GAW was forced to ban several of long-time contributors over the past few days after some extremely unacceptable behaviour both on the site and in modmail. What happened? These users were warned, asking them to tone it down, get re-focused a bit (maybe go camping?), etc., but instead the behaviour only got worse, and, finally, becoming very concerning. Rather than sit out their vacations and re-focus, the users decided opted for the nuclear option.
We HATE banning good users! Especially permanently! Everyone should be having fun here. But.
We will ban insane behaviour like this, all day, every day, equally, any user, it doesn't matter. This kind of crazy, insane behaviour (doxing, threats, posts on other WINs, etc.) towards GAW's mods, our users, posts, comments, or abuse in modmail, will not be tolerated.
These users are now PM'ing various users here, and these conversations are now filtering up to the mod team. Feel free to reply if you want, etc., but, if you choose to engage, you'll quickly see this same immature behaviour from them as they will quickly demonstrate why they were banned.
GAW will continue to have one of the best online communities around. The entire mod team remains committed to keeping GAW focused on Q, focused on solid, quality discussion, and keeping us ready for The Storm. Thank you!
EDIT: Here are some answers to some questions we're getting asked.
Why can't the mod team do anything about this contact? Apologies, we aren't able to control how the .WINs work, and we're sorry many of you were forced to deal with this unfortunate situation.
How does GAW run? Other than the 100% volunteer mod team, basically, several years ago, we were lucky enough to get invited to run on the same digital infrastructure that The_Donald.WIN (now Patriots.WIN, of course) ran on. Why? Because Q was part of the movement, but they wanted us annoying (LEL 😎) "Q believers" to have their own space so that regular patriots could have the option to participate or not. The mods have no access to the codebase. We found ways to add our own feel here (pepes, colours, etc.), but we don't have the ability to shadowban, or otherwise hassle anyone, anywhere. We can only control user access, sticky posts, and remove harmful comments.
Sounds to me like mods are doing their job for the community. I see no fault at all in that.
I have witnessed some of the...events...you allude to, however. People often get trapped in what think they know rather than what they don't know, which furthers discussion. This is called the Dunning-Kruger syndrome.
"The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people wrongly overestimate their knowledge or ability in a specific area. This tends to occur because a lack of self-awareness prevents them from accurately assessing their own skills." Ref.
Remaining open to counter points is key to critical thinking and analysis and, if ignored due to DKS, creates over emotional responses to bullshit.
Keep an open mind, frogs: the community depends on it.
Edited for clarity due to some DKS going on in the comments. 🤣🤣
Hmm... I'm not sure that's an accurate description of the Dunning-Kruger effect. That was an experiment showing that people with low ability tend to overestimate their skills. It also has a lot of mathematical evidence as to why it may not even be statistically significant or true.
It can also refer to highly competent people over estimating the ability of others.
It only refers to self assessment.
Highly competent people underestimating their own abilities would fall under Dunning-Kruger effect.
I thought that was what we were talking about? /confused :)