I suspended a user today and one of my mods pointed out that it wasn’t so obvious the user had been suspended. I was thinking that like how moderators get the shield next to their username, maybe suspended users should get the banned symbol? That way other members would realize the user is suspended and not currently active in conversation.
I could see an argument for not wanting to draw attention to suspended users though … any thoughts?
Suspensions can be for different lengths of time.
I guess for those Suspended for 99999 days (equates to perma Ban) it might be a good idea.
But, would it be fair to a member to wear a Scarlet Letter for a 2 day hand-slap Suspension?
No; this was already covered elsewhere.
The community may wonder why they don’t see Bill around any more. They may also need to see evidence of moderator action to prove that this is a place where negative people cannot just run around being jerks to people with no consequences. That said, we still want to avoid the “hello there new community member, check out our fabulous collection of heads-on-a-pike!”
So I would avoid…
showing any indication a user is banned on their username next to their posts. Just seeing the user stop posting should suffice, we don’t need to advertise the ban on every single old post they made.
having a public “rogue’s gallery” page listing everyone who has been banned, and for what reason. This seems too celebratory of punishment to me. Bans are sometimes necessary but they should be regrettable, a method of last resort, not something you’re proud of advertising to the world.
So for those community members that get curious about what happened to Bill, they can start a meta topic about it, or click on his user page to see the same public ban information (a brief sentence, plus duration) Bill himself can.
To expound on your reply: It shows that the community is possibly vindictive, negative and spiteful. It might even create an unwanted chilling effect and hinder discussion or new registrations.
Because who wants to be a head in an admin’s trophy case if they might screw up unintentionally? They don’t know if the admin is the head Hunting sort to use their powers to have sway in their personal opinion, even if the intentions of said trophy case was to simply have transparency and nothing more.
When I dealt with this, it was usually a quick announcement, especially if ‘Bill’ was the center of attention with his chicanery that warranted a ban. The announcement was posted for a few days then removed, just to have that little bit of transparency mentioned above. Members will be quiet about it and move on knowing it was dealt with and things can go back to the usual normal.