BL has changed.
Get your MGS4 jokes out of your system now. Don't worry, we'll wait.
Alright? Okay then. Even if some of you chuckleheads will probably add your jokes here, partway through, or at the end. We're on to you.
BL has changed and not for the better. BL used to be a much nicer place. Not in the sense that we held hands and sung kumbaya before heading in to watch Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood; we've always had a few bad apples and low points in our history. But overall BL was a lenient place to kick up your feet and speak your mind. If someone screwed up and they were told to cool their heads, most people listened. They shaped up, their offenses were forgotten, life moved on.
This is no longer the case.
We get more incidents of shitposting, sockpuppets, and people just plain trying to get banned like it's street cred. More and more users are outright gaming the system and don't even pretend to improve their behavior until they're just shy of a permaban. Then they sit back, wait out however long they think their cooldown is, and go right back to their old habits. We have watched with considerable frustration as people flaunted their bad behavior, but by the rules we set forth we felt obligated to follow procedure. Because this is a community, and dictatorship jokes aside, we do our best to run it like one. We try to be open about our policy, we spend considerable time and effort to help offenders become upstanding members instead of banning them and being rid of the problem, and above all we do our best to be fair.
The punishment system was designed to give people lots of chances. Two warnings, three levels of bans before perma, and we wipe the slate clean after a period of good behavior? That's incredibly forgiving. I personally was proud of how we could afford to be so.
That forgiveness has been abused and pretty much everyone knows it. So it is with a heavy heart that the administration and moderation team is announcing a new punishment system.
You still have two warnings, a private and a public. If you're especially offensive you'll go straight to public. These cooldowns have been extended, but if you make it past the grace period we will wipe the slate clean.
Bans, however, now operate on a three strikes system. A temp ban no longer expires and we will not wipe your slate clean. If you receive even a single temp ban, your next punishment will be a second ban. And after that, you will be permabanned.
Those who have been banned recently and are still on cooldown, you are currently on the level of a private warning.
The new punishment system is as follows:
Cooldown applies:
1. Private Warning
2. Public Warning
No Cooldown:
3. First Tempban: One Week
4. Second Tempban: Two Weeks
5. Permaban
Yes, this is a much harder punishment system than BL used to have. It took a long time for us to all agree that this needs to be done, and even then it only happened because of the mounting evidence that the situation is not getting better.
To the great people still around who make BL a place people want to be, who go out of their way to give to the community and raise it to greater heights, keep being great. We're sorry that this affects you, but honestly we doubt this will ever be a concern for the people who are here to contribute and have a good time without ruining it for others. Maybe someday circumstances will arise where we don't need this system anymore. At the very least we may be able to give people more slack for good behavior, because everyone has bad days and we don't want to see people go just for that.
To the people who aren't part of this cult of personality, aren't especially great, who make honest mistakes or enjoy their barbs just a bit too much every now and then, and otherwise just hang around enjoying the atmosphere without making it at the expense of others, we want you just as much. For reals. For are we all not a group of not-great people admiring and basking in shared appreciation of the one great (if occasionally insane) Kinoko Nasu?
To the people who take delight in ruining the experiences of others, that this is a sanctioned and indelible aspect of the Beast's Lair and that they are duty bound to carry on some grand tradition? This is your group.
And we don't want you.
Have a nice day everyone.
Originally Posted by Hymn of Ragnarok
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