Poll: New forum rules - Yay or Nay?

[Dr. Pepper Unlimited]

Now that I've read through this thread and the rules, I feel like we have to constantly walk on glass. These rules feel incredibly strict. I guess the Escapist doesn't believe in "Forgive and forget".

 

[benoitowns]

Six pages later and we are still complaining? huh. I wonder...are they really that bad? (posts this to check)

 

[Woodsey]

No, none of the mods do. Empty ones still show a grey bar.

I can understand SpinWhiz, but is this not unfair considering you're still general users?

I'm sure he has one. It's just not there for us to see, as he outranks us. And he can probably see all of ours and all of the other mod's meters, but the meters of the admins. And the admins can obviously see everyone's meters. That's my guess anyway.

Why would that make any difference whatsoever?

 

[Spinwhiz]

I find it rather unfair that there's absolutely no way to clear your record. Everybody slips up now and then. I'm usually the first to advocate harsh punishment for infractions, but this is ridiculous. With harsh punishments should come rewards for good behavior. So if you've not committed any infractions for a certain amount of time, your 'forum heath meter' should go back down.

Nobody should be able to slip up 8 times and being given more chances. If anyone can't learn how to be respectful and follow our rules after what is pretty much 8 infractions, they shouldn't be here.

Not even if the infractions are upwards of 6 months to year apart? Maybe even 2 years or more? 'Cause clearly if that's the case, that's not a person who's out to cause trouble; that's a person who just got a little carried away one day.

That is why we give 7 chances. Don't think I'm trying to push you, or anyone else, off either. I completely understand where you are coming from as we've had this discussion internally before we could even think about launching the new penalty system and updated rules (which has been months now). We just feel that we do give chances, 8 of them, and those who can not hold it together for The Escapist to have to tell someone 8 times that isn't how you behave is more than enough.

 

[Outlaw Torn]

It's kind of like DRM for forums; meant to poke out the trolls but ultimately screwing over innocent, albeit misunderstood posters. People will be pissed off, then they'll get banned for complaining.

Not having infractions expire does sound odd, it's likely to cause more problems than it will fix. If someone is being an ass and clearly breaking the (more serious) rules and repeatedly does so within a short frame of time then they deserve a perma-ban. But if someone has been using the forums for a few years and crossed paths with the inevitable power crazed moderator that every forum has, then they could get booted from the community because of minor infractions from months or even years before. It all sounds rather archaic to the point that they might as well perma-ban anyone for saying anything that the rules don't agree with. There may as well be pre-prepared comments so that posters don't have to sully the forums with their own opinions lest they break a rule.

 

[Brandon237]

I haven't gotten any warnings, so I'm sitting at don't care. Although it is scary, knowing that a warning will leave such a noticeable permanent mark. And the idea of a permanent probation is... not good.

So I will see how it works out, but I'm leaning towards "This is going to end badly".

 

[Virgil]

The conversion from past history into the current forum health meter is actually quite lenient. two examples:

Then I am probably going to be banned sometime in the next three months or so because I have a lot of minor infractions under my belt. I see much use of the ban hammer under this policy.

Three suspensions, ten probations, and five warnings. Two offenses this month alone! Good luck making it three months, but unless you clean up fast you're going to be lucky to make it through June.

Seems like a bunch of crap to me. Says I have 3 warnings but... I never received one of them.

Seriously? You have had three suspensions, six probations, and two warnings. And I can see the PM notifications about all of them in your message list.

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I can understand SpinWhiz, but is this not unfair considering you're still general users?

Because they have stricter guidelines for proper behavior on the forums and a different level of accountability, staff and moderator profiles only show their meters to staff members. Trust me, a moderator wouldn't make it to four warnings.

How do you mean? Are you referring to appeals or some kind of automated point reduction?

On appeals. There will be no automated reductions to prevent gaming the system, but an admin will take into account all the dates and reasons in your posting history when judging an appeal. All appeals are handled by forum admins, not the moderators.

