Peanut Gallery Commentary on the Staff Log of Bannings and such like.

[Ryantology]

I will disclose that in the midst of the frodo fiasco, there was significant disagreement on what action to take, if any. It had actually gotten to the point where we were going to settle on a final warning. This was something we had up for vote and was a much more palatable option to the ban. Most of us were legitimately torn on it. We have every report we've ever handled on archive, and this one was the seventh-most discussed here, all-time. He would probably have made it out with a warning if not for the flurry of specious reports he dropped overnight. That took it from breaking the rules to showing open contempt for the rules. And really, that is clearly what was going on. He was calling our bluffs over and over again, all but daring us to enforce the rules we all have to abide by.

There is only one reason that he is banned now, and it is because he started breaking multiple rules repeatedly, and refused to stop even after we made it clear that he had gone too far with it. Combined with the distinguished rap sheet he had already accumulated, including at least one temp ban, we had a choice to make, and I'll quote my words on the subject directly:

I think we have to take action of some kind. Otherwise, we look inconsistent, and even as if we're playing favorites, because we aren't enforcing the rules on him the way that we do on everyone who does stuff like this. And he will be encouraged to keep on doing it. And when we ban someone else for the same behavior, we'll look like censors to him.

He's a long-timer, but he's also the one responsible for this discussion taking place. He knows the rules and doesn't care.