The New Warning System: A Guide for Members

Overview

Our new warning system is a lot more flexible than warning systems we had in the past and should actually work so you can see your warnings and infractions. It sounds a little complicated at first but, hopefully after you’ve read through this you’ll understand how it works a bit better (and hopefully you’ll never be in a position to really care )

To start off, we should define a few terms. A warning is equivalent to the kind reminders we give to members who break a rule but, don’t give an actual warning that counts toward the points which lead to a suspension. An infraction is equivalent to the official warnings we give out which do count toward points which lead to a suspension/banning.

So to summarize: warnings don’t count for points toward suspension but, infractions do. However, warnings do show up on a person’s profile so know whether or not someone has been ‘verbally warned’ by another mod and if you ignore the warning, the next time you commit that same offence, you will get an infraction. Whether or not you receive a warning or an infraction is left up to the discretion of the mods, staff, and admins.

Just like with our old warning system, each infraction is associated with a certain number of points according to the severity of the infraction. Once a member reaches 10 points, they will be suspended until their infraction level drops back below 10 points. And just how does that happen? Each infraction, in addition to having a certain number of points associated with it, has an expiration date according to the severity of the infraction. When these points expire and a person drops back below the 10 point mark, they will be placed back in their original usergroup. (A person will be banned when their infraction points reach 50 and once a gain, if they go back below this point, they will be placed back in their original usergroup). However, if a member proves themselves to be a threat to the site with their behavior, we reserve the right to permanently ban them.

It should also be noted that while the points expire, the infractions themselves are not removed from a user’s profile. So, while a Spam infraction point only lasts 30 days, it will become obvious when a person is a persistent spammer when their list of infractions starts getting rather lengthy with relatively recent spam infractions. We will take these previous infractions into account when evaluating a problem member, but don’t worry about any old minor infractions which may remain on your profile as they will not count against you unless you are a problem.

As always, if we deem it necessary, we will suspend or ban a member regardless of how any points they have accumulated if we feel it is necessary.


How do I know if I have a warning or an infraction?

Whenever you are given a warning or an infraction a PM will be sent to you. This PM will have a description of the offence, the number of points, and any comments the moderator may have made.

You can also view your infractions by going to your User CP. Your warnings and infractions will appear below your subscribed threads in the main window of the User CP. Warnings have yellow cards next to them while infractions have red cards. You can see when/if the they expire, who gave them, and how many points they are worth. If the infraction/warning was for a particular post, there will be a link to it.




Warnings you received before the upgrade will be carried over to the new system. We will take into account expiration dates so we won’t be adding every warning everyone ever received, just the major ones which we need to keep track of. This may take some time so, please don’t get worried if you start receiving warning PMs for old warnings (I’ll be sure to add a note in the PM to let you know it’s old news). But, this should help you keep track of all your warnings a bit better once we’ve got them all caught up.

There's a new addition to what I've already stated:

Once you have 30 infractions (not points, which expire) you will be permanently banned. All infractions count toward this 30, even if the points for the infractions expired. This is actually a little more lenient than we were previously and may change depending on how it works in practice.

thanx 4 the information

thats sort of confusing but...... i think i get

Thanks for the explanation, I shall be careful not to collect any of those bad points!

Thanks for the information a lot!

Thanks a lot for the information. I just hope I don't fall in any kind of infraction.

Thanks for the Information. I'll remember that
-will try not to be baaaaddd anymore so I won't get suspended/banned/get any more infractions-

Aha that's pretty cool. Good to know about. Thanks for posting this.

I have a couple questions about all of this, just to be clear. My questions regard the verbal warnings. How long do these remain on your file, and do they show up under the User CP when you click on it? Do they stay in there forever, even if it was a verbal warning for a mistake that you had made in innocence? Just wondering, because it's a little confusing to me. Thanks!

Mods and admins can see a person's warning history in his/her profile. No one but Mods and admins can see it, but I don't know if the member can see his/her own history in the user CP. Sorry. As for expiration, most warnings and infractions (except the most severe) expire. They stay on your record (we can see them) but we can also see the date of them and have access to view more details about the incident, as they were entered by the mod who gave the warning. Even if an admin reverses a warning or infraction for some reason, record of it remains for future reference.

Jan - Thanks for the clarification! You were very helpful, as always!

Linda

ooh Linda.. right in Kris' post (1st post in this thread) it says one can see one's own warnings history in the user CP. Heheh I should've known that. Whoops.

Thank you,thats helped

Hmm this info was helpful, just hope I remember all this in-case I do, do anything wrong, not that I plan to mind you. Anyway thanx for letting us know about everything and defining the terms being used.

thanks for the info <3 - i decided to come and check this out after my cousin got me some warnings, and i understand how they work now.

thanks - they really help!

Thanks for giving us the heads up. it'llbe helpful.

I wanted to if/when expired warnings come off of your profile at some point. I was told they do come off but i was wondering how long till they do.

We prune year old, expired, warnings about once a month. Infractions are never removed and neither are unexpired warnings since these tend to be more severe offenses. However, please don't worry about having warnings in your profile. You and the mods are the only people who can view them and it really isn't that big a deal, especially if the warning (or infraction, for that matter) was for something dumb you did a long time ago.