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During the period of suspension, on a suspended user's profile, we find a message which is typically like:

This account is temporarily suspended. The suspension period ends in X days.

From the words "temporarily suspended" I get the impression that there can be permanent bans as well. And, to differentiate between the two types of bans, those words are required to be added in such messages (whenever apt).

This led me to ask this question on Hinduism meta.

The answer provided there says that there is no such thing as a permanent ban and that all bans are temporary only.

Given that, my question here is:

Why is it specially required to mention "temporarily suspended" in ban messages when all suspensions are temporary only?

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  • Just to remind, you got an answer in the comment there too. – Nog Shine Jan 17 '18 at 8:54
  • @NogShine The user there agreed with me that that comment is not making much sense because the message also clearly gives the ban duration along with. And he only suggested that this would make a "good" question here. – Rickross Jan 17 '18 at 9:13
  • Especially in Hinduism, all things are impermanent. – C8H10N4O2 Jan 21 '18 at 13:42
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The intent there is to make it more explicit that the suspension is temporary, that we don't hold grudges, and that the user is welcome to participate constructively after the suspension expires. The linked blog post there does a good job of explaining that.

In my opinion, if the word "temporarily" wasn't there, people might just read the first sentence without bothering to read further, and think that the account is suspended for a long time, or permanently (which doesn't exist).

By the way, if the user resumes unconstructive contributions shortly after the suspension expires, it's likely that their account will be deleted. That's what happens in place of permanent bans.

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  • I don't understand why user will think that the ban is not temporary when the same message also quite clearly states the duration of the ban.Anyways, i am accepting this. – Rickross Jan 17 '18 at 15:08
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    "This account is suspended." Many users will just stop right there and focus on the word "suspended", @Rickross. I can't explain why, but it's human nature for many users. – Sonic the Masked Werehog Jan 17 '18 at 15:26
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As a moderator I see replies to the mod messages that accompany suspensions. Those messages also specify the duration of the suspension, and yet I've seen responses from users who thought they were being permanently banned. In at least some of those cases, English wasn't their primary language.

Similarly, when I put fixable questions from new users on hold, I leave a comment that includes the phrase "on hold temporarily" (or similar) to convey that the question hasn't been shut down -- we just need you to fix it. I started doing that after seeing too many people walk away or complain that we blocked questions.

Spending one extra word to increase clarity in the cases where understanding is borderline seems like a good idea to me. I've seen it help when putting questions on hold, so it seems reasonable to me that it helps with suspensions too.

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  • Hmm, it's interesting for users to still think that being "put on hold" is permanent. The "on hold" period was added specifically to address that. – Sonic the Masked Werehog Jan 17 '18 at 18:23
  • @SonictheAnonymousHedgehog yeah, I know -- the "on hold" language was specifically designed to convey "temporary", and yet some people still don't understand it. – Monica Cellio Jan 17 '18 at 20:06
  • Ok i am getting ur point. – Rickross Jan 18 '18 at 5:43

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