I'm probably one of the only people against the whole idea of allowing players with past bans to apply, regardless of what the offence was or how severe said offence was.
Let's understand what is being proposed. A strong majority of the 'pro' side is agreeing upon the fact that a 'process' similar to the age exception process would be a good idea (or at least, loosely based off it.) They feel that if the ban is a certain amount of time old and has collected some dust, then this 'process' would become available to them. This is what I interpreted after reading the comments, so this is the basis I will go off of.
Now, what's good about this system? For one, I can certainly admit that there are many fantastic moderator candidates out there who have previous bans and are not allowed to apply at this time. I can also agree to the fact that people do change, and perhaps they now regret what they did.
But does that actually justify whatever it was they did x number of months or x number of years ago? Maybe some of you folks, of whom who have previous bans and wish to apply, are applying for staff because you want to demonstrate and show us all that you have matured from that point in time. Who knows - that was merely a speculation.
Let's make a slight analogical connection to the real world here. You go out bowling with some friends. You make the decision of driving yourself home,and in an attempt to impress your friends, go and do some very reckless driving. You go hit a car and injure the lone passenger. You would be charged, obviously, and perhaps booked into jail for a while.
But how does that relate to our predicament?
You get out of jail after serving a bit of time there. Do you think people would trust you driving them anywhere?
The same applies to this scenario.
Someone was breaking the rules in the past. It's not necessarily a trust thing. but you bear a scar from when you broke the rules. You can't just simply remove a scar - it's there forever.
What I am getting at is simple. Think of it like jailtime. You broke the rules, and as a result, disrespected the server, the rules, and anyone who might of been offended by what you did. You are now 'jailed', or a better word might be 'exiled' from applying for Moderator. Why is it like this?
New players join the network every day. They want Moderators who are capable of enforcing the rules and who know what they are doing. Perhaps those 'scarred' folks I was mentioning would be good at both of the above, but does a previous swearing offence look good on their resume? Does a previous sprint hack ban look good?
This isn't to say that people with previous bans would make terrible Moderators, and I hope I stressed that enough. I know of many candidates for the job that would be great, but simply can't apply. While I want them to be Mod, I don't think they should be Mod.
Those are two very different words.
