Should Decay be unbanned?
I initially propose this idea to the staff for a reply and they are apprehensive about it which I do not blame them for. I figured they'd need some time to discuss and weigh in the prospect of potentially having Decay return to these forums even under the caveat of supervision. Decay situation is different from mine in the aspect that my appeal presented by Decay was over a different administration; whereas, Decay's permanent removal was by the current over infractions he accrued over a period of time he was advised not to. It has been a year, 1 month, and 4 weeks since Decay's last visible post and in this time-span this community activity has remained somewhat the same. The suppose voices in many private messages that once promise to return when Decay or I were removed has yet to materialized. I believe that these specific people were only after his removal and had little interest in Zandronum's forum and political landscape. I offered the solution as a proponent in keeping his ban permanent despite some of the warnings given to him (by myself included), but an entire year lapsed and I am interested to see if he could return in even the capacity in which I engage people here.
Now in place of this paragraph I am suppose to contrast Decay's ban with those of other inflammatory users to frame a case to dispute his ban, but I do not have one. There has only be sparse conflicts on the forums from specific users and none warrant dredging up history; however, I will present to you what sentiment Decay's activity created that molded or influence not the decision but rather the perspective of Decay's ban. It isn't to paint him in a positive light by no means even I mock Decay for "I do what I want" attitude but it does help to weigh in the victims of Decay's relentless flaming and their "motivations" for never coming around anymore.
Now before I begin I want to point out this isn't a full-call back to these people to defend their platforms. This is to demonstrate their platform in its entirety for a specific point. Don't think I am trying to recreate an argument. You'll see in a second.
Jwarrier's proposition to ban decay
https://zandronum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=6978
Now Jwarrier may have legitimacy but we must really dig deep on whether or not this applies to now or even then. Let's examine the actual proponent because he claimed
This is an interesting statement but is it an accurate one? Was Decay's forum activity at the time warranted proactive evasive maneuvers as he'd describe? How much harassment has Decay actually done and why didn't the staff do anything? Was there even a case for it? Jwarrier has 145 post from 2012 to 2017 -- that's 5 years. That's 25 post a year or to invert that's 0.04 worth of 1825 days (not including leap years). The forum stats say 0.08 post a day. He has a total of only 9 topics. He is nowhere near as active as Decay and his account was last seen in 2016 where he was last seen abyssing his own clan and joining in the BE incident. For him to withhold his activity because of someone else in the greater plot of the community is inconsequential (no offense to Jwarrier). He never returned after Decay was banned which effectively made his entire effort pointless. I believe the message is greater than the man so this isn't much to say about Jwarrier so let's move on to another.Jwarrier wrote: What the admin doesn't know is my account is set to hidden because of Decay and co. I visit the forums very seldom now because I feel they are an extremely uninviting experience.
https://zandronum.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 212#p95855
Here we have Leonard who harped onto Jwarrier's thread in agreement. This thread he is in was sparked by Decay's relentless attitude to members of the community but what's interesting is that many of the active posters are in favor of Decay's activity. Leonard brought his case in which, like it or not, does highlight Decay's shortcomings as an apparent issue with how the community handles specific users. I am not going to disagree or agree, but I want to instead analyze his activity with Jwarrier. There's a pattern here: Leonard has 132 post. That's 13 post less than Jwarrier's stats with 2 topics one of which was split from the YAY Drama thread featuring Decay. He joined in 2013 approximately 9 months after Jwarrier. His last activity? The BE incident of 2016. Don't you even find this strange? People who withhold their activity LEAVE after Decay is banned? Do they only come around for Decay? For the fighting on the forums? I recall this very thing in a much more infammatory post to Leonard himself. The message is bigger than the men themselves for this isn't a challenge to Leonard but rather a challenge to those who believe what he said.
What is my point?
I contest the sentiment for Decay rather than the ban itself as I believe the year ban was worth the constant crime he committed, but permanent ban probably not. My stance is that this community didn't really get better or worst without Decay it just moved on and everyone else who wanted him gone were already gone before he was. That means their fights, their struggle, and even perceived problems were meaningless as the day they propose them. I don't see Jwarrier anymore. I don't see any of Decay's victims here. Jwarrier figured a better use of his time was Odamex and he's having fun over there and you know what? That's not a bad thing. Everyone should be happy to pursue where they feel happy in, but I don't believe that Decay should be beholden by some imaginary threat from less than collateral users. A spook or fearful speculation on our reputation from people who had no intention of sticking around to begin with. Leonard might have been banned or moderation but Jwarrier was not. He isn't the only one. There's a very vocal minority that believe in the Decay hype, but that's what it is. Hype.
Decay is a loud-mouth and foul mannered player, but he does get things down for his benefit and projects and have been helpful to those around them when he reaches out to them. He is a lot more instrumental here than his detractors and what they perceive. I DO AGREE he needs to shape up and handle some of those criticism better than memeing it up and insulting people so my caveat is definitely probation before he's removed from moderation completely. He may be toxic to some people and a pain in my ass at times, but he does contribute and ultimately that is usually what people scale you on in a situation like that "what have you contributed" and Decay has done quite a bit. I can't guarantee he'll be behaved or reform.. shit he might just flame someone the second he returns, but it's ok. What's another year right?