The broadway comm on LJ is a well-modereated community, possibly TOO well moderated (by auryanne, Mod the Greater, and shibaiko, Mod the Lesser, who isn't involved in this wank) at times - in many cases the occassional splooge is usually mopped up (read: bahleeted) before anything really gets stirred up. As a result, some of the wank I found right before I left for work this morning isn't there anymore, and I didn't think to save it before I left the house. But click the cut for mod gone wild and bannings galore.



Today, someone posted a review of the POTO movie, and asked towards the end, "And hey, what's with all the bannings lately?" Various community members: "Wait, bannings? What? Why?"

It's possible that the bannings were triggered by this post, asking about a Big River Revival recording. Any wankiness has been removed, however. I think some of it was removed before I even got to it (which is why I can only make a guess that it was the trigger), but this morning, there was a (now gone) rude comment about how it's not a "soundtrack" but a cast recording (this type of wank is infrequent these days, but for kicks, here's Cast Recoding wank from August), and someone remarking, "Hmm, you might be looking for a banning too," followed by a brief summary of the situation (the link posted here is that conversation, but since it was bahleeted, it's useless, so if you click it and wonder why there's nothing wanky there, that's why).

Yesterday, at least five people were banned by auryanne from broadway: alligatorandme, gruyere, the_loebster, sprnplr, borscht_rider, and charlieguiteau (the last two weren't part of the original list, but more bannees have started coming out of the woodwork). At the time, no one knew why. Not even the bannees were given a reason. They're opinionated (as are many of the people in the comm), but for quite a while now, they really haven't said anything objectionable, excessively rude, or offensive. For the most part, though, they add entertaining conversation and information for posters. But, it came as a surprise to everyone, since they hadn't done anything in the past few days (perhaps even weeks?) to get themselves banned. alligatorandme posted about the banning in her journal, where some of the other bannees have commented similarly (one has been online sparsely as of late) - the last link has ban-themed icons.

Back to the POTO post, where most of the wank occurs. Up until this afternoon, talissarocsham entertained the masses by singing amusing ban-themed Christmas carols.

ladyshrew informs the curious that people were randomly banned, at which point Mod the Greater, auryanne, enters the picture, objecting to the some of the word choice: "Randomly? Read the community rules. They broke them, several times."

Questioned further by ladyshrew, auryanne doesn't address a specific offense that brought about the banning, only that "they'd been skating on thin ice for a long time", yet she hadn't warned them lately (individually or as a group), and she hasn't told the bannees why they were banned because "none had asked" and "that they know they were acting like jerks" (her presumption) and if they really wanted to know, they should have asked her, since contact info is in the comm's userinfo as well as her personal journal's (refer a few paragraphs up for the answer to: "THEY KNOW WHY THEY WERE BANNED").

ladyshrew accuses her of stifling opinions and, a few more posts down, asks for a reason why the list of the banned (from the Big River post above) was deleted and why exactly the members were banned. auryanne doesn't answer and is accused to censorship (which she hasn't answered yet).

Choice quote, from here: "This isn't a democracy (sorry :) and I don't like having to babysit." Uh...auryanne, are you admitting dictatorship, then, or trying to play mother hen when the kids are capable of playing in the sandbox by themselves?

auryanne has since unbanned them (or at least some of them - only a few of the bannees have commented in the community today, so I can't say for sure if all are back, or even if they know they've been unbanned), but the wankiness continues, specifically about why exactly they were banned in the first place and what happened to the deleted comments, neither of which has been addressed by auryanne.

alligatorandme has also created bannedfrombway, a community for the banned, but it's not very active as of yet.