The opinion of banned members has no worth?

Originally posted by WhizPhiz
Sorry, but I have my reasons not to believe that statement.

Something over which I have no control.

I've been a staff member here for years, and have yet to see anyone banned for any reason other than violating the T&C. Either repeatedly, with a blatant refusal to comply with multiple requests from staff, or in a big and obvious way.

reply to post by yeahright


Dude when did you become a SM? Last i remember you were a reg mod.. Good job...

As for the post.. ya some get banned but the banned members.. Some of them have some good posts.. it just happens some of them are banned for whatever reason.. doesnt mean that the stars and or flags mean anything..

Look at my posts compared to star/fags.. if i gave a rats ass about the ratings i would not post anymore because the star/flag to post ratio is so crappy for me.. I give my advice and thats that.. just like everyone elses posts.. Banned members give thier opinions the same as us.. its up to you to say whether you like it or not. Not some stars and flags..

I really wish WATS would come back..

reply to post by LadySkadi

This should be a feature available to us and I'd like to see it returned.

Well apparently the contributions of banned members are worth nothing these days, and it is now a challenge to even locate these banned members and their posts. I wouldn't get your hopes up, now it's implemented there's little chance of it changing back - since no one except me so far (as far as I can see) has even bothered to point out these things. And God forbid we inquire about a banned member. They're all scum banned for perfectly valid reasons that we'll never know about, lets just forget about everything they had to offer and move along...

reply to post by WhizPhiz


Topical searches work as well, just a bit more time consuming. However, my brain doesn't retain user-names for very long (unless the name has been around awhile) so there are other ways to get to those threads. Searching the archives for interesting stuff can be an undertaking though! Lol

reply to post by WhizPhiz


You must be pretty upset. I dont think that getting banned means you are scum. That a judgment I wouldnt make. You dont have to be scum to lose it and do something a lil crazy. It happens to the best of us.

It would be nice to be able to search banned members, for the reasons LadySkadi mentioned.

reply to post by LadySkadi


If you know a members username, simply enter the following into your address bar:

abovetopsecret.com/forum/mem/USERNAME

Where USERNAME is the members username (replace it obviously).

That's the only trick I have.

reply to post by WhizPhiz



since no one except me so far (as far as I can see) has even bothered to point out these things.

I am too but none of my questions have been answered ... so ....

reply to post by Illusionsaregrander

You must be pretty upset. I dont think that getting banned means you are scum. That a judgment I wouldnt make.

No I'm not really upset at all, I've known about this for a while now. I'm just trying to make my point. I was obviously over-exaggerating when I called them scum, but I'm just saying, all this is aimed towards making members pay less attention to posts made by banned members, treating them like long forgotten scum that needs to be cleaned up and avoided.

Too many good members have been banned over years.
Some definately deserved it, I don't know the reasons on quite a few, some bannings seemed trivial.
Then again I've seen people get away with quite serious T&C violations and not get banned.
All we want is consistency.
The vast majority of Mods / Admin are great, one or two are maybe not so.
But I recognise running and Moderating this site must be a pretty time consuming task.

I've seen far too much 'starring' banned members posts in the past but last time I looked I'm sure all a banned members posts are available as are their profiles, obviously not including any posts that contributed to the banning.

Personally I would like to see a return of the red 'warn' tags, I thought they were relatively effective and let everyone know where they stood.

reply to post by Freeborn


There are over 72 mods , if the t& c was less like an insurance policy they wouldn't need 72 mods.

Originally posted by WhizPhiz
all this is aimed towards making members pay less attention to posts made by banned members, treating them like long forgotten scum that needs to be cleaned up and avoided.

It would be easy enough to delete posts if that was the intent. Their posts are still here, and in fact we sometimes get requests from people in a snit who DEMAND they be banned and all their posts deleted. Sorry, not happening.

Now let's answer the original question - "The opinion of banned members has no worth?"

