July 16, 2008 at 6:47 am
As part of our effort to clean things up in a more consistent manner, we’ve instituted an infraction system in all forums.
Here’s how it works.
You can pick up an infraction for one of the following things:
Inappropriate Language
Disruptive Behaviour
Insulted Other Member(s)
Signature Rule Violation (see item 8 in Code of Conduct)
Spam and other unauthorised advertisements
The first four give you one point, the last one four. If you get two points, the system automatically bans you for a month. Get four, and you get banned permanently (which is why spammers get 4).
Points expire after a period of 12 months.
This is not an all-encompassing system. Blatant offenders who go off on massive ethnic or other stereotype-based rants or those who resort to threats of physical violence may still be banned outright if their conduct warrants it.
For example, if you type in a post of three or four paragraphs detailing how Nation A is genetically and ethnically superior to Nation B, you will probably get banned rather than get an infraction.
We define ‘disruptive behavior’ as repeated trolling, flaming (or being deliberately annoying) that doesn’t fall into one of the other categories.
This category has been introduced specifically to enable us to target new users who join the forum with an agenda and to allow us to begin a co-ordinated cull of those users who are causing constant problems to the detriment of other forum users.
All of this depends on someone being aware that questionable conduct has taken place, so I’ll again remind people that the best way to get things dealt with is to PM a moderator or use the “Report Post” button.
Any issues dealing with moderation decisions should be dealt with privately and any postings of this type will be deleted.