[Disclaimer: The following are my personal views, and should not be taken to be the official view of the mod team. I've not discussed any of the below comments with the wider mod team]
The way I see it, the main benefit of allowing public discussions on specific cases is increased transparency - it'd help dispel the myths that are perpetuated about reasons for bans being given, and allow mods to defend themselves when someone who is banned decides to publicly present a completely distorted scenario that supposedly got them banned to try and whip up an angry mob demanding the ban gets revoked (and in turn incite a mob when they are told to not discuss bans in public or are timed out for doing so).
The downsides are that it'd soak up loads of mod time, demotivate the team (likely causing a bunch to leave), and risk a bad impression for any new community members who visit the forums/wherever the discussion takes place (which is usually somewhere as public as possible given the motivation of the person wanting to discuss the ban is usually to get the ban revoked and/or whip up anti-mod sentiment). It'd also lead to discussion of specific ban durations and whataboutery ('this person didn't get banned for x, I got a 1 month ban for x, how is that fair'). Older members of the mod team have also noted that public discussion was tried a number of years ago, and it didn't work.
Currently the report system doesn't really have a backlog (i.e. reports are typically processed within days of being made) - in contrast to historically when the backlog could approach a year. Now to the people being banned that may be seen as a good thing, but the downsides of that are the risk of someone being banned for something they've done so long ago they can't even remember it; people who repeatedly have a really negative impact on games (e.g. deliberately griefing other players and generally doing their best to ruin the game) escape punishment for longer; players who report people who breach rules get frustrated because nothing seems to happen; and there's a general increase in toxicity (which from the forum discussion a few years ago was a frequently cited reason for why people were inclined to leave FAF). Fewer people staying with FAF means fewer people playing at all levels long term and is unhealthy for the long term viability of the community. The reason why I'm highlighting this? Because something that significantly increases mod workload and demotivates mods has a significant risk of causing a large backlog.
As for the semantic arguments above about how the rules permit discussion of specific actions, the two main current rules relating to this are:
"Discussing moderation decisions in public is discouraged. Channels exist for appealing processes and raising concerns about moderation."
"The moderation team has the final say over what constitutes a violation of these Community Rules"
As the mod team has said elsewhere we're rewriting the rules to be clearer (some people could look at discouraged and see it as meaning you can't, others can look at it and see it as meaning you can discuss freely; per index's post the mod team generally applies the rule on the basis discussing specific bans/reports is against the rules but general discussions around principles and whether x is a breach of the rules or should be a breach of the rule is permitted).
Thinking about a possible solution to the above, the best I could think of (although I emphasise I've not discussed this with the mod team) is something along the following lines:
- Once per month, the community can agree on a specific report/ban that can be discussed, and a member of the mod team will explain the rationale behind the action taken
- This could be done via a separate discord channel in the FAF discord (that's open to anyone), with a thread created for the case to be discussed
- Potential requirements for this could be that the person who suffered the ban consents to discussion of the case, that at least (3? 5?) people agree it warrants discussion, that it took place in the last 3 months, and that the action has been appealed with the appeal rejected by the mod team.
- Only the particular ban/mod action (and any ban history of the banned user that impacted on the length of ban provided) could be discussed. Details of whoever made the report would remain anonymous.
I.e. this gives an opportunity for a public discussion of mod actions; helps ward off the theoretical possibility you have rogue mod(s) (albeit this is something that I think the current process we have already guards against); allows the mods to defend their actions; gives increased transparency; and it hopefully would be sufficient to satisfy people who don't want to rely on a 'trust me bro' type response from mods. It should also help mitigate some of the downsides I've highlighted above. I.e. it wouldn't require a large time sink for the mods to handle 1 discussion a month; it'd be taking place somewhere not as visible as say in general chat (so the risk of new players getting a really bad impression of the community is largely mitigated); and by only happening once a month would hopefully limit the extent to which people could engage in 'lets bash a mod' behaviour. Over time it'd also potentially help highlight if there are particular rules the mods are enforcing that the community doesn't think should exist, which could prompt a wider consultation (similarly to the exercise currently underway with deciding what rules to have regarding leaving games).
