Family Feud

[R.Heinrich]

Hi everyone, my name is Raimund, I'm a moderator for a discussion fourm, and our fourm covers various subjects, one in particular being, "Politics", and there is a warnning apon entering, (18+ Viewer Discretion advised. This is the forum to discuss general politics.***************. Please note that discussions might be allowed to get a little more heated on this specific forum.). OK, well, we all know that this particular topic can and will, bring out the worst in people, we had a member, that would only want to talk politics, this person, for example, if I say corn flakes, the person would come back with, a statement that George W. Bush, screwed Kelloggs up the ying yang, OK, obviously, he hates Bush and all Republicans, so what, I could care less, but, he would get into heated discussions, and eventually, he would go on the attack, and we had a few members complain, well, I guess some people did not read the warning, so this member was finally banned for 3 days by a super moderator, and when this member came back after his 3 day ban, he had something to say to this super moderator, he told him point blank to take our rules and shove em, so the super moderator banned this member permanently, now my problem is this, there is a warning apon entering this political area, so, I would expect some fighting, and I would not be so quick to ban people over it, unless it gets out of controll, but I feel that this super moderator has banned this person for personal reasons, and if I were to ban everyone that I did not like, because of the way he or she talked to me, well, I guess we would have a very lonely fourm, would'nt we. I would like to see this person come back, but, the super moderator does'nt, and him and I have gotten to be good friends, and I don't want to argue too much with him, but I'm getting PMs from other members saying that they want this banned person back also, and really, out of our 8000+ members, it was only a few that had a problem with the banned member, so I would like some feed back on this subject, I know that there is a lot of knowledge here, that's why the Administrator put my name on his vBulletin licence, so that I can get involved with this fourm, to help our fourm to grow. (ps. I really miss this banned person)

[TimberFloorAu]

So what is your question ?

[James Birkett]

I believe he wants advice, not some form of technical help.
I think he wants to know should he unban the forum member or not?

[R.Heinrich]

Originally Posted by James Birkett

I believe he wants advice, not some form of technical help.
I think he wants to know should he unban the forum member or not?

Exactly that, the person that was banned was the first friend that I made when I was not a moderator, and because that I believe that the super mod that banned him did it more for personal reasons, and he's my friend also, I feel as though I had killed my first friend, I've kinna made a policy not to make any more friendship requests, because I don't want my heart to get in the way of my job, so, how do you handle the pre-mod friendships.

[redhawk89]

??????? what?

[James Birkett]

Excuse the reactions of myself and others Raimund, we're not used to these forms of questions on here. People (as you'd see if you browsed other threads) usually ask for help in terms of using it - not making decisions about staff.

My personal advice would be:
Do as your job role suggests. If he's broken a rule that you are required to abide upon registration then yes, ban him. Favouritism isn't a trait most people enjoy possessing.

If the staff member involved has banned for a personal reason (i.e. a grudge/disagreement) rather than a direct rule break - unban him. It's a bad idea to ban for personal reasons rather than a rule break. If your staff cannot handle any form of criticism against them (that is not stated in the rules) then they are not very efficient staff members.

[Lynne]

If you are a moderator, and the person who banned the user is a super moderator, there really isn't anything you should be doing about it at all. It's the administrators place to decide whether or not to do anything about it.

[R.Heinrich]

OK, that's great advice, and I wanna say, last week I did have a technical problem on our fourm, but I found the solutions here, I did some hard searching, it was a problem with signature spamming, and I sent the info from here to my administrator on our fourm, so I really did not need to ask, I've noticed that this fourm offers TONS of solutions, this place is wonderful, and I'm greatful for the chance to learn everything I can here, and a big thank you for the personal advice.