Admitting to breaking rules should have harsher punishments

Recently I’ve been seeing an increase in users who admit they’re posting offtopic posts/say they know their post will be flagged, which shows they have not only read and fully understand the rules, but that they’re deliberately breaking them.

At that point it can’t be excused as a mere accident or them being a new user, and that they’re going out of their way just to break rules. That shouldn’t be treated with just feedback, because feedback does nothing but repeat the rules they have shown to already understand.

Quoting the rules they broke in their post and reposting removed posts with nothing changed to make them within rules (eg not reposting in the correct category) should both also count under this, as I’ve seen these also happen far too often and both show that the user clearly knows the rules, even specifically which rules they are breaking.

(This post is mostly about offtopic posts because that’s the main issue on the devforum currently, however this could also be applied to other rules with very little issue)

Small edit: I feel that deliberately editing flagged posts just to remove flags (changing something insignificant, or admitting that people are flagging your post) should also have harsh punishment, as this is deliberately evading punishment (editing posts removes flags and unhides the post, meaning moderators end up being unable to take action).
Of course, some people might edit a post so it’s no longer breaking rules, which is perfectly fine, but editing it just to unflag it is outright abusing bugs in the discourse system to avoid any form of punishment.

45 Likes

This NEEDS to be implemented somehow, you don’t know how many times I’ve seen a topic stating “Couldn’t find a category so I posted this in the Development Discussion” (or something along the lines of that).

10 Likes

YES please! Last day a guy was trolling and after I told him that he either was trolling or just got on the internet he said that he “Just realised he started trolling”. HOW can you just realise that you are trolling? And guess what, the mods belived him!

2 Likes

I think this should be implemented but only if it doesn’t apply to edits made since people could make an off-topic topic and then get notified through a DM by someone that it is off-topic, the person may then edit the OP to include that it is off-topic, this person should not get punished.

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Partial support, imo should be implemented once Members have access to all categories, or when regular promotions are resumed.

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Same with @Boeing_A350, I really think this should be implemented for members that have access to all categories, I think a member that has access to all categories definitely know the rules

I agree, though, I think ONE warning should be given before complete ban.

I agree @Abcreator. I feel that if they apply an edit saying their mistake they should be WARNED not banned.

1 Like