There needs to be a limit on how far back in time it goes. OR a better ban appeal process for it.
Hell I'm 90% sure I have github access to tenebrix as back in the day it was linked to a tenebrix.org email address so I should be able to do a reset / recovery.
So outside of the fact that I just outed myself, how hard would it be for me to start playing games like that. Find old dead projects that people have linked to, get some domains and go to work screwing with people.
-Dave
This would likely be a well documented case if something used to be legit, and then turned into a malicious site. Bans aren't just handed out without doing research so there's definitely going to be some discussion on this point. Lets say that the staff member who issued a ban didn't see any evidence of this being legit back in the day, then I'm sure including this information within the ban appeal will solve the issue.
For example, if you owned a domain, and sold it off at some point, but still have links to it in your posts from when you owned it, and its suddenly turned into a malware site. You should be able to prove that the domain was moved on afterwards via domain records, and that
might possibly help the situation. Being able to prove that you used to own a domain, and no longer do
would probably result in the ban being removed in most instances.
At the moment there's been a lot of users getting banned for plagiarism that was posted a few years ago now that users have the tools to find this on a massive scale which is a good thing in my eyes. It has already been quoted in this thread, but theymos approves of banning anyone that has plagiarized in their post history no matter how far back.
Welsh,
I understand what you are saying, I really do get it. But using your own words above it's still only possibly / probably.
So yeah, odds are said user will get their account back after jumping through hoops. But, it's still going to be a process.
It's a bit of a sensitive topic for me because when the massive plagiarism bans came in the spring / early summer. Someone I know got a ban for plagiarizing their own work.
From back in May just replace spam / plagiarize with bad links:
They can appeal to mods or admins in private if they feel like they can't make their claim publicly.
Discussed that with him. Not interested in anyone knowing who he is IRL.
Not you, not theymos, not anyone. Only reason I know is because I have known him for
30+ 40+ (crap I'm old) years. And he is not real happy with the fact that I know his forum use or the fact that I am talking about it here. But, I think this discussion needs to exist.
The other issue would be that since he has almost no merit and a lower post count it's going to be tough to make a good defense.
Yes, it's a very rare 1 off case, but it's still there. And if I know 1 person who had it happen, I will bet you just about any amount there is at least one more. Possibly they have had an issue with another forum member and this was a push they needed to leave.
Does their SO think they spend too much time on here and it's an internal excuse to leave?
Did they cash out 18 months ago when
BTC was at $20k and just don't care as much?
Could they appeal? yes.
Do they want to? possibly.
Will they because of external factors? perhaps not, or at least not now.
As I said, spamming & plagiarizing now. You're out of here. Once it's over 1500 days old and has not been done since? Temp ban with stern warning or something.
Just my view, take it as you will.
-Dave
So yeah, many people have been banned, many people have gotten their accounts back. Some have been banned, and just walked away.
-Dave