Banned in Austin

[jem88]

Where's he at? Haven't seen him in a while. He's always good for the occasional banter.

 

[trickblue]

Where's he at? Haven't seen him in a while. He's always good for the occasional banter.

He lived up to his name... banned...

 

[dargonking999]

really he is?

 

[jem88]

He lived up to his name... banned...

Shame that is. I seem to recall a heated Henson debate that he was involved in.

 

[VirusX]

Where's he at? Haven't seen him in a while. He's always good for the occasional banter.

Cant say I miss him...

 

[Hostile]

Shame that is. I seem to recall a heated Henson debate that he was involved in.

He went to another site and got banned there as well.

Overall, I like Brett. His original username was Ben_n_austin in honor of a friend who died. I can respect that. I knew his uncle here in Tucson and he was a really good man. Ran a painting business. Very honest man. He died last year and BnA came here to attend the funeral. Had I felt it appropriate I would have given him my cell phone # so he could call. A funeral is not a valid reason to meet someone from a sports forum. I felt that would be disrespectful.

I had run ins with him like many people did. Some of them got really heated. I never minded that aspect of the debates as much as it bothered me that he just couldn't respect what this site is trying to be about.

You see, we'd rather not ban anyone. I would much rather the Mods work at keeping the site as clean and clear as possible without ever having to be noticed. By that I mean they move the threads that are no longer drawing interest so that the Zone forum can stay current with the news we all crave.

BnA is one of a handful of people who cannot stand the idea that he is Moderated. That his threads can get moved. That we don't want ill feelings amongst the people here so we may move threads that are getting sensitive too.

I spent many evenings in PMs with him trying to get him to realize that the people here deserve respect and trying to upset some of them for personal enjoyment was the very reason why his threads could get moved in the first place. It never set in. Too much enjoyment in "tweaking" people.

The problem is at some point in time we have to measure how good a guy you may be versus how many posters are losing interest in the site because of your antics. We can't see every post, but we see more of them than a lot of people realize.

The truth is he might have been gone much sooner had not other good guys joined the feeding frenzy. You see, for all the accusations that we are heavy handed we're actually rather lenient, or we'd have at least one instance of a group ban over the rules violations.

Trolls and people who like to tweak others eventually trip up and go too far. Sometimes they get banned for less than something they think they got away with before. There is such a thing as cumulative effect. There is also such a thing as street justice. Meaning many times we let posters stay on longer than we normally would because instead of posts being reported to the Mods so we can properly do our jobs, people play vigilante.

Happens a lot actually. I'm surprised Brett lasted as long as he did, but he had some help. Part of it is we are very forgiving in our policies if someone wants a "tabula rasa" or clean slate. If we grant that clean slate the worst thing you can do is disrespect the site, Guidelines, and membership again.

Brett had multiple chances here. The reason is simple, deep down he is a good guy. If he's honest he will tell you we put up with more than any other site would have. Instead of enjoying his new home, he decided to see how far he could push it there and he got banned again.

It isn't a badge of honor. I wish he, and many more, realized that.

I'll get off my soapbox now.