On Two Recent Bans

[evkl]

I know we usually make a policy about not discussing bans, but I want to talk very briefly about the ban of PlatinumDude, to quell rumours and speculation. He was banned from the forums, permanently, for conduct we (as a moderator staff) felt was harmful to the forums. Specifically, we were worried about his pattern of harassment of female members of the forum, which was on a number of occasions sexual in nature. In particular, his conduct towards several underage female members was outright manipulative and frankly unacceptable. Any of these alone would have been sufficient for a ban. The final decision to ban was agreed upon by all moderators and the ban was put into place by Archaic personally.

On a separate unrelated but similar issue, the staff also feels compelled to briefly mention the reason behind another recent ban, that of Honchkrow Reloaded/Macho Man. The individual behind these accounts (and at least a few others of less note that we're aware of) engaged in malicious and prolonged deception and manipulation of other users using the multiple sockpuppets they had created.

As a staff, we have no further comment on either issue. But we felt it was reasonable and respectful to all involved, and to the public as a whole, to outline at least this basic information. We do not tolerate this sort of behavior at Bulbagarden--harassment and manipulation, sexual or otherwise, of our members.

 

[Archaic]

A couple of extra points regarding the ban of PlatinumDude, in response to a few discussions here and elsewhere that have been brought to our attention. I may end up adding to these if any further points come up, though I think this covers about everything.

1. PlatinumDude was not hacked. This was stuff he did himself. I checked the IPs, etc. Even if I hadn't, #2 below would preclude any conclusion of hacking anyway.

2. His ban is not based on a single incident. It involved a number of things which happened over protracted periods of time. There's no way he could not have been aware of what he was doing, and no way he can possibly claim that a hacker was doing these things for all these months without him noticing.

3. The reason this behaviour was not detected earlier was because it was happening mostly in VM's and PM's, and had not been reported to staff. If it had been reported, going by the material we've seen while investigating this, we would've banned him many many many months ago.