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.
The Infraction System: A Guide for Members 
