To my mind, Ban has always meant permanent.
“You’re banned from this place! You’ll never be allowed in again!”

While I’ve always thought of Suspend as being temporary.
“You’re being suspended from school for 1 week, over fighting.”

Ban:

  1. to prohibit especially by legal means
  2. bar entry

Suspend:

  1. to debar temporarily especially from a privilege, office, or function
  2. a: to cause to stop temporarily
    b: to set aside or make temporarily inoperative
  3. to defer to a later time on specified conditions
  4. to hold in an undetermined or undecided state awaiting further information

When I hear someone mention they were banned my reaction is: “Holy shit! WTF did you do to earn that!” Then I find out it was only for a day or three: “Oh… That’s not a Ban! That’s minor. Go touch grass. You’ll be fine.”

I’ve been banned from subreddits and communities a few times. At least once I never even noticed because it was so short.

How is it a Ban if I didn’t even notice?

Why did Ban in online forums and games, come to mean temporary?

Is it simply an example of the intensification of language? To make something mundane, seem more severe than it is?

Does it bother anyone else? Or am I alone here?

  • Steve@communick.newsOPEnglish
    926·
    28 days ago

    But the word for a Temporary Ban, is Suspend, not Ban.

    Every time I hear about a ban, I have to take a moment to remind myself and ask: “Do they mean ban or suspend?”
    It’s annoying. I’m hoping there’s a good reason for it.

    • conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works
      21·
      28 days ago

      They’re not synonymous.

      You don’t suspend a customer from a bar, temporarily or permanently. Suspension implies membership, or access being limited. Your membership to a club can be suspended. Your access to Walmart can’t be. You’re banned from the store, whether for a year or a lifetime. As there’s no barrier to entry, it doesn’t make sense to suspend the privilege of access.

      This is all ignoring that banning a person from a limited access club is also perfectly fine, because the definition of ban is applicable either way. There aren’t really many situations where suspension would be valid but ban wouldn’t. Maybe some small subset of privileges could be suspended where “ban” is a little weird, because general access is still permitted.

      But temporary ban makes perfect sense. (Ignoring that it’s been standard terminology for 30 years.)

      • Steve@communick.newsOPEnglish
        16·
        28 days ago

        They’re not synonymous.

        That’s what I explained. “a Temporary Ban, is Suspend, not Ban.”

        it doesn’t make sense to suspend the privilege of access.

        That’s the only thing it makes sense to suspend. What else would you suspend? (excluding the meaning of hanging something up)

        • conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works
          8·
          28 days ago

          A temporary ban is a ban. Nowhere in your definition is length of time, because a ban can be for any length of time.

          You could suspend specific privileges within a club, without suspending all access. That’s the only case where suspension would make sense where ban would be odd.

          You can’t “suspend” access when access is available to the general public. You suspend a privilege that’s not the default. It doesn’t make sense to suspend something that is the default. Taking away access requires proactively preventing it, not removing a membership.

          • Steve@communick.newsOPEnglish
            13·
            28 days ago

            You could suspend specific privileges within a club, without suspending all access.

            That’s what a “Ban” here and at reddit means. You can still access and see the sub or community, it’s only your post and comment privileges that get Suspended.

            In Games a “Ban” means your access to play online with others is Suspended, not your access to use any single player modes or features.

            • conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works
              6·
              28 days ago

              You’re missing the point. I’m saying that there are contrived situations where there are privileges that are not access that you could suspend without the word “ban” making sense.

              Any case where you block access to anything for any length of time can correctly be defined as a ban.

              • Steve@communick.newsOPEnglish
                16·
                28 days ago

                But would more correctly (specifically) be defined as Suspend.

                Like on a multiple choice test question with two answers that are “correct”, one is more specific, and thus the “right” answer.

                • conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works
                  7·
                  28 days ago

                  No it wouldn’t. Ban is exactly, perfectly, correct.

                  If you considered taking points off for ban on a multiple choice test you’re a bad teacher with a flawed understanding of the language.

    • scarabic@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      26 days ago

      A lot of bans are permanent. The word is used inclusively. At the moment you are banning someone, you may not especially care to reassure them it will only be temporary. You may not even have decided if it’s temporary or not. And anyway bans can be lifted. There is no hard requirement of permanence in that word. So no, it doesn’t bother me as it seems to bother you.

    • can@sh.itjust.works
      4·
      28 days ago

      I’ve been temporarily banned in real life before. I had a sip of a friend’s drink at the campus bar while I was underage and they banned me for a year.