What is the process of banning?

[Stickler]

Do individual mods do that? is there a voting or consensus process? Does the potential bannee get warned? can they be put on some sort of probation? Is there an appeals process?

Just noticed Moriah Conquering Wind got banned, and yes, M's a bona-fide paranoid hyperdefensive pompous jerk, but M was a smart, entertaining paranoid hyperdefensive pompous jerk, at least to me. I did enjoy M's posts.

(hooboy I'll be in trouble if M ever sees this )

I suppose it's for the best, M's probably way too abrasive for the easily hurt/disturbed, but *sigh*.

I guess I'm just a sucker for flaming loonies .

[olga]

Snotaproblem, there is a whole process involved in deciding what to do about any of our members who are creating a problem.

Yes, the mods and the admins discuss it together, and it isn't something we take lightly.

We apply the Rules that are listed up above, which is why I always encourage new members to read them. If you know the rules in advance, you will be less likely to break them. And I don't think they are hard to comply with: the major one is "don't be a bigger asshole than the mods."

Having said that, this is a peer-run board for mentally ill people. We have members with PTSD, DID, BPD, and all those other good acronyms. As you know, some of our folks have been abused, harassed, stalked, and had lots of other nasty stuff happen to them. We need this to be a safe place for all of us. We can kid around and argue fiercely and yell at each other, but in the end, everyone here should feel that this is a place where they can come and discuss their important shit without someone else humiliating or harassing them.

And for most of us, the important thing is that we get professional therapy, and see a pdoc to get the meds we need. Although we are open to talking about yoga and nutrition and exercise, we recognize that MOST of us need to be in therapy and on meds. So yeah, we're "flaming loonies" too, but we are flaming loonies in treatment for our looniness.

I won't discuss individual members, but I will tell you that we try to work with everyone who seems to be on the pathway to being banned. It's not something that we do quickly or without discussion. Our major concern ALWAYS is that our other members are safe---or as safe as anyone can be on a message board that is open to the public.

I hope that's enough of an explanation. I think I've been hanging around Meg too much. heh

olga

[tenthdoctor]

Snotaproblem, there is a whole process involved in deciding what to do about any of our members who are creating a problem.

Yes, the mods and the admins discuss it together, and it isn't something we take lightly.

..

olga

So that's why I hadn't seen any posts from her for a while. I thought that was a bit strange, given how talkative she was.

[Stickler]

Thanks for clearing it up for me... went back and read the rules, but there was no mention of the internal process involved.

too right...being a flaming loony is somewhat like any other chronic condition... you gotta manage it.

[Guest Guest]

With regard to Moriah Conquering Wind, some of us happen to know that NO process of "working with" her EVER happened. I personally saw moderators goad her outright on the open board a couple times, and it seemed pretty obvious they were baiting her, trying to push her into lashing out at them so they could have an excuse to ban her. To her credit she restrained herself remarkably from giving them exactly what their asshole behaviors deserved. Then apparently another moderator started writing her several aggressive private messages in a row about a week before she got banned. These messages all had a subtly intimidating tone to them and basically had the cumulative effect of making her feel like she was being hounded into a corner and "marked" for being shoved out of the joint, for reasons nobody would make clear to her.

Moriah made repeated requests for both clarification AND for clear, practical information on what she could do to make her posts less "objectionable", but the moderator refused to answer these inquiries with any specific instructions or clarifications of what the moderator meant. She was told ONLY that her post in the "confessions" section "freaked out" other people here and that was a problem, and that she "didn't belong" here because she was not in treatment (that she happened to have been unemployed since August 2008 and thus lacked both health insurance and financial means to seek treatment, apparently didn't factor in with this moderator. This moderator then told MoriahCW in a private message that he wanted her to start indicating on the board that she had awareness she needed help and that she wanted or intended to seek treatment. She complied with precisely what had been asked of her by this moderator and even voluntarily removed the post she'd been told had upset other people -- and within 24 hours of doing so found herself unable to access the site. No explanation whatsoever, even though she had complied with everything this moderator requested of her specifically.

If her ban had any legitimate rationale behind it, this never got communicated to her. Her inquiries for specific information about what exactly the "problem" was went unanswered. The whole manner in which this got conducted left a great deal to be desired, and this board did that member a real disservice. Personally I think you ought to reconsider the matter, if you still have any way of contacting her. I realize it's not my job to tell you how to run your board -- I just think treating anyone like this completely stinks and does not just the banned member but this whole board a disservice. I know I personally would not have wanted to be treated that way and paranoid or not, I don't think Moriah deserved that. I don't think ANYONE deserves that. I'm posting anonymously for a reason: I don't want to become the next target to get railroaded out of here for speaking either the truth of a matter or my mind on it. And heaven forbid anyone find out I'm not in treatment either. Oh the horror.

[december_brigette]

dear guest,

first let me say that i consider "guest" the same person. so if you are indeed different - you need to become a member or post under your member name.

secondly - i dont know anything about what happened between MCW and the mods. and honestly thats between them. not the public.

if MCW gave you information, which it sounds like she did, and you are as concerned as you are, i think you should PM the mods with specific info for reconsideration. and thats if MCW even wants to continue to be a member. again - its really something between her and the mods.

as always, its a pleasure seeing you "guest," and i always love your posts.

db

[Maddy]

Guest,

None of that is true.

I can't go into why she was banned.

I'm closing this thread, at least until some of the other admins are back.