Hmm. This didn't start out as a "moderation sucks" thread but it sure went there in a hurry.
Let me throw a real-world example at y'all. Half the people I know have a story about themselves, or someone they were with, being "beaten up by cops for no reason." My favorite one goes like this:
We were walking around the Old Port, right, and we were all drunk as hell and yelling to beat the band. I had a cap gun in my pocket, the kind they don't make anymore.
This cop comes up to us, asks us how many we've had. I say, "Not enough!" Then I breathe fumes right in his face and tell him to fuck off.
Cop asks if we've got any weapons or drugs on us. I say, 'Yeah, I got a gun right here, wanna see it?' and I reach into my pocket to show him my cap gun.
Next thing I know, this fucking pig punches me, then he tackles me, he's screamin' in my ear, 'Don't you move! Don't you move!' and wrestles me around and sits on my back while my face is grinding into the cobblestones so he can put the cuffs on!
I didn't even do anything wrong, man! I had a black eye for a week!
Does anyone honestly think that is "no reason"?
Every time, I'm talking EVERY time any person has told me their cops-beat-me-up story, it has gone something like that. And every time, I've been like, "Okay, let's listen to this guy hang himself.........intoxicated, strike one!.........attitude, strike two!...........Ooh, criminal threatening - strike three, you're outta there!"
It doesn't matter that the gun wasn't real. What matters is this moron got right in a cop's face, told him to piss off, and reached for a gun-sized bulge he'd just told the cop was an actual gun. You don't do that if you want to remain vertical with your face on the front of your skull where it belongs.
Because I understand this, I do not have a beaten-up-by-the-cops story of my own. I have been arrested twice. I was respectful and cooperative -- and you know what?
So were the police. One officer even apologized for the inconvenience and I'm pretty sure he meant it.
Now back to our program.
I have never been warned for something I didn't do. I picked up one for a low content post, which it was. I picked up two more during an argument I had with another member during which we both acted like little kids (he got suspended, I don't know what his health meter was at the time). Can't complain.
I see people being suspended or banned for what seems like insufficient reason, but I don't know their full post histories. There could be loads of context in there which I am not privy to. I don't assume it's unjustified based on a single post, or whether I am friends with said poster or not.
I also think the "thin ice" rule is entirely justified. If a guest in my home deliberately swept his dinner from the table to the floor, I'd warn him. If he then mouthed off to me or my hypothetical wife and kids, I'd warn him again, probably with a little physical discouragement. If he did anything wrong -- anything at all -- after that, he would not be a guest any longer. I would remove him physically if he did not leave on his own. Afterwards I would dust my hands and congratulate myself on a job well done. And it would
be a job well done, because a man is allowed to protect his household.
We are guests in The Escapist's house. We didn't build this house. We don't own it. We don't make the rules. We remain guests only as long as they say so. Don't like it? You don't have to come here.
Users here should A) already know how to behave like civilized people, or B) learn quickly. This is not 4chan and I, for one, don't want it to be.
