welp, SWG Discord

[mindstalk]

Got permabanned from the Silmarillion Writers Guild Discord for a canon comment I made last night, and I can't communicate to the mod who banned me. I wonder if she'll tell the Discord, or will let them think I just mysteriously left one night?

Comments

[beatrice_otter]

Yikes. I hate it when there are biased mods like that.

[bunn]

Kalgul asked, and got a public answer, so yes, people know you were banned. If it's the mod I think it is, you might want to cut her some slack. Unfortunate timing, I think. I'm sorry it didn't work out.

[mindstalk]

I've since heard, but thanks for letting me know. Apparently, exactly two talks from one mod over two years (Discord has great logs! I can count!) turned into "the mods have had several private conversations with him".

I was also told in the ban message "the mods have concluded" and "we have decided", which group decision supposedly should be defense against one mod having a bad week, unless it's really one dictator mod hiding her choices behind an illusion of process.

[dawn_felagund]

it's really one dictator mod

I'm glad you said that in these words because I'd like to turn that question around to you.

I founded the SWG in 2005, about twenty years ago. I—along with a team of moderators and volunteers—have run the site for the entirety of that twenty years. I conservatively estimate that I spend about five hours a week running the SWG—at times, much higher (more than five hours a day during big events, major software upgrades, etc), but the early years were slow at times. But if you do the math there, that is about 5,200 hours, again conservatively estimating, of labor that has gone into building this community.

I am legitimately curious why you think you are entitled to enjoy the community built on that labor if you are not willing to follow the community's rules?

I'm not sure what your complaint is here? The governance of the SWG is described on our website. I have never obscured the fact that, while we seek member input as much as possible, my comods and I make decisions on issues like member compliance with our rules. This is not a public service or a democracy; the people who put in the work make the decisions in accordance with the server rules, which you agreed to when you joined the server and which have been privately addressed with you before. All rules and policies were followed in your case, including the Discord server mods collectively deciding if your response to Elleth did in fact constitute a third strike. I'm happy to provide you with more details about that process in private, if you care to know more.

You acknowledge here that this was your third strike. Again, these are the rules you agreed to when you joined the server. Here is a copy on the website for your reference. So I'm again going to ask why you thought those rules would not apply to you or why you felt that my comoderators and I should engage in the additional labor that comes with keeping someone on who does not abide by community guidelines? Why do you think your desire to stay on and not follow the rules is more important than everyone else on the server, who expects to interact on our community with the understanding that we communicate with each other in accordance with the server rules? What would you have liked to see happen differently here?

[dawn_felagund]

I’ve added you as a friend on Discord so that you can DM me if you want. My apologies for not considering that we don’t share a server any longer so that thread could not continue. However, all other channels of communication with the mods are available to you if Discord doesn’t work. You can reach me via email or the contact form on the site. I look forward to hearing from you.