Repeating offenders

[MCMLXXXII]

I get how the point system works and how everyone is redeemable. But there really should be something done about repeating offenders.

For example look at the Ukraine thread in politics. Thread started November last year. Two posters, and we all know who they are, have the same posting pattern since the start of said thread:

3 days of trolling
Get infracted for trolling (finally)
3 week ban
Ban lifted
And back to square one.

I know trolling is just a 5 point infraction, but seriously. After repeating the pattern above for 7 straight months, there should be some kind of consequence? The two posters I pointed out will keep repeating this pattern infinitely.

[Tziva]

If you think there is no consequence for repeat/frequent offenders, then you aren't understanding the points system. The punishment for repeat offenders is escalating ban durations and eventual account closure. If someone is at the level where they are triggering three week bans -- there are only a few tiers above that -- they are dangerously close to this happening.

The only way someone is getting "back to square one" is if they manage to behave themselves for months at a time without a single infraction, in which case they have clearly improved how they conduct themselves on the board. If they don't do that, they are going to spend longer and longer amounts of time banned until they are unwelcome on the boards entirely. If a person is so bad that they are spending weeks banned, coming back and getting rebanned immediately then the problem is already going to solve itself, both because they are banned so much they are only post one or two days a month and because their account is on the brink of being permanently closed.

This thread reads a lot more like a passive-aggressive complaint about specific users than an actual discussion of the points system. Please continue to report problem users. I realise we are very understaffed in GenOT (note: we're always accepting applications for new mods) and reports can get missed, and problem actors might not get actioned every time they cross the line. All I can recommend is to please keep reporting posts that do violate the rules to help out the mods in that forum since they aren't going to see everything organically. You can also PM the mods of that forum with links to particularly egregious stuff (if recent) to flag it to their attention. (but please don't do this for every violation; it bogs down their limited time from reviewing reports)

That said, I do have to mention that a lot of people broadly consider holding an unsavoury or false opinion as "trolling" and part of the reason the green mods miss things is because they have to wade through a lot of reports of users reporting others simply because they don't like them or their opinions. Our job isn't to make sure that people never say things that are inaccurate or disagreeable; that is what debate is for. The mods' job is to make sure that they stop problem actors who are intentionally causing drama, derails, or flamewars, so that debate can happen smoothly among those who want to discuss in good faith. Others can do their part by making sure when they report someone that they are actually violating the rules and not just holding a shitty opinion they don't like.