Quoting TheMadMartian:

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Permanent bans were fairly rare as the average user got the message by ban number two.

Not in my favorite forum. they warn you 2 times and after that it's goodbye! And it's for anyone without any distinction : I've seen filmakers, book writer, actors and internet film critic banned from there... The ambiance is great because of this strict politic and that's why it's my favorite forum.

I'm in agreement with most here who have posted in that longer ban times is a must, but 24 hours for your first offense doesn't seem like a bad idea. Martian's timeline seems great to me. Most people even if they did get a 30 day ban might not come back just due to finding something else to do with their time. And if they did, hopefully they'd have learned their lesson.

I also agree with Alien in that bans should be made public and offenses shouldn't be erased unless they are  severe. This would help other users see what is unacceptable and should slowly improve things around here. Making bans public is just a great form of punishment, and maybe not so much on their first offense, but multiple offenders should be called out. Just like the "A" in "Scarlet Letter". Make something public and the chances of them doing it again lowers substantially. 

Thanks Ken for chiming in and spending some time in this discussion. I really hope you do reconsider your current stance on moderation and punishment due to the atmosphere not improving around here. People have had their warnings long enough, time to start fixing the problem no matter the steps necessary.

Quoting Ken Cole:

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Currently we're working on response times for edits and these temp bans.  If that can reign in the incendiary comments, great.

If the response time would be a little bit higher to posts given red arrows, I think much will be solved. If people find that giving a red arrow actually works in getting a moderators attention within a reasonable time, they might not jump into the discussion and dragging it further down.

This is also something the forum users need to get a lot better at. Give red arrows to report a post to a moderator, but do not jump into the discussion and drag it further down.

And while on the topic of red arrows, it would be great if the page describing the use of the red arrow would be updatged to indicate that it now just works as a report to moderator button.

An example of a very complete, fully visible and rigerously applied moderation process:

http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/?tag=WP_ModFAQ

Overkill for here, since Whirlpool lives or dies by the quality of moderation, but it shows it can work.

I strongly believe that a ban should be visible to the community! A certain symbol as mentioned before in this thread would be perfect.

Quoting Forget_the_Rest:

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Quoting TheDarkKnight:

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I strongly believe that a ban should be visible to the community! A certain symbol as mentioned before in this thread would be perfect.

As I've said a couple of times, I fully agree with this.

As I have also stated before, let's say it again. I also like the idea that a ban should be visible to the community.

Quoting Ken Cole:

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I'm open to considering this, but at a later date.  We'll see if we can reign in the forums without taking this step.

By the way, it's very nice that you partisipate on these conversations. It gives a totally different, better image of the company. It really shows that you care. Please continue to do this, even if it is just a few minutes per day. Beta release and rule committee forums would also benefit for your presence.