The current implementation of the “Forever” suspension option in Discourse is causing issues, as it displays a 1000-year suspension period to the user, which can be perceived as insensitive. simon suggests removing this time period and instead informing the user that they have been permanently suspended. ChrisBeach agrees, citing examples of users mocking the forum due to this text. codinghorror also agrees and assigns the task to andrei for the 2.7 release. andrei creates a PR to special case suspension messages, changing the text in the login error message, suspension email, and silencing email to simply state that the user was suspended, without mentioning a specific time period.
When the Forever option is selected for suspending a user, the user is suspended for 1000 years. Without customizing the site’s text, this time period is displayed to the user in the suspension email that is sent to the user, and if the user attempts to log back into the site.
I believe that the suspend time period used to be shown for permanently suspended users on the user card, but that the time period is no longer displayed there when a user is suspended forever. I think that is related to the changes that were discussed here: Clearer display of "forever" suspensions/silencing.
Could all mentions of a user having been suspended for 1000 years be removed from notifications and user facing text on Discourse? Instead of doing that, just let the user know that they have been permanently suspended from the site. Telling someone that they have been suspended for 1000 years seems likely to come across as a bad attempt at humour.
Yeah, I agree – we should special case this in the text. It’s accidental but I see how it could be interpreted in negative ways, so best to avoid that altogether. @andrei can you add this to your list for post 2.7 release?
Additionally, it changes text in the email we send when a user is silenced forever. Looks like there are no other places that need to be fixed.
Messages aren’t saying that user was suspended forever or permanently, just that he was suspended. We implemented it in the same way earlier on the user page:
