Forum bans / etc

[namida]

I just want to clear this up in case anyone is worried about their own standing, or whether they are also at risk of being banned or otherwise getting in trouble, following on from some recent events. I can understand this might be a bit of a shock as it's, if I'm not mistaken, the first time since I took over this site that a non-spambot user has been banned.

Without going into too much detail - I want to make a few things clear, for the peace of mind of other users, especially those who might be paranoid about whether their own posts are pushing the limits a bit.

Firstly, that this was not a matter of "one single offence, and instantly banned". This user was advised multiple times by staff and community members about their conduct, before I progressed to issuing actual forum warnings (ie: the kind that, if they accumulate enough, lead to restrictions on one's account). It was not until the user's fourth forum warning, that they were set to a high enough warning level to apply any restrictions. It was further conduct after that, via a feature that is not restricted regardless of warning level (I do not see a need to go into further detail than that), which lead to a fifth forum warning in which I explicitly mentioned that further trouble would lead to a ban, before - after the conduct continued yet again - the banhammer was finally brought in. TL;DR: This didn't come out of nowhere, the user was given multiple warnings including one explicitly stating they may get banned.

Secondly, this was nothing to do with the quality (perceived or otherwise) of their content, or their approach to creating it. Quality of content is not a moderation matter - the only penalty for bad content, is that people probably won't like it. Likewise for frequency of releases - there is a rule against creating topics too often in the levels boards, but that rule is a very recent addition and was not around for the majority of the time the user in question was active. It is also explicitly allowed to release content more often than this limit, as long as a single topic is used instead of a new one for each new pack. TL;DR: You will not be banned or warned simply due to creating content that is perceived as being poor quality. Ever.

And finally, I'll go back to the point that opened this topic - that this is the only non-spambot that I have had to ban in the 7 years (I think?) now that I've been running the site. Off the top of my head, I can only think of one other user I've even issued a forum warning to, and maybe two or three more I've given less-formal warnings to. Even if I'm overlooking any other cases here, the point is that this is an exceedingly rare event - and that this is not a very ban-happy site.

Overall tl;dr: Unless you're a spambot, you probably have nothing to worry about - if you were at any risk of getting banned without it being extremely obvious that such a risk existed, you'd have gotten multiple warnings first - and the earliest warnings would not impart any restrictions whatsoever.