, this has been made a permanent ban.

We will not tolerate members attempting to encourage others to harass fellow posters or staff.
 
@blessmycottonsocks has received an AMBER warning for posting about politicians on one of the Covid threads.

This is his seventh warning in 2020, a fact that seems implausible but is the case.

We are determined that will will not have political digressions, and this member has been made aware that any future attempt to pursue them will result in his departure.

Naturally we hope that this eventuality will not be reached.
 
Green level warning (1 point; 3 months' duration) issued to Analogue Boy for posting a politician's photo as the cryptic and sole content of a post in the Astronomical News thread. (Off-Topic; 'Politics')
 
Unfortunately, there seems to have been a minor spat earlier in which one member attempted humour with what seems to be an ill-considered insult, and the other spat venom back instead of reporting the post.

Both are valued long-term members here, but we can't allow such behaviour to stand as it clearly breaks the rules, and any indulgence would set a precedent.

Accordingly, both @skinny and @Naughty_Felid receive a single point warning for 'Inappropriate Language'.

Please keep it civil.
 
An Inappropriate Content warning (1 point; 1 month) has been issued to maximus otter for gratuitously 'political' commentary in a post within the 'COVID-19: Non-Medical Effects ...' thread.
 
An Inappropriate Content warning (1 point; 1 month) has been issued to Nemo for gratuitously 'political' commentary in a post within the 'WTF?' thread.
 
Supernova has been banned permanently for a repeatedly failing to engage in constructive discussion and for staff abuse (of which I take a very dim view indeed.)
 
This is better described as "lashed to the tree with a computer-controlled nail gun pointed at the subject."

Long story short ...

Substantial Staff air time has been spent debating infractions and responses relating to maximum otter, and this time sink is being put out of our misery.

The consensus resolution was to institute a novel form of automated sanctioning. This involves setting a minimal margin of infraction required to trigger an auto-ban. An auto-ban is triggered whenever a member's current cumulative warning points tally equals or exceeds a preset threshold value. The auto-ban condition remains in effect for as long as the warning points tally equals or exceeds the trigger threshold.

Maximus otter's record has been rigged to maintain his warning points level 1 point short of the auto-ban trigger threshold for 6 months (expiring 1 July). During this period the issuance of any warning (1 point being the minimum for any warning type) will trigger an auto-ban. If and when the prescribed time spans of all active 2021 warnings expire prior to 1 July the auto-ban will be automatically lifted.
 
A Green Warning (1 point; 1 month) for Inappropriate Content has been issued to Souleater for off-topic and 'political' posting to the Trump Concession Video thread after being advised of the boundaries in force.
 
A Green Warning (1 point; 1 month) for Inappropriate Content has been issued to Souleater for off-topic and 'political' posting to the Trump Concession Video thread after being advised of the boundaries in force.

@Souleater has been awarded a ban for the weekend for repeatedly posting about politics.

His account will become accessible again on Monday, but the pixelated doctors whisper that, barring a dramatic turnaround, the signs are that he's not long for this board.
 
@Souleater has been awarded a ban for the weekend for repeatedly posting about politics.

His account will become accessible again on Monday, but the pixelated doctors whisper that barring a dramatic turnaround the signs are that he's not long for this board.

@Souleater now reinstated.
 
A custom double-warning (2 points; 3 months) has been issued to @uair01 for both (a) posting about 'politics' and (b) baiting the mods by noting it as 'politics'.

As previously announced, noting the prohibited status of content posted provides no excuse and no protection for the consequences of posting prohibited content.
 
@Jock Abroad has been awarded a short ban for repeatedly ignoring Mod guidance; this is intended to allow time for reflecting on the culture of, what is after all, a weird place :) We are not now, nor will ever be a Reddit!

His account will become accessible again on Tuesday. Looking forward to his passion and areas of expertise but, quoting @Yithian above, the pixelated doctors whisper that barring a dramatic turnaround the signs are that he's not long for this board.

