(I'm sorry if this has been mentioned before!)

Last night I came on and the SB was closed, this morning I come on and the SB is closed.

I don't know the specifics, whether there was an argument or it's for maintenance, that doesn't concern me.

What I think would be a better alternative to closing the SB when there is fire in it's belly, is temp. banning the perpetrators.

I understand this may be difficult to implement when there are no Mods/Admins monitoring at the moment, but when there is, I think that'd be a better option than spoiling it for everyone else.

I'll probably get chewed out for this, but it's only a suggestion, and again, I apologise if this has been discussed before.

1. When there is drama, people do get banned unless there are too many rulebreakers (pretty sure it was closed for plot spoilers during the last plot because no one listened to mods asking them to stop)
2. It's closed for maintenance: [x]

Temporary banning will most likely never affect them at all. It's like XBOX and their policy (no one actually give a damn about temp ban). I'm not spitting on SB, but this is not the solution.

Yeah, last time it was closed because a few just would not shut up about the plot!! Thanks for the link!

I just think it's unfair to rule-abiding users, when someone starts shit, they don't get banned, the whole SB gets shut down.

That is not why it closed. It was closed because it wasn't working and hasn't been for days. It only recently came back up. I have only ever seen it closed when multiple people are ignoring mods or staff posts about rules, or it is closed because there is no one who can watch it. In both cases I am in support of it being closed.

The shoutbox is closed when it's out of control, and a good part of the userbase is being troublesome, it doesn't get close because two people have an argument.

It's not a matter of just 2 people having an argument though, it's multiple rule breaking offenses that just don't stop and a staff member has to step in and close it.

The shout box being closed isn't a common occurrence that happens all the time, it's when people in the shout box just won't stop rule breaking that it gets closed.

Honestly, the issue with the shoutbox causing it to be closed down (from my observations) is less about the person who broke a rule, but all the (for lack of a better term) curious sheep.

The conversations seem to go like this..

PersonA: posts a link to a forum post PersonB: PersonA, you can't link to the forums! PersonC: Don't link to the forums! PersonD: PersonA, you'll get in trouble for posting links to the forums! PersonA: Oh, I didn't know that, sorry. PersonE: Yeah, you can't do that, it's against the rules. PersonF: You'll get banned if you break the rules. PersonG: Someone broke the rules? PersonH: What did they do?! PersonD: He posted a forum link in the shoutbox! PersonF: Oh, you can't post a link to the forums in the shoutbox! PersonI: Someone posted a link to the forums in the shoutbox? PersonB: OMG guys, lets stop talking about rule breaking! PersonH: Yeah, just drop it guys. He broke it rules, but it's okay now! PersonJ: Someone broke the rules?

etc, etc.

Sometimes it really is as harmless as this, and the loop just doesn't end. Banning people won't help, especially since no one is technically doing anything ban worthy.

Usually closing down the shoutbox for a bit to end the cycle works.

Yes that cycle is annoying. All in all it is more beneficial to see the shoutbox closed for a bit than leave it open.

I think it would just be nice to let people know why/for how long the shoutbox is closed in the message. Examples: Shoutbox is down for maintenance! Should be up by 3pm EST. Shoutbox is in time out. [maybe a reminder about a rule that was broken] I accidentally broke something while trying to make the shoutbox better. Fixing it now! -Staff Username

The temp banning thing already happens, but doesn't do much in the heat of the moment because other typically innocent bystanders also get themselves into trouble talking about what the original troublemaker said.