I can see other people's health meters by going onto their profiles. Thus I must assume that they can also see mine. Personally, I think my moderation history, even if it is just a graph that shows how many times I've been moderated, is none of any other regular member's business. That should stay between the member in question and the moderators.

A common and recurring complaint on the forums is that UserA got a ban for the same reason UserB got a probation (or "nothing", which was likely a warning). The reason for this is always because UserA had a much longer history of bad behavior than UserB.

Warnings now display on the post, which eliminates one of those issues. The forum health meter showing publicly eliminates the second area of confusion. As a side effect, probation status no longer shows on every post a user makes. Taken together, all those changes should serve to make the moderation process much more transparent - and easier to understand - for everyone.

 

[Spinwhiz]

*snipped*

Hi Spin quoting you because I think this is your domain:

This includes, but is not limited to communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give The Escapist, an individual creator, advertiser, site sponsor, product, group, government or nation a negative image. In short, if you say something you better be able to back it up with fact.

Is that bolded bit there ^^^ just standard legal-ese to disassociate The Escapist with any negativity aimed at America/American government by posters or is it an actionable offence? I infer that it's just for when people are being dicks and saying "Lol.America." to a random news post but I thought it would be prudent to check.

We can't be perverts anymore!? WHAT!? The likely hood of me getting banned in the next few days is very great now.
-image-

That was in the rules? Great, there goes half the forum.

...and the rant rule gets rid of another third


Personally even though these rules were always there unspoken having them explicitly stated intimidates me a bit.

Yup, exactly. We didn't want it to include just The Escapist or just America. Overall, we are asking people just to not say mean and slanderous things that aren't true.

As for rants, people can still let loose in a forum thread, we ask that they have a point, make sure it adds or helps discussion and that the caps and swearing are negated. Some of the best debates have a 3 paragraph "rant" but there is reason and purpose for it. Just blasting out an opinion because of hate or anger does not benefit discussion, it only stops it.

 

[oberkid4]

I going to wait and see how they work out before coming to a decision.

s

 

[Julianking93]

Seriously? You have had three suspensions, six probations, and two warnings. And I can see the PM notifications about all of them in your message list.

---

Either I have a terrible memory or I'm not getting PMs correctly.

I've received a total of one warning message and to my knowledge only suspended once. >.>

 

[Lawyer105]

[edit] Uurgh... double post... and had to reaccept the "new rules" again as well.

Any chance a mod could delete this?

How about the ability to delete your own posts?

I see:
"Edit" - One I'm well familiar with
"Reply" - Like I'm going to do that to my own posts.
"Quote" - Ditto.
"Report" - Hahahahahahahahaha!

Seriously... where is this "Delete" button you're referring too. I'd be happy to use it if you can point it out.

 

[Fuselage]

I will check it out and edit my post as such.
EDIT: I find the warning levels a little harsh, the only way to get your level down is to make an appeal which seems kinda inconvenient.

 

[ModsDeleteThisAccountPlease]

Hm, not sure. Still undecided to be honest. We'll see as time goes on.

 

[USSR]

I received 2 warnings for a low content post probably 7-8 months ago, which was an accident due to an internet- premature post mistake and was fixed in under a minute.

To be honest, you should be given the option to fix it anyhow and get the warning removed.

I find that to be complete idiocy that it stays on the record.
I even messaged for it to be appealed, and did I get a message back?
No.

Did I try again later? Yes.
Reply? No.

Due to this, I believe the Forum Health Meter is flawed and broken for not draining over time.
That just irks the hell out of me.
It better be fixed.

 

[nohorsetown]

Yep, I just checked, and I've still got a clean record. Strangely, I think there was one time where I went off on everyone and said "you're all a bunch of creeps/idiots", or something like that, but I never got no probation or nuthin'. I musta been pretty eloquent about it, or maybe I was just *right*? Maybe the mods like me? Anyway, obviously the health meter doesn't bother me, but I don't think it's enough. I want forum magic points, a forum limit-break-meter, and at least a few other basic stats that I can customize by "equipping" different badges.