Frideswide
 
With apologies for the slight delay, single-point warnings have been issued to @hunck and @Mythopoeika for introducing Donald Trump and Tony Blair (respectively) into the thread on 'Compulsive Lying'.

No doubt readers will hold their own opinions on whether these names fairly belong under that heading, but you can be sure that others here will disagree--and wish to say so

They would likely introduce their own personal villains as comparisons or contrasts, and then we'd be treated to another argument about politics instead of psychology.
 
An Inappropriate Content warning (1 point; 1 month) has been issued to Ogdred Weary for a post made to the Dennis the Menace thread.
 
An Inappropriate Content/Behaviour warning (1 point; 1 month) has been issued to Souleater for posts in Mainstream News and, latterly, in General Website Queries.
 
There's been a flurry of negative activity this afternoon, the two major issues being:

a) A couple of members seemed to think this a fine place to debate the transsexual community and their battles with so-called TERFs.

b) @blessmycottonsocks decided to return to one of his hobby-horses and complain about Black Lives Matter.

We are still consulting members about the first, and it looks as if the matter will be closed amicably with attention being drawn to certain guidelines, but I'm afraid that @blessmycottonsocks has run out of lives.

I have no need to spin the matter: he's the most formally and informally warned member we've ever had on the board, nearly every occasion being connected with his compulsion for posting about racism, sexism, politics, cancel culture and a number of other subjects that would once have been dubbed '-isms'.

Today's was a swipe at BLM on a thread that had nothing to do with that subject.

We have, therefore, issued him with a two-month ban from the site; we can't imagine that this will come as a shock to him, as he was warned of the likelihood of such an eventuality only a few weeks ago.

If he wishes to return after that period expires, he will be welcome if (and only if) he can limit himself to the discussion of Forteana.

For oft-cited reasons of community cohesion, we are not interested in hosting material relating to politics and contemporary culture struggles. To be specific, the CFI (our hosts) are not interested in hosting it, and we (the moderators) are not interested in cleaning up the mess in which it invariably results.

None of us likes this, but we've just chosen the least worst option.
 
An Inappropriate Content/Behaviour warning (1 point; 1 month) has been issued to @Naughty_Felid Felid for posts in COVID-19: How Are You? (Your Personal Notes; Queries; Reports) and also Royal News.

As a general reminder, it is helpful to your cause to follow Mod guidance when we discuss a possible problem with you.
 
A Green Warning (1 point; 3 months) has been issued to @Analogue Boy for his rude and dismissive response to a fellow member in the Royal News thread.
 
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A one-point warning has been issued to @lordmongrove for political posting.

It was also posted on the FORTEAN HEADLINES Thread--without a headline.
 
An Inappropriate Content warning (1 point; 1 month) has been issued to @Vardoger for posting a political parody image.

NOTE: Stating some of your content is "political" and then hiding it behind a Spoiler tag does not mean you conform to the forum rules. The prohibition forbids any political content, not just visible political content.
 
An Inappropriate Behavior warning (1 point; 1 month) has been issued to @Souleater for taunting / trolling the moderators after a topic had been declared inappropriate on the basis of "politics" and destined for deletion. His post motivating this action has been removed from public view.
 
An Inappropriate Content (1 point; 1 month) warning has been issued to @Gene Hunt73 for a post made to the Royal News thread.
 
An Inappropriate Content (1 point; 1 month) warning has been issued to GeneHunt73 for a post made to the Royal News thread.

Explanation has been adequately covered here:

Back in 2001, when the first incarnation of the board appeared, the Internet was a strikingly different place; in practical if not strictly legal terms, the public had far greater leeway for the expression of personal belief without the fear of lawyers' letters, service bans or (more recently) public campaigns against service providers.

Then is not now.

While we are confident that it is still possible to safely communicate most ideas, when it come to the class of potentially defamatory accusations against living figures, if such comments must be made, it will require the intelligent inclusion of appropriate caveats and qualifications.

We cannot permit posts of the type:
  • Joe Bloggs is a bloody murderer.
  • Jane Doe is a paedophile.
 
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