Preface - The embarrassing story about how the ban came in in reverse:
I was trying to find a post on the birthday thread or something benign when I kept getting some sort of weird unauthorized error that redirected me to a 404 page. I went into CaSS and it was still working. I realized what was happening and relayed my suspicions to some friends while confirming they could access everything.
Turns out the mods wrote the rules about how you can get banned specifically from CaSS, but didn't have a clue how to implement such a thing. And they'd made it so I could only post on CaSS.
I thought nothing of it and had already assumed it'd be something like pattern of behaviour or something reasonable like that, and I told someone (Lads probably) to tell the admins they fucked up, because I'm nice like that.
It got fixed eventually. I didn't say shit at this point, I didn't even ask why. Turns out that was a mistake because apparently behind the scenes, the mods were running some sort of circus.
Story 1 - We All Had a Very Serious Discussion And According To The Rules We Didn't Even Read Before This PM You're Banned From CaSS Permanently
Here's the rules by the way. This is important because of how many times the rules change behind the scenes.
Disciplinary Actions
Breaking a CAASS rule will earn you 1 strike. 3 strikes will earn you a temp ban from CAASS.
3 strikes = 24 hour ban
4 strikes = 48 hour ban
5 strikes = 1 week ban
6 strikes = 2 week ban
7 strikes = 1 month ban
Going 2 months without a strike removes 1 strike. Mods may escalate the ban depending on the offense. Persistent disregard for CAASS rules may earn you an indefinite ban from the CAASS forum. We will be open to evidence you have changed even in the case of an indefinite ban however
Here's the first PM I got. This is the first mod PM I got since ages, and the rules were completely new at this point.
I'm sorry this took long after the incident in question, but due to the posts you made in the thread on Northam's Blackface, the staff has decided to enforce the new CAaSS guidelines by banning you from posting in that section of the site indefinitely, or until you have demonstrated that you can participate in the community without further incidents.
There were multiple posts in that thread where you were disrespectful to other users (as defined in Rule 1 of the CAaSS guidelines) and directed profanity against them.
I again apologize for the delay in letting you know of our decision, and the rest of the staff and I sincerely hope that you will stay and eventually be able to join in on this section of the site.
Please let me know if you have any other questions regarding this.
The new CaSS guidelines, as you can clearly see above, have an escalation schedule. The schedule goes warnings for two broken rules, then a one day ban. Then a 2 day ban. Then a one week ban. Then a 2 week ban. Then a one month ban. Then a permaban.
I didn't get a single warning, not even counting warnings from years ago or even the same year before the schedule was put in place. I think I got a total of one that year until then.
I also pointed out that there are literally members on the forum who post unhinged death threats who never get banned, but apparently taking offense to a bunch of babies screaming about fake news and insulting one of my best friends is ban-worthy.
Story 2 - No no we knew about the schedule, we totally took that into account while calculating the ban
When it was pointed out that the mods had completely bypassed the rules and didn't even have a good excuse for it, they apparently got together and brainstormed for three fucking days and came out with the weakest, most pissant excuse you could imagine in the situation.
In this case, each disrespectful post was counted as a separate strike.
I replied immediately with
lol. Are the warnings in bulk too?
You know what? Let's go. Quote all 7+ insults so we can see how much you guys had to reach to justify blatantly ignoring the rules.
Because clearly they had well documented all my rule-breaks. (There weren't even seven insults in there if you counted them seperately)
Literally two weeks later, I was checking if I actually got a reply, and assumed maybe they were busy with something else (Because CaSS and the forum is thronging with people right now /s) and pointed out they still had no excuse.
Nothing huh. Thought as much. Just amazingly accountable mods and admins applying the rules evenly and fairly.
And then two weeks after that
Story 3 - We totally checked the rules this time and looked at your warnings and you're right, we literally did not warn you but have that four week ban anyway because we're mature people who can totally take responsibility for our mistakes:
then a week later, I got a message
I apologize again for the late response. I and the other site staff have been evaluating the situation, and we decided that our initial punishment was too harsh.
Since you had not received any warnings about your posts, we are going to count the thread as a whole as one strike. These forum guidelines are new, and we are still working out how they work in practice and refining them.
