It's there because it tries to bridge the gap between both sides. It shows a current ban out of transparency so the community can see why a ban has taken place and knows it wasn't because a moderator decided to just go HAM and abuse their power. It disappears and becomes hidden afterwards because someone's mistake shouldn't be a public tool for others to use against that user for the rest of their time on VGC, long after the infraction takes place. I would say it's entirely practical.

It's there because it tries to bridge the gap between both sides. It shows a current ban out of transparency so the community can see why a ban has taken place and knows it wasn't because a moderator decided to just go HAM and abuse their power. It disappears and becomes hidden afterwards because someone's mistake shouldn't be a public tool for others to use against that user for the rest of their time on VGC, long after the infraction takes place. I would say it's entirely practical.

But the mods use prior ban history in deciding their next ban, so it helps provide better understanding for the users of why a ban was so harsh, for example. If bans were only determined in isolation that'd make sense, but since they're viewed as a group in consideration it makes less sense.

Of course moderators would see the entire history for context, that's their purpose for existing. Users don't ban other users so there should be no reason for them to be able to weaponize a moderation history against people they disagree with or are unfriendly with.

I wondered that for some time. How would one use another person's mod history against them?

It could be used to try to undermine the person because any time they try to give an opinion, someone brings up a ban from months, years ago that may no longer be relevant to that person's opinions/feelings and says they shouldn't be listened to. Cliques and group-think would only make the issue worse.

That sounds to me like a regular bait/troll/backseat moderating that's already forbidden under current rules.

How many people do you actually think would shift through hundreds, if not thousands of posts? I'd guess very few.

Your suggestion makes it so much easier to do exactly that AND use it against users, right now it's incredibly tedious and I'm guessing that's why it doesn't happen.

Thanks for the suggestion @VGPolyglot. We've actually considered this a few times in the past and we've always come to the conclusion that it's best to keep that information private. And the clear reasoning behind it is that we want users to be represented by what they are contributing to a discussion vs having their history muddy their contribution.

People can and do change their posting behaviors (some for the better and some for the worse), but giving everyone a tool allowing them to parade a user's history in the forums to dismiss their contribution instead of directly acknowledging points made does 3 things.

1) It ruins discussion for everyone
2) It will create more pointless fighting based on this history - some users already behave in such a manner and that number would only increase if everyone were equipped to easily do so. It is currently against the rules so it does get moderated but if everyone is equipped with the capability to easily sift through poor posting histories then...
3) It makes more work for the mods who already have a lot to deal with and takes focus away from other initiatives we like to work on to continue to improve the site's community