So as the resident Queen of the Snowflakes and PC Police, I’ll speak on the one that I’ve seen: formy.

Formy’s kind of a piece of shit and we all know it. If you were to guess what Formy is saying as he’s typing it’s most likely obscene or some sort of non-sequiter. We know this and we know that he doesn’t do this to be hurtful, he does it to be disruptive because that’s his personal brand of humor. If we know that he’s talking out of his ass, I wouldn’t see what his statement has anything to do with harrasment because it follows this “playful” behavior pattern.

There is, of course, the argument that there may be people who don’t know formy that well; not knowing his sincerity based on having no prior conversations with him. That argument is valid, but considering the culture of the internet his conduct is fairly common (not that it’s in any way right). If someone was genuinely hurt by what he said and reached out to an HO member about it, there should’ve been due process and a chance for formy to apologize and explain himself (in a better and more sincere way than saying “it’s a social experiment”).

But then there’s the topic of repeat offense and I can see where you’re coming from to be giving out a harsher and quicker punishment. Formy definitely has a lot of work to do in terms of being less “disruptive”, as I described his personality. He’s an asshole, but that doesn’t mean he’s irredeemable. He isn’t setting out personal attacks at people in a way that truly qualifies harassment, he’s tossing around insults at everyone and a lot of time he only involves people he knows are okay with it. I think there’s a discussion that HO can have in back-channels with formy about his behavior and how to best suit it so that he’s less of an asshole to other users but is still allowed to have his fun. There is a middle ground and you should take it ip with him. I don’t know if he’d be willing to listen, but he should be given that courtesy.

Basically, I disagree with the suspension in this case, but there are steps we can take to prevent problems like this in the future that may be worse.