On the Appropriateness of Fimfiction Permabans · 10:36am Aug 7th, 2016
I wrote this blog post when Sleepy Panda was appealing her permaban. She did not ask me to write it, but I did check with her that it was okay for me to post it. I decided to delay it until her appeal was decided either way. (And I'm very happy it went in her favour.) But the key point applies to other users too, I think, so I wanted to post it anyway.
A good friend of mine was once a fairly prominent author on Fimfiction until she was permanently banned for doing various silly things, mostly involving alt account abuse.
Now, she broke rules, repeatedly and sometimes knowingly. I'm not going to argue that she shouldn't have been banned. The moderation team is small, and I'm sure they have enough to do without a small number of users creating a large number of headaches for them.
But here's the thing. When she did these things, she was a 13/14-year-old. Now she's approaching 16, and in the past twelve months has matured a lot. And she really wants to come back to Fimfiction, having not found any other decent outlet for her (incidentally, very good) writing.
Which is why I'm asking this question: how appropriate is it to permanently ban users from a site which has a massive teenage demographic?
People in their early teens are not famous for their levelheadedness and keen sense of judgement. (I don't want to tar all teenagers with the same brush — there are no doubt many who are reliable, dependable, sensible people.) They are going to do silly things, particularly in an environment where they're interacting with other teens. They have confusing stuff going on in their life. They are known for pushing boundaries, and testing how much they can get away with.
It's also a time of rapid personal development, when people figure out their place in the world and learn about responsibilities and the consequences of not treating them seriously. Most 16 year olds are barely the same person they were just two years earlier.
So bearing that in mind, is it fair to hold an almost-adult accountable for what they did as an adolescent?
I sure as hell wouldn't want to be remembered for what I got up to when I was 13 and 14. Luckily Fimfiction didn't exist back then.
In many jurisdictions, court records are automatically sealed or destroyed when a juvenile comes of age, or after a certain time without reoffending. Cannot the same principle be applied to Fimfiction? If society can eventually forgive juveniles for serious crimes, can't Fimfiction eventually forgive a bit of alt abuse?
They should. Most of my warnings came when I was in my teens.
one more complaint and I get banned forever.
I agree with you.
I also agree.
Teenagers should know better, then they won't get banned.
Simple as that.
4136728
We should all have wings, then we won't need planes.
Simple as that.
4136729 Teenagers aren't children, they've had enough time to learn how to act and respond to people in various situations.
If they do something stupid, they should be held accountable, and alt. account abuse is really bad (not to mention stupid as well).
I think it's a gentle balancing act. As a teenager myself, I understand how stupid we can be at times. We find things funny that really aren't and we believe, for the most part, that rules are mere guidelines. That said, who's to say how young is too young? At what point are we no longer able to hide under the blanket of "we're just some dumb kids"? And say they do find a way to protect younger users from the law, as it were; What do we do to them? We can't let them run wild, that's anarchy. But, as you rightly said, permabans are kind of harsh. So what? Some sort of probationary period? Then the problem becomes one of who handles that. Are the site mods expected to babysit misbehaving teens on top of their massive workloads?
It's not a great situation, but we are dealing with one of the most volatile, unpredictable, confusing aspects of life on earth: The adolescent human. All that said, I kinda agree with Yalwin Khales. We really should know better by this point. By the same token, you can't really blame us for not. It's somehow simultaneously not our faults and 100% our faults. I think the best thing to do is to find some sort of suspension system (assuming one doesn't already exist, I must admit that I don't have much experience with that side of the site). It's the only way to punish those who deserve it whilst simultaneously being lenient to those who are willing to learn their lesson and grow from their mistakes.
Just wanted to give my two cents. Sorry for rambling.
I agree.
In some cases the problem is that the pony who gets banned needs to learn something, and it takes some ponies longer to learn than others. The fact that they don't figure it out right away doesn't mean that they're not trying to behave.
This is particularly true for many fanboys in social situations, even if they're adults.
4136746 I completely disagree. Not all teenagers learn how act and respond in different situations and depending on how they are brought up it would make how they respond to most things. Yes, they should be held accountable by Temp perma ban, so that they don't use alts to escape their ban. But to just perma ban them as if they completely understand as an adult? I don't think so.
Luckily, I joined when I was seventeen but even still, coming from a more or less restricted social background in which I will not give details Fimfiction was a lot for me to get used to. Interacting and knowing what not to do, although not hard for me to understand, was quite the challenge for me to get used even how I respond to people on here was difficult because although there were rules, it just wasn't really for me.
I thought this site was where I could have everyone like me and that I could say whatever the hell I wanted to on top of following people to get a massive following. So if I were to go over the edge on a rule should I be perma banned as if I totally knew very well of what I was doing like someone who has been online longer than me and who is an adult an knows exactly the consequences for doing the things I've mentioned above? Everyone has their answer, and I may probably be the one with the most disagreeable opinion, but I really just don't think so.
Should be held accountable? Yes.
Should they be perma banned forever? I don't know. I'm more leaning towards No than yes. Maybe a temporary perma banned and where they know they will have a time of return but to just perma ban them for good? No. But there, I said my unfavorable opinion. You all may say I'm stupid for thinking that way now. Good day to all.
I can get behind that.
All bans should expire after an year. Even if somepony does not learn how to act, one only has to deal with that pony for 1 day once yearly.