Suggestion

[fnord_too]

Apologies for a forum related thread. I don't come here to read this stuff either.

First, I am assuming the software allows one to ban someone from posting on a forum by forum basis.

It seems to me that a lot of people get accounts banned for being trolls or sucking in general in a particular forum. I think a better tact for people like that is to ban them from that specific forum rather than banning them from all. Certainly, there are some offenses that merit account or IP ban immediately (e.g. posting really offensive inline pics), I don't think trolling or being a bit of a jerk is one.

It just seems that a policy to kick someone off all the forums because they say cannot control themselves when they get into an argument in politics is a bit extreme and counter productive. Also, it is impossible to be consistent with fuzzy guidelines.

On the other hand, viewing the forums as fiefdoms under the auspices of the mods of that forum seems fine. If they (the mods) want to boot you from their domain, or restrict your ability to start threads for offenses that are hard to objectively quantify, so be it. I am not suggesting that someone be allowed to troll and troll until they run out of forums, but rather that account bans should be for universally accepted banable offenses (i.e. things outlined in the site's terms and conditions) or for repeat offenders across multiple forums of the fuzzier or (sub) forum specific rules.

On a sub forum level, I think the ban stick should be used with reckless abandon.