martin wrote:hey metra. Andrew and I do ban folks every once in a while, and that conversation is always between us and that particular user. Not sure why you feel that this should be reality show'esque; we definitely don't feel the need or necessity to keep everyone up to date on those types of particulars.
Thanks for the response martin. This forum has done well because of its community. Most of the posters have been here a long time in internet years and know each other well, whether it's online and in real life. It's frustrating that the news of a ban comes from a non-administrative member without any 'official' details as to why the ban had occurred. In this particular case, Gkfv2 was a prolific member whose posts I and I'm sure many others enjoyed. To hear of his ban without so much as a 'why' or even a 'when' is jarring if not offensive to the community.
You feel like revealing details of a ban would make this "reality show'esque." I feel like it would be more like a community. In real life, you wouldn't kick a member out of a neighborhood, village, or even a group of friends without an explanation. I expected the same here. Especially in Gkfv2's case, who was a big contributor to this forum.
Also not sure why this site or any others would be referred to as a "f***ing internet forum"; this site is a hobby for the both of us and we spend good coin and our own time to develop and share with everyone else. You didn't think this was free for us or any other company did you? Not sure you realize what goes into a site like this: monthly hosting fees, an engine dev'ed by Andrew that grabs articles and blogs from lots of different places and makes them pretty and easy to read on our front page, another engine that grabs NBA scores, forums that had input from our users, etc. We have a pretty simple theme with regards to mod'ing and banning: keep it simple for us, we really have little time or want to mod. That's all.
By "f***ing internet forum, not the USSR" I was trying to say that this forum should be open as opposed to the USSR, where political prisoners were imprisoned without any mention to the public. It was not a reflection of the features or the tech of the site. You guys do a great job hosting and developing features.
