(January 14, 2016 at 3:50 pm)Jörmungandr Wrote: That's another thing. This rule makes perfectly acceptable members fear for their longevity. We may joke about it, but will such a rule have a chilling effect on users who, rightly or wrongly, consider themselves centers of drama, unpopular views, or whatever? Perhaps a strict sequence of disciplinary actions needs to be spelled out for this rule by itself, a la the use of official warnings?
This is where it opens up a can of worms that just doesn't need to be opened.
In this very thread we've seen a relatively new member concerned over the fact this 'power' might be abused. They were instantly bashed by the rest of the established membership for thinking what a hell of a lot of new users will likely think (rightly or wrongly).
Piggybacking on Jormungandr's previous post if I may, what are new members realistically going to think when they read about "the nuclear option"? They don't have the understanding that we do that the staff are as fantastic as they are.
It comes back to it being irrelevant how good the staff are and how much we trust them. It's not even about that.
People bemoan 'forum drama' but what exactly does calling something like this a 'nuclear option' do? Honestly?
And if someone does get banned from this. Let's just say for arguments sake. They haven't broken the rules, but everyone (including myself) reviles them as an asshole. It's still not right IMO to ban such a member. Not for such vague and wishy washy reasoning that is not clearly defined in the rules in the first place.
If a member is so bad that everyone can't stand them being here, then I'd place a pretty big bet that they'd already done something actionable within the scope of the rules, and if not, modify the rules. You can't have an 'option' that allows, regardless of whether it would ever happen, for a user who hasn't broken said rules to be banned. In my honest opinion having such an option seems to flounder everything I thought this forum represented, and I'm quite surprised at the amount of people who think it is in fact a good idea.
I'll shut my pie hole now though, probably said enough. Don't want people to think I'm whining.