Well, Niet. I understand. If you guys feel that removing the anonymity behind bans, in the long run, is going to save yourselves a lot of hassle, then go right ahead. You guys have enough on your plates right now with updates, art and daily management of forums and whatnot to have to deal with childish antics like this. But your own point could be said regardless of the system you place. Even if it was posted as a scrolling marquee on the top bar, telling everyone why User X was banned, he/she can always fall back on that same line "well they only say that to make themselves look better but I was actually banned because the staff hate me." Honestly, there's nothing you can do to prevent a moron from being a moron. You can't fix stupid.

Could you possibly do what you touched on in that first post? Such as: "User" banned for excessive/moderate Rule X violations. Like without going into eXtreme detail, just point in the direction what the user did wrong. unless people were actually enthused in why a person was banned, then it won't seem like blacklisting as much. This could also opt users to go read the rules more frequently to remind themselves of the rules. Generally I think pointing out why people got banned is a good idea. It prevents the "ban happy" slander you all as staff have to face, and it reminds users that the rules are to be taken more seriously.

Just a small thought on the process, completely optional: What if you put the users name under a tip code? So the message would read User was banned for playing with mankeys. That way people can find the username without it glaring in everyones faces. Just a thought, may not work out but thought I'd pipe in.

I think Garthic's idea is good. It reminds of a newspaper, where big crimes are shown with names, while other have to deals with little things but with their privacy. Still, I think a list of punishments like Red said might be a good idea. @13girl: I don't know, the username's not openly shown, but everyone can see it if they want. And most users are curious. Speaking for myself, if I see a banned user I wonder what he did for deserving a ban, be it a week, a month or a permanent ban. So, I think it won't really fix any privacy problem.

I actually like the idea where if its a minor issue just User (no tip) was banned/warned for Spam or whatever that was nobody's embarrassed, it's not a big deal and if the person makes a big deal out of it well... it shouldn't really be that big of one right? Now if it's a major deal I would say yes but to some extent. Maybe use what 13girl suggested and use a tip code that way the people would have to look for it a little. But then again the person getting banned already risks embarrassing themselves since they have to actually commit the ban they got banned for which is probably more embarrassing than just saying X got banned for doing This and that.

In my opinion, what was put in the most recent post made by Garthic seems to be a good option. If a user has committed a ban-able offence, why should they not be named and shamed? Of course, something minor is slightly different, so then users don't get openly embarrassed about genuine mistakes, but for the major things I 100% back the idea. As I said in a post earlier, showing users why others have been banned is a good eye-opener and will most likely act as a deterrent, but If I add to that, the thought of being named and shamed is also a good deterrent, as I've noticed a few people mentioning they would not like to have their user names shown if they were banned. Basically, if someone gets banned for a major offence, it is there own fault, so surely they deserve to be named and shamed publicly.

Public shaming will make more users follow the rules out of fear rather than respect. Instead of trusting that the mods are doing a good job, users will be fearing that their name is going to wind up on a permanent blacklist so that everyone can see they did something wrong. And like RedCydranth pointed out, it still doesn't prevent people from lying, either. Even if it says right here "Bob was permabanned for cheating, breaking 5 rules, and jaywalking." Bob can still tell everyone he was banned unfairly and that the staff are just jerks. Some people are going to be hateful, and there's really nothing that can be done about it. I still think displaying only the reasons for each ban is a good idea, and it will still allow users to see what the mods really do and that the rules will be reasonably enforced.

When someone is banned do the staff send the banned person a PM explaining WHY they were banned? You can't really stop people from complaining when they are banned, even if they do lie. I mean, if you got fined by the police and you thought it wasn't fair there is nothing to stop you from going around complaining and saying it wasn't fair, if you break no laws they can't stop you. So if you get banned here and you don't like it, there is no real way to stop said person from complaining and saying whatever they like on other sites, trying to stop them will probably just make people more angry and complain even more.

Honestly, we've given the opportunity to follow the rules out of respect for... What, over 4 years now? And we've been getting backlash left, right, north, south, up, down, pancakes. I need more directions! But, in seriousness - Lying about the issue in itself is actually breaking a law. The one against Slander and Libel. In other words, bad-mouthing an individual via. lies is against the law. So if we want to get technical, anyone lying about us doing something wrong when we have not done as such... Is essentially breaking the law - which gives us every right to slap back. We just haven't done, and frankly put, that respect has got us nowhere. I don't want anyone to 'fear' anything, but at this stage, it's a simple case of "Respect" as has been said. The way I'm seeing it is that... The people who have nothing to fear because -they know- they'll follow rules, or only mistakenly break minor ones, at very worse, are fine. The people who do have something to fear are the ones who break major rules and know they're liable to, or they're planning to - or such and so forth. There's something to fear in the suggestion that I put forward, but only if you break a major rule. I think that sounds fair, personally... But again, this is why we're asking for opinions from the userbase at large.

If PFQ's ban system is just like PF's then the banned user gets an email(the one used for creating your account) stating the reasons for the ban and its length.