PancakeSamurai said:Was this really worth an infraction?
A) I never done anything like this before. Yes, I did abuse it to some extent, but I only did it for a minute to screen shot them and take it off so it didn't become a problem.
Yes, it was abuse. I understand that how we deal with this exploit hasn't been clear at all; I wish I had a better answer for what we do and do not allow, but as far as I can gather so far, we've allowed certain custom banners that aren't obnoxious, don't take up a large amount of screen space, and don't mimic actual forum ranks that we officially have. This is especially true for the latter - when Kitsu recieved his infraction for first using this exploit, it's my understanding that it was because, among other things, that he was replicating banners that we use as actual ranks on this site. I have two reasons for giving this infraction to you, with one of them being exactly that - it was an obnoxiously large amount, and used actual ranks. I'll get to the second reason later, but how long you had it is somewhat irrelevant. If I'm going to penalize another user for doing this, I have to be fair in what I do and not give any exceptions.
PancakeSamurai said:What I did didn't seem serious enough for an infraction. Yes, I mimicked banners used on the site, and used an excessive amount of them, but I just did it for fun. I wasn't promoting the abuse of the exploit, and it was a mistake on my part. A warning could have done the same. Why did you immediately need to jump to infraction?
I do think it's funny how today's events, and use of this exploit, reek of a baiting attempt by certain users to see whether or not forum staff will actually act on profile offenses, and then the moment there actually is a response to the rule-breaking, it's time to head right towards the contestment thread. I had to infract another user in order to make it clear that we don't allow this type of abuse of the exploit, and in order to attempt to remain "fair", I did the same for you. I'm not open towards reversing or downgrading that certain other user's infraction, although I certainly am open to lowering yours to a warning. Please understand this, however - your receiving an infraction off the bat was an attempt on my part to not give you special treatment when compared to this other user, as I've admittedly talked and interacted with you a great deal more thanks to our Pokemon section. I just didn't want to seem biased with you by letting you off with a warning while someone else received an infraction.
PancakeSamurai said:C) The only proof was the screen shots. I could have easily photoshopped it, or messed with the HTML and gotten the same results. The fact that I didn't was because using the exploit for a second just seemed easier.
I suppose my answer to this is in the above two points. What I really want to get across from this, however, is that this exploit, even if it's allowed for now, shouldn't be abused in this manner, especially with official ranks, as that's been something we're strongly against from the start.