...is the problem.
That's more of a problem of the last 20 years. People are sick of the outrage culture and even advertisers are waking up to that. People are also starting to realize that the general public is not their core audience, and trying to cater to all only alienates your core audience. You don't want to pander to people who are going to call you names.
Maybe but you couldn't tell from their names.
TGT is not unique in this but our rules clearly state that anybody can be banned at any time for any reason or none at all. I think that's why moderation is so light here; the mods can't put themselves on autopilot and just blindly enforce rules. We have a responsibility to think things through.
That's fucking retarded. I think this highlights one of the themes of this thread, tho... It's beneficial for the community to see why someone is banned. They need to be named and shamed, and probably a police report filed on them as well.
The Thunderdome doesn't have to be the only thing in the community policing toolbox. Permanent banning is still a valuable, tool. It could just be used less often if there were additional more entertaining options.
One of the things I mentioned earlier was a jury system. It's something that could make moderator's jobs much easier.
I totally understand where you're coming from, and I can't speak to TGT but on every single forum I've moderated/admin'ed over the decades there IS at the very least a consensus. Often it's after the fact - staff need the ability to act quickly and on merit. But in nearly every case the rest of the staff are made aware, and (very) occasionally a secondary decision may even be made to alter or reverse the initial decision. Most of time? It's obvious, and everyone agrees and moves on. Bringing the general population into the mix would likely add trouble though. On one forum we did have a large number (~80) mods though, and they were often the go-to when community questions surrounding a ban arose.
Nearly anything you're willing to develop is possible to develop, Xenforo is a pretty flexible platform. I've worked with the developers in a previous life, prior to Xenforo as it were, which is a rich story in itself. Lots of drama, lawsuits, threats of lawsuits, laughter, money, and time wasted. Long story short, my (at the time) employer bought vBulletin (the software). They then proceeded to put one of the in-house guys in charge (mistake #1 and #2, IMHO). The vBulletin guys wanted a rewrite, the company wanted to spit-shine and polish (mistake #3, IMHO). All this played out quite visibly in the public. It got ugly. Out of the ashes Xenforo was born, and is more or less the vision of what they wanted vBulletin to become. This time period is when I walked away from everything. Online communities, job, many connections, etc. and started focusing on more important things in my life (got married, had a couple kids, built a house, etc.).
