topazg wrote:mw42 wrote:... and admins were forced to log an explanation publicly, there would be no misunderstanding.
This I 100% agree with. I think, regardless of the risk of embarrassing the user in question, all bans should have a noted explanation for what they did wrong, that should live about as long as the past games list does. BigDoug, would there be any particular objection to something like this existing from the administrator's point of view that you can think of?
I'm not Doug, but I can think of a few things offhand that might be problematic --
First one that comes to mind would be exposure of aliases (or really privacy in general). As a matter of policy we don't reveal alternate accounts for people haven't publicly made it clear it is one of their aliases, however a boot log would quickly put an end to that. This is perhaps a small thing, but I still think there is a principle there that should be respected. You may not believe so, but I'd like to think that even users who were banned have a right to some privacy. Likewise, even if it's abusive private chat, it's still their private chat and discussing it with the whole server without their consent is a line I wouldn't want to cross. There's a lot of room for non-banned people to get caught in crossfire here too...Imagine, you're in a game and you get beaten by a sandbagger, who then goes on to use all sorts of obscenities to describe you, your family and your go playing...you discreetly bring it up with an administrator who bans the sandbagger giving a reason of "Please don't make abusive remarks to other users"...suddenly a whole group of people who become boot log junkies (let's be honest, this will happen if there is a public boot log) are scouring through the sandbagger's recent games to find out why they are booted. Suddenly your bad day against a mean opponent is a public affair even though you have done nothing wrong and may have wanted to keep it a (relatively) private matter.
The second goes along with the server idea of "no public accusation." Just as people love to keep escaper lists, "doesn't say hello and good game" lists, tilde lists and all sorts of other blacklists, this would just provide more fodder for people who like to feel smug and superior to others. Worst case scenario it could turn into witchhunting. Best case scenario it is a giant forum of "public accusation"
The third is that I would worry about some disruptive users treating it like a scoreboard, trying to get on the ban list as many times as they can...giving them public validation may exacerbate their behavior.
