Temporary Bans and Sock Puppets

Discussion in 'SF Open Government' started by James R, Feb 16, 2006.

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  1. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    Notice to Members

    Generally, a first breach of the forum rules by a poster who has been around for a little while and is in good standing incurs a warning, usually by personal messaging.

    For continued breach of the rules, it is not uncommon to impose a temporary ban. These bans, most often, are for 3 days or 7 days, depending on prior warnings, record of behaviour, severity of the offense etc.

    Further violations of forum rules following a temporary ban can result in a longer temporary ban - say for 2 weeks or 1 month - or may result in a permanent ban.

    Why don't we just ban people permanently, instead of using temporary bans? The answer is that a temporary ban is imposed in the hope that the person who is banned will go away and quietly consider his or her behaviour during his or her time away from the forum. When he or she returns, we hope that further action will no longer be necessary.

    It has come to my attention, recently, that a number of posters do not take temporary bans in the spirit in which they are intended. They believe that they have a right to post on sciforums, banned or not. A common-enough tactic used by such people is to register a new user name and identity, and to continue to post under the new name in exactly the same way that got them banned in the first place. For the uninitiated, these extra identities are commonly known on the internet as "sock puppets".

    This is a notice to all members that sock puppets used to avoid temporary bans will no longer be tolerated on sciforums. From now on, registering a sock puppet so as to continue posting in defiance of a temporary ban will result in both the sock puppet AND the original personality being banned permanently from sciforums. In other words, the temporary ban will become a permanent one.
     
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