some mysterious happenings

[wannabee]

I'm getting very puzzled and concerned.

Not only do we have missing posters / members , we are not having threads just vanishing into the Ether

This is really very very strange.

I do hope this is not censorship

[Pons]

Well, it's the moderators' call. The banned posters probably broke the rules, in good faith (or not).

[Friar David, O.Carm]

A private group, such as Catholic Answers, is free to censor anything they wish. There is no guarantee of free speech here.

No private group should be forced to be a platform for ideas that they do not support.

[wannabee]

but it's not just the bannings - and note I did not use that expression .

Most of those who have vanished are still listed as members - but the word banned is not used in their Profiles.

What I was concerned with was also threads which suddenly seem to vanish.

I'm personally not happy that all the posts from the old Eastern Christianity Board were archived and then went 'POOF' - gone - no sign of them - vanished into the ether.

There were some really great threads there , full of really excellent material and now they are inaccessible.

[Catherine Grant]

Reasons Why Members are Suspended or Banned

Member accounts are banned or temporarily suspended for many reasons. Among the most common are:

1 - Objectionable Non-Religious Posts by New Members
If a new member immediately posts objectionable secular material (e.g., commercial advertisements, "adult" content) he will be summarily banned. No explanation will be given.

A review of that member's recent public activity will not reveal the reasons for the ban because the objectionable material will have been removed.

2 - Objectionable Non-Religious Posts by Existing Members
If an existing member posts objectionable secular material, the action taken will depend on a judgement as to the seriousness of the problem. If the content is egregious, the member will be summarily banned. If the posting is deemed accidental or potentially innocent, the member will be counseled and may receive a temporary suspension. In general, an explanatory e-mail is sent.

A review of that member's recent public activity probably will not reveal the reasons for the suspension because the objectionable material most likely will have been removed.

3 - Objectionable Religious Posts
Members are not allowed to be disrespectful of anyone's faith or religion, whether it is Catholicism or not. If a member is disrespectful, he will generally be counseled first and suspended only if he persists in disrespectful postings. In general, an explanatory e-mail is sent.

If the nature of an initial posting is blatantly disrespectful to any religion (e.g., "the pope is the anti-Christ" or "Rome is the Whore of Babylon" or "Muslims are terrorists"), a ban may be immediate and without prior counseling. In general, an explanatory e-mail is sent.

Members are free to discuss, question, disagree with, and debate the doctrines and dogmas of both Catholicism and non-Catholic religions. However, all discourse must be civil and charitable.

A review of the affected member's recent public activity probably will not reveal the reasons for the suspension because the objectionable material most likely will have been removed.

4 - Private Counseling Ignored
Some members have a particularly difficult time maintaining an appropriate level of charity in certain forums or on certain subjects. Moderators will set either voluntary guidelines or mandatory restrictions on these problem areas to help the poster. However, if the poster chooses to ignore such restrictions, they may earn themselves a suspension or ban, depending on the nature of the transgression. In general, an explanatory e-mail is sent.

A review of that member's recent public activity most likely will not reveal the reasons for the suspension because (a) the transgressing post(s) may not be objectionable in itself and (b) the details of the private counseling are not in the public venues.

5 - Constant but Minor Boundary Testing
Some members like to keep our Moderators busy by engaging in constant testing of the boundaries of acceptable behavior, even after private counseling by the Mods. This increases Mod workloads unacceptably. Any particular transgression is not likely to warrant a suspension in itself, but a constant stream of minor transgressions inevitably warrants a cooling-off period. In general, an explanatory e-mail is sent.

A review of that member's recent public activity most likely will not reveal the reasons for the suspension because the problem spans an extended period and the worst parts will have been removed.

6 - Repeat Offenders
Some individuals, after being suspended, sign up under new usernames (which is against forum rules). When such a situation is detected, the new account will be summarily banned. No explanatory e-mail is sent.

A review of recent public activity by the new account will not reveal the reasons for the ban because the reasons for the original suspension are associated with a different account.

7 - Offensive Private Communication
Unfortunately, this is not rare. Some members, when privately counseled or temporarily suspended, respond with scathing, abusive, or otherwise offensive e-mails or PM's to the Mods and/or Admins. This warrants an automatic and permanent ban. No explanatory e-mail is sent.

A review of recent public activity by the member will not reveal the reasons for the suspension because the objectionable activity will not have occurred in the public forums.

[Catherine Grant]

========================

NOTE: One point that we hope comes through is that the reasons behind a suspension or other disciplinary action are rarely obvious to forum members. Public speculation as to the reasons behind a suspension or ban are therefore fruitless (and a primary reason why it is against forum rules).

APPEALS: Should you receive a private communication from a suspended or banned member, the best advice is to have them contact us at forumadmin@catholic.com to discuss their case. We cannot discuss disciplinary actions with non-affected members.

[Catherine Grant]

The administration will respond to your concerns today. Please do not post any new threads on this topic.

[Therese Martin]

The article on the reasons why members are banned has been copied into the thread above by Catherine Grant. All that I can add to it is this:

• CAF does not discuss with third parties the cases of individual members out of respect for their privacy. If they wish to make known their case, that is their privilege; we only ask that you keep in mind that there are two sides to every story. Because we choose not to violate privacy, all you likely will hear in such instances is what the member chooses to make public, which likely will be only pieces of the story and only those pieces that reflect well on the individual.
• When banning individuals, CAF has a choice: We can give a banned member a tag that makes public that he has been banned; or we can ban him privately so that a public stir is not created and so that he can retain the dignity of appearing to have stopped participating of his own volition. With members of longstanding, CAF staff often choose the latter option. The downside to this is that the member can then make it appear that CAF is engaged in covert behavior against him, but we feel that the positives often outweigh the negative.
• If you have any questions or concerns about specific mod/admin actions, we ask you to please contact a mod privately by PM or write to the administration staff at forumadmin@catholic.com. Although we cannot discuss individual cases with you, we would be happy to explain general protocol.

[Therese Martin]

THREAD ACTION:

Moved thread from Eastern Catholicism to Staff Chat since it concerns a matter of forums protocol.