TheTyranny of the Edit

TheTyranid was banned yesterday by EvilTeletubby. Was this a helpful cleansing that will improve TL.net, or was it an injustice committed by a trigger-happy Mod? Time for a TLGG Ban Review™.

1. He was banned because he said something offensive!
First, we don’t know the content of the post. It was edited. Yes, TL has a tradition of Moderator discretion, but transparency and legitimate reasons fosters trust among the forum population. A post edit feature is for simple, easy corrections to your posts, but also to take back or remove stuff said in the heat of the moment. Users that self-police make the jobs of the Moderators easier. Why ban someone who edited out something offensive? Doesn’t this show that the user is one who thinks about what he writes and clearly cares about what other members read? If we’re going down the road of banning based on edits, does that mean Mods will now check all edited posts for ban-able content?

2. It’s only a two-day temp ban! What’s the big deal?
TheTyranid was a 2000+ post user and a very worthwhile contributor. Not sure if ETT knew this, but TheTyranid diligently created four Results and Standings threads, all in the Articles (previously Featured Threads) forum:

OGN Star Challenge Season 1 (Feb. 08)
MBCGame Survivor Season 1 (Feb. 08)
MBCGame Survivor Season 3 (Nov. – Dec 07)
OGN Dual Tournament Season 3 (Dec. 07 – Jan 08)

In addition, TheTyrannid has 12+ OPs in the Tourneys forum under his belt. It seems like he was on the fast track for a star icon, not a nuke symbol. Is this how TL.net thanks its contributors? Shouldn’t these threads earn TheTyranid at the very least a PM warning instead of a quick thoughtless ban? Don’t we want him to make more threads like these instead of treating him like any other bad poster? The Men in Red always talk about treating veterans with respect. Here is a perfect example of when leniency and respect should be given. Instead, a veteran and contributor is banned because of his "unwarranted tone" in an edited post.

3. Moderators should ban people that start conflicts!
Was this really a bad user starting an unnecessary fight? This appreciation thread was just another excuse to heap praise on Much for embarrassing FBH, an outlet for impotent Savior fanboys whose Maestro can’t even take revenge for himself. TheTyranid throws himself in front of the bandwagon and predictably gets run over. Don’t the moderators want passion like his? At TLGG we love drama, but even at TL should encourage it when the love and hate is about StarCraft. TL.net should want its fans to cheer for their favorite progamers and hate on their enemies. That’s what fans do! Stifling that makes the forums (gasp) boring.

So the next time you think of creating a tourney OP or R&S thread, think about the poor Tyranid and his futile edits. And remember, from now on, edit your posts twice.

UPDATE 08:30 PDT: TheTyrannid's temp ban has been shortened. Since only Administrators, not Moderators, can unban users, direct your applause to one of TL.net's active Admins: FakeSteve[TPR], Kennigit, Manifesto7, or Sonuvbob.