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:
- to prohibit especially by legal means
- bar entry
- to debar temporarily especially from a privilege, office, or function
- a: to cause to stop temporarily
b: to set aside or make temporarily inoperative - to defer to a later time on specified conditions
- 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?
Almost like you could use two different ways to describe the same situation. Ultimately it doesn’t matter that something is “more precise” - people will use what a lot of people use. Language is a tool for communication. Ban makes it immediately known what you are talking about - because it is widely used. Suspension - people need to have a short “think”. It also uses more syllables. As long as both people immediately know what you mean, you can use any word you want. That’s why pedants / language purists are entirely pointless. Language is fluid and it changes. A lot of people using something suddenly means a word gets new meanings. That’s why when you say “disinterested” meaning “impartial”, someone will tell you off for being “uninterested” or bored. Because dis- has been used to have the same meaning as a more popular word, un-.
I’m claiming the reverse. In fact I specifically said so in my original post.
A Suspension immediately means temporary. A Ban may or may not. You need to look further to find out.
You can claim / believe whatever you want. The reality is “suspension” is a longer word which isn’t immediately obvious and “ban” is short, simple, popular. As I said - language is fluid and isn’t perfectly crafted to share info with 100% of it contained in as little words as possible. Suspension also means a bunch of other stuff - car suspension, a mixture, something can be suspended in the air. A ban is a ban, short, one syllable, everyone knows you aren’t talking about something else.