Well after finally being put on probation for doing nothing more than bumping my post after it fell off the front page simply asking for advice on USB microphones, headsets and capture cards and how to spend my birthday money.
I did appeal but the report spam has just gotten so out of control on these forums by the escapist community that even something so simple to improve one's gaming experience is apparently against the rules and I really don't want to be part of this community where you can't even simply bump a post for advice or express yourself.
While I'm certainly not the oldest member I've been around and I can certainly tell you this community has changed and not for the better when it comes to social interaction. I remember having heated debates that despite the occasional insult it was not reported compared to actual important reports such as death threats and other actual crimes. Today? A bump asking for advice how to spend one's birthday money is against the forum rules. Suffice to say that it seems to me unless you tow some line and agree with "general wisdom" is the only way to not get reported.
It also seems to be that while the escapist having a report button when it was more or less small worked well as people did not abuse the report button, but today the people who come here has grown exponentially that having the report function there for quick and easy use is outdated and too easy to be abused. The report function should really be moved off the forums and onto the profiles where an escapist must really ask themselves if reporting is really worth getting another person's account banned who while they might disagree with you or express their speech a bit different from yours to ban them from a community where they share the same hobby as you.
So I really don't want to get my account banned but the only way apparently to actually not get banned now is to follow the policy and just not come here for TWO years. I find this to be rather extreme method just to get a clean record and quite outdated as even for minor infractions are equal to that of posting racist remarks or actual worth while reports like actual crimes such as death threats. Even to reduce the level by one point takes SIX months.
If a poster is really a problem then it should be a consistent trend in a short time period and get quickly banned. Posters who don't commit any problems over a span of even two months shouldn't be seen as a problem but simply the result of having a bad day or having a heated disagreement with their fellow poster. The final flaw I should mention that if you avoid being reported for five months and then get reported you are stuck waiting another six months just to lose the point you gained against your record. That is a problem because it puts punishment above actual reform and last I checked following the rules for five months certainly holds a lot more weight than being suspended or on probation for nothing more than a bump.
So once again I will say goodbye to posting for TWO years and hope that the Escapist and the community here will rethink the moderation policy and the massive report abuse and really ask themselves on what really requires actual moderation instead of just punishing everyone equally regardless of the infraction.