Every post here has exactly the worth the reader chooses to give it. No more, no less. If the worth YOU choose to ascribe to a post is contingent upon how many Stars it has, well then, that's your privilege and your choice. You know, there was a time in the not too distant past where there were no flags or stars for any posts or threads. Personally, I was fine with that.

Banned members' posts can't be starred, no posts in this forum can be starred, no threads in the Hoax forum can be flagged. That's just how it works.

Originally posted by Freeborn

Personally I would like to see a return of the red 'warn' tags, I thought they were relatively effective and let everyone know where they stood.

I didnt realize they had taken those away. I liked them too. I found them to be a sober reminder that there are consequences.

reply to post by Doomzilla


We're lucky to have 12 mods on at any one time. Given about 8,000 posts a day, that's hardly excessive.

There aren't any schedules. We're "open" 24x7 across the globe. I think we're right where we should be with the number of staff members we have.

there seems a bit of irony in the prose posed here.

that, in a 'list of members in good standing', banned members should be displayed as well.

color me stoopid, but something in that line of thought doesn't make a damn bit of sense.

i mean, if their posts, contributions and content are still readily available, what's it matter?

just because they no have their 'employee of the month' badge, bling or stars and flags ... who gives a hoot.

points, flags, stars or whatever are completely irrelevant.

content is king ... 't least for me.

to add:
might need to stop round this way less often, 't least the gray area, ufos and news threads have questions or concerns which hold merit anymore

reply to post by yeahright

It would be easy enough to delete posts if that was the intent.

It would be easy to implement, but I don't think it would be easy to deal with the complaints if that ever happened.

Their posts are still here, and in fact we sometimes get requests from people in a snit who DEMAND they be banned and all their posts deleted. Sorry, not happening.

That's understandable and common policy among many forums. More content means higher website rankings, I get it.

Every post here has exactly the worth the reader chooses to give it. No more, no less. If the worth YOU choose to ascribe to a post is contingent upon how many Stars it has, well then, that's your privilege and your choice.

I think when a post has stars from many different people, it shows that many different people gave worth to that post, and a lot of people focus more on reading posts with lots of stars. That's there purpose after all. I try to read posts no matter how many stars they have, but posts with lots of stars always gain my attention, and the same things applies with the majority of users here. Paint it how you like, but the picture is still the same - banned members and their posts are intentionally being made hard to find.

You know, there was a time in the not too distant past where there were no flags or stars for any posts or threads. Personally, I was fine with that.

And now there is a time where some can gain stars and other can't. Personally, I'm not fine with that.

That's just how it works.

Yeah, I figured that much...but nothing gets done if you never try right? That's why the world is so f'ed up, no one could care less about speaking their mind and saying what they truly think, instead they cower in fear of the consequences - pathetic.

Originally posted by Freeborn
Personally I would like to see a return of the red 'warn' tags, I thought they were relatively effective and let everyone know where they stood.

I agree. It's one of those things that sort of went by the wayside with the redesign, and may come back. We're still working to get some other things done as well, like a list of mods assigned to each forum posted at the bottom of the forum pages.

Prioritization. It sort of reminds me of my motorcycle analogy, if it doesn't make you go faster or stop quicker, take it off.

reply to post by yeahright


ok well thankyou for being the 1st mod to explain how it works .

I do have 1 more concern though , are we allowed to ask why specific members were banned ?
I have read threads where ive wholeheartedly agreed with banned posters and feel like i too could be walking the BAN tightrope as i share their same views .
Remember the users i mention were Not being offensive and neither have i .

reply to post by Annie Mossity


Do you have any idea how long that list would be?




Unless we could post the top fifty most offensive banned of the damned, with their post

reply to post by Annie Mossity

content is king ... 't least for me.

Well hard to find content that has it's quality rating (stars) stripped off isn't quite as handy IMO.

I have never heard of a site that bans members and does not kick them off the server.

What does banning mean in this instance? Is it temporary and then you get back on after a certain time depending on the infraction?