Hello, Olivia. I’ve noticed you post a couple of things on Race & Ethnicity, but I’m flattered you’ve noticed me enough to A2A me this.
I’ve only ever received a couple of warnings. My story on my first warning, which *I* thought was ridiculous, is recounted in a two-parter:
What happened next? by Nick Nicholas on The Insurgency
My first BNBR warning by Nick Nicholas on The Insurgency
My friend Jennifer Edeburn and I have discussed this since. I see the argument for it; it’s Tatiana Estévez: “Having people insult each other as ‘banter’ doesn’t create a good atmosphere” by Nick Nicholas on The Insurgency. I think it’s silly. But there you have it.
John Gragson thought that was even more chickenshit than the warning he got, as he commented at https://insurgency.quora.com/My-…. He got a BNBR warning for *that*. The irony, the irony.
And then of course there’s the moderation actions against Michael Masiello, Habib Fanny, Gigi J Wolf, Lara Novakov, Red Subijano, and Jeremy Markeith Thompson, that prompted my deactivation (and later on, most epic comic strip), as laid out in Nick Nicholas’ answer to Do you believe Quora moderation is doing a good and responsible job of maintaining this site’s policies? Why or why not?
There have been bans for formatting: I have seen a user who consistently used way too many bolds and caps and italics (her stuff read a bit like a ransom letter) get banned. (Don’t remember her name, but she was Indian, and posted a lot on Hinduism.) A very dim view was taken by Quora management in the Top Writer lounge, against a current teen user who used red colour in his posts. (“Severe violation.”) The ransom letter user was annoying, but “banned for formatting”… yeah, that looks bizarre.
There’s plenty of ridiculous-looking reasons about. Yes it can be argued that we only ever get one side of the story. Yes it can be argued that moderation needs to be “rule-bound” (translation: robotic) if it is to scale to deal with the population of Quora. Yes it can be argued that the guidelines are clear. (I’d argue against that: many of them, you could drive a truck through.) Yes, it’s Quora’s site, and they owe nobody any first amendment rights. Or anything, really.
And I still get to find some of the reasons for moderation sanction silly.