As you all know by now, we do not give punishment here at SM. Instead, we ban a troublesome member before they even find SM. A little harsh maybe, but necessary to preserve our atmosphere.

I prebanned a member who was being really n00bish over at ISCF today [Forget double posting, try 9 posts in a row]

That makes 4 people who are prevented from coming here via full IP ban, and 3 whom are banned only by alias.

He still hadn't got the point, was still double posting, after iSoaker warned him!

ouch, well, if it will preserve the elite atmosphere we have all worked so hard to create...

Watch the other boards carefully, and tell me when there is a member causing enough problems that they shouldn't be here. I hope to use the pre-ban sparingly, but if there are a lot of clueless n00bs, then there isn't much choice. By the way, if a member improves, I will repeal their pre-ban. So it's not really a rigid, cold system. :ph43r:

I don't particularly like the idea of prebanning. And I resent being part of an elite atmosphere. Why are we the elite? Why do we get to decide it?

Just how I feel

I don't particularly like it either. It's not like bad members are ever going to find us anyway. Usually a bad member means they will not stick to super soakers for too long and lose interest. If a certain member is bad enough to ban, we will do that. If they turn out to be a better member then we will unban them.

I don't "enjoy" prebanning, but I would rather find out what a member is like before they get here. SM should not have to bear bad members. New members are fine, but bad ones are, well, bad. :P

Agreed. Once one thinks one is elite, one generally becomes l33t instead. We are not, and should not view ourselves as, the "elite" of online soakerdom.

agreed, we're not elite, we just have the most vets and the least n00bs. :P

Mr_Fan is our newest Prebanned member. He ranks up there with Fsdl, Blaze, and Sniper in terms of n00bishness.

For those whom are uncomfortable with the prebanning system, think of it this way: We are getting rid of problems before they can become problems. It is no different than other forums with the exception that it occurs before the problematic member arrives.

And if a Prebanned member starts behaving, they get taken off the Preban list and/or they can appeal. B)

That's exactly what I was thinking, but I didn't want to say anything. Of course I'm not one to talk since I've only been a member for a month or so.

If it was an accident I really consider that strict and eletist. Everyone should have a fair chance. If they did that on purpose then they were being stupid and there's an argument there for banning. I would rather give people the chance to say something even if we have to clean up after them than to not give them a chance at all. It's not like they are flaming the boards. I can't stand elitism, but it's your board do what you want.

Completely agree with you the marauder 4. Things are being taken way too seriously these days, and just prebanning a member for just trying to give their opinion out on certain aspects of water warfare (like mr_fan), that really is a bit unfair. It wasn't as if he flamed the board or caused a mass load of mess on the forums.

No wonder why so many new members come and go so fast, its because as soon as they join and get one tiny word spelling wrong, they get an unwelcoming reply saying that their spelling is poor, how is that supposed to make them feel welcome, all that is saying is "you're not important unless you learn to spell right" If you thought that spelling was bad here and on SSCentral .etc. Its even worse on other boards I have seen in the past.

If things keep on going the way they are, they everything is just going to fall apart. People like Ben will probably have a huge go at me when they see this, but I'm making a stand here. Other forums I am on now give you a much better feel.

I think that people should be prebanned if they have good reason to show that they are going to be banned soon anyway (i.e. spamming on other boards). If someone just disagrees with you then they should be let in.

Spelling is not an issue here, we generally don't care much and we won't yell at anyone for bad spelling.

As for disagreeing with us, this isn't Aquatica, you can speak your mind freely. Everyone has the right to complain, disagree, etc. with the admins, mods, about any aspect of the forum.

The vast majority of those on the Preban list are there for a good reason: Blaze, Sniper, Unidentified Mexican Kid, Blueviper42, etc.

Again, this is not meant to be elitist, it is meant to keep troublemakers out of here.

I made this into a poll now, so if the membership wants to scrap Prebanning, it will be gone and everyone on the list taken off.

Well, if you want my opinion, if members watched the forums and saw how they were run for a few days, maybe they wouldn't seem so n00bish!

I don't understand what Mr. Fan did but whatever, odds of him finding SM are slim any way.

Many members at SSC think that and I have even said that spelling errors are overrated over there. But Ben intimidates people so they won't speak out against him, simply put Ben will drive people away from SSC.

I really don't see how hard it can be to simply write contractions correctly or use real English instead of AIM talk (lol, btw, ppl). To quote Ben (on several occasions), "This is a forum, not AIM."

(I hope I spelled everything right after saying that...)

I love how you people still complain about something that rarely happens. First off, people ask me all the time about the Super Soaker Central forum rules in emails and PMs. I tell people to address their concerns with me all of the time, and they do. Most of the time they are nice and never are a problem. I also bring up most issues with members via PM now because people seem to feel as if they are being attacked if I bring up issues in a public post. This is not a problem, nor was it ever one.

Everyone loves to complain. It makes them feel important. Here's some cold hard facts: I haven't mentioned spelling or grammar in my past 25 posts. No one was ever banned for bad spelling. Nobody spells perfectly, and nobody should be expected to. The policy always was understandability at heart. Spinner and I have agreed to PM members as opposed to publicly posting since Drewsky's flame. You people love to make a controversy when it can be used to promote your interests. Get over it. :P

I will also add that most of the times Ben has brought up spelling were either on a member's first post or when the post was barely readable. Also, many of the unreadable posts were cleaned up AFTER Ben pointed out the mistakes within them.

Edit: Grammar (How ironic...)

Oh this again. You can say what you want, but community/member bashing isn't cool. It happens too often and does nothing positive for the overall community. PMs are the proper place for that.

If they bad mouth soakers, ban them, if they're just newbs, there is no real point in banning them. You never know because some turn into veterans.

Based on his actions on other forums, I highly recommend adding Newb to the preban list.

Is it possible to view the preban list? B)

Sniper
Scout Sniper
Lexmark
Spiky
Blaze
rinkydinkysplat
Broncostar
Blueviper42
Pirate7
fsdl

Have all made the list. There were a few more taken off the list because they were n00bs and nothing more.