I got banned for a day. There was zero communication about it. I simply could not log in any more without any prior warning or any information about what was going on, or about the reason for the ban. This seems like a pretty bad practice because it wont give the user any chance of knowing what they did wrong and how to change their behavior to avoid breaking the same rule again in the future. Even now with my account unbanned, the modlog does not tell me any of those things. I think it is essential to let anyone who gets banned know:
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Why they were banned, including which rules they broke and in which statements/comments/posts they did so and how, to enable people to actually improve their behavior. Otherwise banning is pointless because users will just make a new account on another instance without changing their behavior
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That they were banned, I was super confused when I just couldnt log in any more suddenly
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For how long they were banned, I only found out about the duration of my ban by checking the modlog
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Who banned them, to make a conversation possible and also to make sure some admins/mods don´t abuse their privilege
It would also make sense to have a warning/strike system in place so people don´t just suddenly get banned without ever knowing they did something wrong
Agree. I had a bot account banned, and despite the requirement that bot accounts have contact info, there was no attempt made to contact me. Regardless of whether or not the ban is justified, courtesy does not seem to be a priority for them.