Banning Policy  

I like the idea of allowing PMs for apologies; perhaps make apologies required before a ban is lifted? (In the case of abusive behavior). And the idea of keeping the threads around is a good idea, however they do sometimes degenerate into discussion of the ban so at the least they'd be locked.

Those are very sensible ideas ffdpmaggot. Hopefully a mod will throw in his or her 2 cents.

very few people are banned for posting 1 thing in 1 thread. It is far more often a long slow trudge up to their end.

The system wouldn't allow us to set up accounts this way, but even if it did, it would be kind of pointless. Just human nature, but the fact is that almost everyone becomes sorry for what they do after they get caught and are then facing the consequences of their actions. So most apologies at that point would be attempted plea bargains more than anything else.

We don't take banning lightly, nor do we take any joy in it. Seldom does one moderator make a decision about banning someone without first discussing the matter with the rest of the moderating team (complete with links to the offending posts). We do this to ensure fairness to all members. As such, it is extremely unlikely that someone who has been banned will have a "case" that would win on "appeal" to the other moderators (since their input would normally have been sought in the initial decision to impose the ban).

In fact, about the only time we don't seek each others' advice concerning bans is when someone registers just to spam the forums (auto ban, no need to discuss) or their behavior is a clear, flagrant violation of our Rules and Terms of Use. But even in those cases, the newly banned member (and the reasons for the ban) are added to an ongoing list that all other moderators can see and monitor.

So I guess my point is that it's very unlikely that having PM access to make a plea/appeal would do much good, and you can always apologize after your ban has been lifted. In the meantime, you can go about your business and enjoy life outside of Head-Fi. <-- Yes, there is a life outside of Head-Fi.

The last thing I'd like to point out is that when someone is banned, about the dumbest thing he or she could possibly do would be to reregister under a new username and then start a thread to complain about the ban! Really dumb move for a several reasons, not the least of which is that reregistering under a new account is grounds for a permanent ban of both accounts (and almost always the end result).

As for removing the posts/threads that were the cause of the ban, that's simply a matter of policy at Head-Fi. If it was bad enough to have caused a ban, then chances are it's not something that we want to have other members see or discuss further. Additionally, we have a policy not to allow any discussions about banned members or the reasons why they might have been banned, etc. We regard all of that as private information between the moderating team and the individuals involved.