First, our thanks to everyone for a respectful and helpful discussion. There has been a lot of behind the scenes discussion of the points raised both in the discussion thread and the petition.
To start, there seems to be some confusion over NS Moderation's handling of off-site information and our ability to take action on off-site activities. These are not the same and we will address them separately.
Acting on off-site information: We do act on off-site information to the extent that when we receive such information we often start our own investigation here. Anything we find that supports the information from off-site can and will be acted on here. This has been standard practice for years and will remain so. Any such information can be submitted via
Getting Help.
Acting on off-site actions: The NS Moderation and Admin teams simply cannot take action on the NationStates site based on something someone did on another site. We are not the internet police. Facebook does not punish you for what you may have done on Twitter, Twitter does not take action against you for something you may have done on Instagram, etc. The moderators and admins on the other sites are the people to whom you should go to report abuse. And of course if you feel that a law has been broken or someone is in immediate danger, contact law enforcement!
That said, per the site rules stating "Max and the Admins may invoke special rulings as they see a need," site staff has the right to remove a user for any reason not already outlined in the Terms of Service, the Frequently Asked Questions, or the One Stop Rules Shop. We try to avoid invoking that clause, but it is there and can be invoked when it is absolutely necessary for the protection of our players and the site. It should be noted that a DOS order is not a magic bullet however. The important part of "Delete On Sight" is "sight." While we have tools to help us identify DOS players trying to sneak back in, it still comes down to Moderators using their analog MK I eyeballs and making a judgement. There is no guarantee that removing someone here will keep them away and we certainly cannot affect that person's ability to join other sites.
With regards to the request to publicly announce when such individuals have been declared "Delete on Sight", that will not be happening as they often entail legal liabilities that we cannot comment on. We have never made such announcements and we will continue to not do so. As with all DOS players, it is enough to know that the team has determined that they are no longer welcome to play NationStates.
Regarding the defamation rule: We feel that the rule is sufficient as written but we would clarify it to say that stating general factual accounts of things happening off-site are allowable. For instance, “
Nationstan was removed from his admin position on the
Regionboards for reasons detailed on them” is allowable. “
Nationstan was removed from his admin position on the
Regionboards because his thing about Hot Springs penguins is outside of nature’s laws” would not be, nor would “
Nationstan was removed from his admin position on the
Regionboards and you can read all about it at
www.somedamnlink.somedomain.” Players are allowed to reply to such posts, again on general factual basis, in the thread. Behavior that can be seen as harassment (Mentioning it within multiple threads), flaming, or releasing private information is still against the rules.
In light of this, the warning for
Escade is rescinded, though the link will still remain redacted.
Finally, to the admins and moderators of other boards, we hear you and we understand. We've been struck by how often it's been said that the admins of other sites are small teams, unprepared and struggling to deal with these kinds of incidents. That's us, too. We're not trained crisis staffers, law enforcement agents, or psychologists but we do have experience, some of us, with dealing with these kinds of issues and we're more than willing to offer advice or to just talk about how to handle such cases; including how to file reports with law enforcement agencies. Please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Thank you all for your patience in waiting for this. As you may have guessed, this was not an easy one.
--The NationStates Moderation and Administration Teams
Some related links:
Reporting abuse on Discord:
https://support.discordapp.com/hc/en-us ... se-SupportReporting abuse on Skype:
https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA1048 ... ws-desktop