Like everyone who's been a Sifter for a while (or even 11 years, like some of us!), one of the things we appreciate most is that the community takes care of the community, including welcoming new members and more often telling likely spammers and abusers to take a hike.

The two most frequent practices used in dealing with potential baddies is the *ban invocation and the *spammer invocation. These are very powerful invocations and must be used with great responsibility. Until now, their use has gone mostly unchecked, taking every invocation in good faith.

The problem is this can leave open too many questions about why someone has been *banned or *spammered without any kind of explanation. There's never been any kind of checks and balances when it comes to these invocations... but there are now.

We've updated the FAQ with a new section titled Dealing with Potential Abusers. Read it for the current state of these guidelines, but the most important point is: you MUST explain why you've decided to hammer someone down.

I love you.