As many of you know, Ruby members have the ability to insta-ban any non-starred members. We originally added this feature as an immediate measure that could be used to protect against spammers or other malicious users who are in gross violation of Sift guidelines.

This power absolutely may not be used against members for posting a single comment that is clearly not over the line. Case in point, @rottenseed decided to instaban @CelebrateApathy apparently for saying something off-the-cuff, which may have been mildly fiery but not at all overboard.

This individual comment cannot validly be considered a gross violation of Sift guidelines. The only time instaban should even be considered in direct response to commenting is if someone is overtly, repeatedly going well over the line attacking other members. Even then, a Sift Talk discussion should be enough to sort it out, or if you don't want that publicity, just message @dag or myself and we'll investigate.

Instabanning for no good reason may be considered an abuse itself, earning the instabanner a temporary (or permanent) ban of their own, so please use it sparingly and only when the alleged offense is truly and obviously in absolute violation of the Sift guidelines.

Thank you for not smoking.