Banned from CT for trolling

ohnonotgmail

I would like to know why i banned for trolling in CT. and permanently banned at that. what posts in particular the mods thought were trolling.
I have asked the mod this but have not received the courtesy of a reply.

Tokyo

Good evening ohnonotgmail,

I'll be taking on your DRP, but first I'll let the CT mods know that you have reached out to them, and give them the opportunity to discuss this with you first - moderators have real world obligations away from the forum and may not have had the chance to respond this evening.

If you still can't come to a resolution, I'll look into what led up to your forum ban.

Regards,
Mike

ohnonotgmail

I've been talking to Overheal via PM and i dont think we can come to an agreement. He put an ultimatum to me that i cant accept because of the aggression behind it. He seems to be done talking to me. So if you can take it from here Mike_ie that would be appreciated.

Tokyo

Ok ohnonotgmail,

it's unfortunate that you can't come to a resolution with Overheal on this - leave it with me and I'll look into it in more detail. In the meantime, if you can forward me your correspondence with Overheal, and I'll take it from there.

Regards,
Mike

Tokyo

Okay ohnonotgmail,

I have spoken to Overheal, and he has kindly forwarded on to me the PM exchange between you and him, so that step of the process is no longer an issue. Considering the nature of the ban, and your accusation of aggression, I have looked into both the PM exchange and your posting history in the Conspiracy Theories forum.

When I first saw the ban I did feel that it was overkill somewhat - looking at it from the poster's point of view (which is my role), a lack of infractions preceding the ban seemed to indicate that there was some room for mediation. And I said as much to Overheal, who was more than willing to oblige. However since then, a few things have come to light which certainly changes the playing field somewhat.

The first is that this isn't your first account here which you have used to post in the CT forum, you have multiple warnings in CT under your previous username, and as such, these historic infractions must be taken into account.

The second is the ban itself, and the discussions that followed. As Overheal pointed out in his PM exchange with you, your ban wasn't for one single post, but for a pattern of behaviour in the forum over both accounts, and an unwillingness to discuss said behaviour when the opportunity was presented to you. And reading through both the PMs and your posts, I can see where the moderators are coming from on this.

You state in this DRP that Overheal "put an ultimatum to me that i cant accept because of the aggression behind it. He seems to be done talking to me", and to be frank, I'm baffled as to how you came to that conclusion. Firstly, Overheal didn't terminate the conversation - you did, while he was still trying to come to some kind of agreement with you. Second, from the lengthy PM exchange that Overheal forwarded on to me, it seems that from his first PM onwards, he has been transparent and open with you in that (a) he agreed that a permanent ban wasn't the conclusion he wanted from all of this, and (b) was happy to discuss with you on how to make positive contributions to the forum to make it better than the "vacuous cesspool" that you have claimed it is, and that he would happily re-evaluate the ban. You chose not to engage in this line of conversation. I'm afraid that where you see aggression and a mod taking a stand, I see a moderator who was happy to engage with you in discussion and hand you an olive branch with you refused to acknowledge, let alone accept.

Now to the ban itself, and the length.

I can see in your PM exchange that you have taken issue with the reason behind the ban - trolling. First, moderators are presented with a limited set of labels to apply to an infraction or ban - 'Trolling' is one of a handful available. Second, and more importantly, looking at your posting style, I can see how they deemed it to be an appropriate reason for the ban. Reading through your posts, the signal to noise ratio is quite high, and coupled with that, the 'noise' tends to be of the nature of a combative response, rather than actual discussion. This can be considered a form of trolling, albeit of the more low level nature, and as pointed out by the moderators, it's not something they are trying to promote in CT. That being said, I am willing to change the reason for the ban to "Uncivil" or "Breach of Forum Charter", both of which equally apply.

As to the length of the ban, despite all efforts to engage with you, you really haven't given the CT moderators any real option here, and I'm inclined to uphold it. You disparage moderation there and refer to the forum as being a "vacuous cesspool", and yet make no efforts to engage in discussion as to how to improve that. You have accused one CT moderator of threatening behaviour, yet made no effort to discuss it when presented with the opportunity to do so. You have just now accused another CT moderator of aggression and issuing ultimatums, when it's clear from PMs that he entered into a long and protracted discussion with you on how to be a positive contributor to the Conspiracy Theories forum despite being aware of your history in the forum. You have received warnings under a previous account and then ragequit with a 'screw you' to the CT mods as a parting shot when your posting style was called into question. The term 'persecution complex' comes to mind here.

As such, I am upholding the permanent ban from CT. The moderators have already spent quite an amount of time trying to engage with you without anything in return on your part, your PMs show no indication of you recognising the issue or entertaining changing your stance even slightly, and there comes a time when somebody has to draw a line in the sand - CT clearly isn't for you, and I'm not willing to let them spend any more time on this. If however, you decide in the future (after three months), that you would like to change your stance on this and contribute positively to the forum, PM the moderators and see if they are willing to give you a second chance. Whether they do or not is entirely up to them though.

We can consider this matter resolved, or you may request an admin review if you wish. I'm happy to make copies of PMs available to any admin who requests them.

Regards,
Mike

Tokyo

Hi ohnonotgmail,

as you don't seem to with to escalate this to admin review, I'll be asking them to close off this DRP in the next few days.

Mike