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I am aware that moderators (and CMs) will not discuss why a user was suspended and I am totally not complaining about that right now, nor am I asking for details about what happened, but the user that was suspended for "plagiarism" is a total novice on SE, having only joined SE 3 months ago at around the time when the Cardano site was first proposed on Area51.

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But you can see based on their Meta questions and Area51 activity that they are a total novice.

I once reached out to staff about a similar situation, and the CMs said in that support ticket that Meta would be the place to ask about this type of question, and the support tickets should only be used as a last resort, so that's why I'm asking here.

Considering that:

  • The user is brand new to the SE ecosystem and is still learning how to use the platform,
  • A 7-day suspension during Private Beta can be extremely impactful compared to, for example, a 1-year suspension on StackOverflow,

I wonder if some leniency could be offered to the user, such as giving them a warning, or a 24-hour suspension?

If the user was a repeated offender, then please forgive me for this request, but otherwise I think the suspension is too harsh.

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    Yes, a 7-day suspension can effectively end a user's participation in a private beta. But at the same time, a user continually posting copy-pasted content can be just as detrimental to the private beta as a whole. You have to consider the downside of removing one user versus the downside of an entire beta failing because the site is littered with copied content. The issue was already pointed out to them in a since-deleted question (because plagiarism) and they continued doing it. So there's not really a lot else to say here.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Commented Apr 27, 2021 at 22:39
  • Thanks so much for the explanation @animuson. The background about them having been given a warning and still continuing to do it, is extremely helpful. We do not want this site to be littered with copy-and-pasted content, especially in Private Beta, though I'd be surprised if this isn't something the user can early-on learn to stop doing. Have you been able to look at support ticket SUPPORT-4629 Extreme plagiarism from a moderator which was handled by JNat? In that case the mod (I won't say who it is for their privacy) answer was just edited to put the source and the rest of the plagiarized
    – Nike Dattani
    Commented Apr 27, 2021 at 22:43
  • content was kept on the site (and is still there right now). There was another question where that same mod had plagiarized, which was also mentioned in that same support ticket, but I got that mod to delete their answer by asking them to do so privately.
    – Nike Dattani
    Commented Apr 27, 2021 at 22:44
  • I've edited your question to remove the content extraneous to the matter at hand, @NikeDattani — what was done in some other site on some other occasion hardly has anything to do with this case you're bringing to Meta, and only serves to muddy the waters. If you want to reopen the ticket in question, I'd be happy to respond to you there.
    – JNat StaffMod
    Commented Apr 28, 2021 at 8:56

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As you note in the question, it's not common for suspensions to be debated in Meta. And as animuson noted, warning was given before the suspension.

As harsh as a suspension during private beta may come across, this phase is instrumental in the site's lifecycle — and using it to fill the site with plagiarized content is more detrimental in the long run than a 7-day suspension (which, incidentally, can be used to passively learn what makes a good question by observing other on the site, even if one can't directly participate).

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