It looked official in the channel, since ops are the only ones who can make boldtext.
This… this isn't correct. Anyone can make bold text… Unless some setting has changed that I don't know about.
I agree that the stop order was ambiguous (I missed it on first read of the logs, when I was reading quickly), and ops do occasionally "suggest" that conversation move on without giving a stop order (recently-ish, I can think of Xiao doing this, and myself, and I think others).
However, I also agree that most of the ops would have banned anyone else for this, which is why I did not contest this decision. People have been 24-hour banned for far less, as a cursory read of this forum will demonstrate.
I will also note that it's kind of difficult to have a discussion about Aelanna because:
A) Many of staff members (+ users in staff chat) are absolutely raring to punish her because she consistently acts really abrasively and has semi-regular freakouts that put everyone on edge.
B) Aelanna, you act dickish and then lash out and take everything personally and get really personally upset when things doesn't go your way. Abrasive + paper-thin skin would be easier to deal with if you only did one of those things.
C) Everything else covered to death in older threads.
There's also the issue that we've become fairly harsh in our dealings with newer people, and fairly harsh in dealing with people in general. Aelanna is part of this brigade — in fact, she often seems to be at the very tip of the spear. A number of people want to treat her (and other older members) exactly the same way we all treat newbies.
Others see a difference — to them, the behavior of Aelanna and others is okay because it's less stupid, not stupid at all, and/or they don't find it annoying. Others would counter-argue that behavior like this is just as stupid or annoying in a different way. And then we have a giant argument about whose standards we should take seriously.
I'd really like us to iron these things out, because on a personal level, I'm so so tired of dealing with FIRST, staff freaking out at me & others at the very idea that we might be favoring Aelanna and why can't we just discipline her like everyone else??????? in fact, why can't we come down on her hard because she's upset people before?????? and SECOND, Aelanna freaking out at me & others even if the only outcome involves zero disciplinary action because you apparently are siding against her by even attempting to see the other party's point of view.
This is like a one-two punch in the face and I'm tired of dealing with it. Guys, can we goddamn work out these neuroticisms already? Yes, that includes you, Aelanna, and yes, it also includes the staff who regularly hand-wring about you (I'm predicting both parties will feel that being called out is ~super unfair~). I get that you all give a shit and that's why you freak out and that your hearts are all in the right place (yes they are, let's not even start an argument about this, I'm not referring to the people who've actually harassed Aelanna) but that doesn't make it okay.
Side note: Roget, Aelanna, there's a certain level of irony to the two of you arguing about the unambiguity of a stop order, because Aelanna, the reason you freaked out on Roget before is that he ignored your request to stop talking to him which you apparently believe, and believed, was unambiguous, and Roget, the reason so many of us felt it was unfair that Aelanna freaked out on you was because we thought it was ambiguous and that you could have misunderstood it in the moment, including me, even though it was clear to me personally. It would also be nice if we could all make some effort to see each others' point of view.
Circling back again, finally, while Aelanna isn't being unfairly singled out here as others have been 24-hour banned for violating ambiguous stop orders (not just her), I thoroughly agree that we should make sure that future stop orders are clear and unambiguous, because if it was just me thinking it was ambiguous, then it's not even worth mentioning, but if Aelanna plus me plus a couple administrators think the stop order was ambiguous, then we have a problem. And an easily fixed one, too. Isn't that nice?
EDIT: Another side note — a week or two ago, I scolded Slate & Scantron & numerous others for backseat modding for suggesting a topic change. Other ops argued me down, saying that that wasn't backseat modding because anyone can suggest a topic change for any reason. This adds rather seriously to the ambiguity issue, I feel. Kind of easy to mistake a stop order for a stop suggestion if literally anyone can say the same thing as a suggestion that might be an order 30 minutes later.