h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What happens to the user space? If it is left as it is, with people being able to post there, it might be too tempting to try to come back in if you can see your conversation list refreshing as people answer posts, or post in your message center. As well behaved as I try to be it would be too hard to resist. Maybe that's the point, slow torture. Or will you be able to just leave the intro with nothing else like an A entry?

And how will you know if an email bounces? Do they always get returned when the address doesn't exist any more? Or is it worth posting to all spaces, just in case?

Will the link to the entry about the ban only be on the personal space, or will it be elsewhere? I'd like to think that this sort of thing would be the equivalent of reporting local crime in the local paper, a small piece of info that has to be looked for, rather than headline news to draw in all-comers with an oar to put in.

I'm don't like the idea of any of this, but here we are, it's here, and I'd like to know how it will work.
(It's embarrasing enough to be in trouble, without drawing attention to it, but still. Maybe it will discourage trouble before it starts. )

when I said posting to all spaces, it would have been clearer to say, post to the space whether the email went or not, in all circumstances.

Sorry if these questions have been answered elsewhere btw.

It was felt that removing the Personal Space while the decision still has to be made whether you are to be banned for life would be harsh.

Bear in mind, though, that the Conversations that the banned person will be most drawn to will be in the 'remand' entry where the pro and con discussions take place, and they won't appear on their Personal Space. It's also important that the Personal Space is visible so that supporters, or indeed detractors, can look through what's been posted by the Researcher who's facing a ban, and hiding the Space won't help that process.

If the email bounces back to us, then we know the email address is erroneous, so we follow the Personal Space procedure. If the email address is valid but the Researcher never checks that account, there is nothing we can do, to be honest. The process demonstrates that we will do everything we can to contact them, but we can't do anything more than we have stated, and that has to be sufficient. If they don't visit h2g2 (which they won't be able to log in to) and don't check their email, then they may miss the whole event, but that's still no reason not to implement this process.

As it says above, the link to the entry about the ban will always be on the Personal Space and will, at the Editors' discretion, be posted to the Community Soapbox. Sometimes we will not want to draw attention to bans (if someone has simply come to h2g2 to post kiddie porn, for example) in which case we will not publicise it outside of the Space.

Hope this answers your questions - yell if not!

Yes it does, thanks.

[This is not a reply to Mina, just further small questions.]

Looks very reasonable. I was wondering about this section though:

"If you wish to discuss the ban or events surrounding it, please do so here, only. Conversations are easier to follow if they occur on one place, so please co-operate and do not discuss this in other Conversations, unless it is to link to here. Thank you."

Does this mean "official" discussion of the event, in the same way that character witness statements should only be recognized on the appropriate message threads? Or do you really expect people not to comment on lifetime bans anywhere else on the site?

It's not a big deal. I don't imagine anyone would be punished for discussing lifetime bans elsewhere. But it seems silly to expect anything from h2g2 conversation threads more strictly controlled than normal human verbal conversations (constantly wandering, informal, etc).

Again, not a major problem, but you might throw in a word or two to clarify if you only meant that "official" discussion of the event, instead of ALL discussion.

Otherwise, looks great.

Deidzoeb

Good point. We think the original intention of this was to prevent the subject of the ban from invading places like the Community Soapbox and lingering for a long time, even though a decision has already been made and explained.

Of course, it'd be silly (and impossible!) to prevent discussion elsewhere, so we'll change this to a polite suggestion to discuss the subject on the relevant page, rather than the more heavy-handed version you're commenting on.

Thanks Subcom - good point!