We will be removing the ban from CASS, and you can continue to post in there going forward.
Scroll back to the rules. What's the punishment for one strike again? And how long have I been banned for at this point?
Hmm.
Like I said, if the mods had just said something about special mod discretion, it'd have made sense, but they literally are still pretending to follow the rules somehow.
Story 4 - Actually, we're still gigantic babies and also Tess is pretty sure I'm reporting someone to... get at her personally somehow?:
I posted a livethread about the mueller hearing. Livethreads aren't new to forums. They're not new to TCS. They're literally how we handle any breaking news that we're talking about. The post was 99% quotes.
The mod who started this situation by insulting Kate because she didn't immediately take the democrat spin about Ralph Northam as fact and had to breakdown crying fake news fake news the second the phrase late term abortion was mentioned, made a driveby post about how it's totally not coherent to literally quote a bunch of Q&A sessions, with transcripts, video, and of course, commentary on why so and so is bad.
Driveby insults are against the rules.
Rule 1 - Be respectful, courteous, and civil towards one another. Hostility, derision, snark, sarcasm, name-calling, inflammatory statements, and general rudeness towards other users will not be permitted. You're free to disagree and argue, but stay civil and focus on the argument, not on the person making it. If a topic is highly personal or emotional to you, it is YOUR responsibility to control yourself and your actions; if you can't then step out of those threads.
The new rules were literally brought on because CaSS was turning into a bunch of circlejerks and drivebys.
Already knowing at this point the mods were a bunch of unprofessional hacks who couldn't even apologize for banning me against the rules, and this mod in particular was already involved the first time this happened, I decided to talk about the fact that mods will use completely random excuses to ban me for hurting their feelings.
I reported Absentia for the driveby and continued the conversation pretty fucking civilly considering how the mods are objectively pissants. Apparently that's trolling now. Because Tess personally PMed me this nonsense
I'm sorry nobody explained your previous ban to you. This isn't because we have no desire to explain it, we simply lost track and I assumed someone had messaged you when nobody had done this. Since your issue is apparently with me I decided to message you. However, the decisions we make on TCS are not my decisions. Frequently they are decisions I wouldn't have made if I was the sole actor but I enforce them because I take the opinions of others on the team seriously.
Anyway, your previous ban from CASS occurred because of your behavior in a thread about blackface. You broke the rule against being respectful in CASS. This is something you are frequently guilty of. When asked for sources by Gis, instead of providing those you said she cannot be convinced which means you were not arguing in good faith. The thread also went off topic. You also called us "babies."
In the most recent thread you called us "pissants." Then you reported Absentia's post just to troll. You seem to be fully aware you are breaking the rules since you know you will get banned, but chose to do it anyway. If you want to get banned and don't like being here, nobody is making you post.
The reason you were unbanned last time is because although we initially decided on a longer ban we changed our mind since you didn't receive sufficient warning. Consider this your official warning since you are now banned for another month. The next time might be a permanent ban from CASS. Hostile and problematic behavior in other forums might also be subject to sanctions.
Hey look, the story changed again. She thought nobody explained the ban to me. The PMs I got "explained" the ban to me. Three times. Differently. But since Tess thought apparently I didn't know the full story, she apparently just made something up again. Apparently the mods were in full contact with each other during this month and totally coordinated all of this, instead of it being damage control after realizing they acted against the rules. And suddenly that one strike turned back into six because apparently it's a month again.
How well coordinated and definitely not reactionary.
Anyway, I don't give a shit how this goes on, but since absentia took the second I got banned again as a trigger to go piss himself in the thread about how attempted obstruction totally can't take intent into account because that's totally what I was saying instead of "It literally doesn't matter when someone does not successfully obstruct something", because no one can answer him and the circlejerk can continue uninterrupted, and some people like Gis and Crimson just independently have bad opinions and are not part of the jerk, they oughtta know what happened and why I disappeared from the thread. Because Tess and Absentia at the very least (And some shadowy mod cabal in the background, I'm not exactly ruling them out just because they're not on the PMs) are complete children.