If we are going to have self-requested indefinite bans (which I have no problem with), I think that there should be a clear policy about how these are issued. At the moment, I can't find any policy that backs them (in fact, I can only see a policy that implicitly forbids them in "Players can only be indefinitely banned for committing one or more offenses from category 1 of the conduct policy" on the indefinite ban template).
I propose the following things:
(1) Making it explicit in the Indefinite ban request template policy details of the following:
- How an individual may go about making a self-request e.g. "make a thread" or "ask an admin"
- Conditions on being unbanned from a self-request e.g. "A person banned under a self-request must fill in an indefinite ban release form to be unbanned, and will not be unbanned for the requested length of the ban, which must be at least X days."
Also perhaps note that self-requests are granted at the Indefinite Ban Manager's discretion (to deal with people who are abusing the system e.g. attention-seekers). I envisage this being used after people object on a request.
(2) Indefinite ban requests on the user may still be made based on the conduct of the user, irrespective of whether they have self-requested a ban. This stops the possibility (which so far, I have not seen) of people self-requesting a ban to avoid a punishment.
To make it clear, I am only suggesting this because I have seen a slight increase in these types of requests - I am certainly not suggesting that there is attention-seeking or attempts to avoid punishment in these recent requests.