I don't want to be the one stirring up a hornets' nest, but I think this question is important for the community.
Do we have a written policy for banning people on Nim's various community platforms? If not, here's a bunch of questions that need clarification:
Please, do mind I'm not having any particular situation in view. It's just easier to abide by codified rules and keep yourself from getting into an uncomfortable situation.
Also, this note by @cblake wasn't addressed, as far as I know: > I'm probably not the only one that finds it hard to keep track of who is banned where. Someone should really create a website with a table of long-time participants & ban venues (maybe with ban reasons).
We strive to continue to provide a good moderation service, and we believe that codified rules is not the way to go at the moment (this might be subject to change if we ever feel the need). Instead everything is treated with discussions on a case-by-case basis with each moderator having the ability to take action on their own if the rest of the moderation team is unavailable. In any case that leads to a warning/kick/ban the rest of the moderation team is alerted and if the team disagrees with the actions taken they are reverted.
I'm not sure what the purpose of a banned users list would be, I doubt we'll be creating a public display of banned members any time soon, that sounds more like a pillory than a useful community service.
Every community, at its start consist of relative small number of highly talented and motivated people that have something in common and contribute to something great. They help eachother, debate, somethimes argue - howewer, they are kinda on the same 'frequency', so to speak.
...But! As the community grows it becomes more -average-, and the quality drops. This is the moment when the community becames "community" of the masses. Where the masses are there comes the bureaucracy. They impose <written policy> (who writes it?) which is copy-pasted from the "current standard". This is the moment when the "community" starts to rot from inside together with its bueraucracy.
Just look at the Rust, or Gnome "community".
I don't want to see Nim to be "build" by the "community" (the masses), abide to every average drama queen who thinks he is "special" because he follows the "current thing".
I would rather have a guide with clear and small set of rules written by a dictator, than tons of useless bueraucratic papers written in double-speak that appear to please the "masses" and their delusion of self-importance.
It's all fine and dandy, and it's very cool to engage in elitist ruminations on "quality drops" and communities "rotting from the inside", but this just derails the discussion. I don't think your comment (and, to my grief, its likes) demonstrates you assume good faith, unfortunately.
I just want to know for sure, will I (or anyone else) be banned for using an f-word in a chat, for example. Practically and personally I'm also interested in knowing the perspectives of some users being unbanned.
"Mods decide on a case-by-case basis" is ten times better than people on IRC jokingly answering to the same question with "std/random".
@PMunch answer is a huge step forward as it gives at least some non-nebulous framing to the topic at hand. Thanks a lot for that.
You're welcome!
Traditionally we haven't been very strict about "normal" cursing. We certainly don't encourage it, but you won't get instantly banned for cursing in the channel. This is however very context-dependent, telling someone "you're a f-ing idiot" is very different from "argh I can't get this f-ing code to work". As with everything else, use your better judgement and you're probably in the clear.
We don't publicly discuss the banning/unbanning of users, but if you PM us or contact us through the contact form I posted above we will respond to you.