Infractions System

[Villayna]

New Moderation System

Lack of moderation was by far the largest criticism received in the "Run TNG for a Day (http://wow-tng.org/showthread.php?t=13175)" thread. In response, we have decided to give the Infractions system a try. The infractions system is a moderation tool built into the vBulletin forum software that TNG uses. It allows moderators to standardize and quantify the moderation process.

Between doing this and making the deletion notice reasons visible to everyone, hopefully it'll be clearer what is and isn't ok to post. It also gives us a middle ground between letting people run around being jerks and banning them from the site completely.



So what exactly is an Infraction?

An infraction is a ticket given to someone who has posted something against the rules. Think parking ticket, but without the monetary attachment. Currently the categories for infractions are:

* Disrespectful of other posters
* Pointless spam
* Posting politics or religious topics (outside of the politics forum)



What does this mean for me?

These are all worth 5 points. They have a 2 week expiration, so even if you pick up one or two infractions, they will not affect your ability to post. Currently I'm setting the bar pretty high. If your infraction count reaches 50 points (that's 10 infractions in a 2 week time period) then you will be kicked into the "Troll" usergroup.

Members of the Troll Usergroup can still see all of the public boards (sorry, you'll lose access to Horde/Alliance/Politics) and they'll still be able to post to the Visitor Center and the Stories and Art sections. Basically they'll be able to still do limited interaction on TNG in the less controversial sections of the site.

If someone decides to abuse this middle ground and posts something inappropriate, they will be given one 25 point infraction as a warning, and if they do it again they will be bumped into the "Neutered Troll" user group. They will still be able to see the forums, but they will not be able to post to any of the forums.

They will still be able to send PM's, post to their blogs, and post to any social groups they belong to.

If this isn't enough to convince them to chill out and play nice with the other puppies, then I'll be forced to actually ban them.


Since this system is new, feel free to comment or ask questions.

[Agnarr]

Any way to view current point totals?

[Villayna]

yup..they show up in your UserCP. Only if you have any, though. They show up in the main part of the page if you have them, so it's real obvious if you do. Plus you automatically get a PM when you receive an infraction, so there isn't any "surprise!" factor involved.

[Zephrythos]

Seems kinda unnecessary. If you ask me, this board is moderated way too heavily.

[Okhu]

Seems kinda unnecessary. If you ask me, this board is moderated way too heavily.

Oh hey there.

[Abric]

Moderation is always dependent on the community. When people decide to act like little kids who can't play fair without mommy and daddy here... then we moderate. When folks post something that they wouldn't say to somebodies face, or say in front of a bus full of nuns (or their grandparents) ... then we moderate.

What this system does, is not add in an extra layer of moderation, but give the moderators a tool to start keeping track of the less 'stellar' performers of the community; without having to write documentation or remember all the fine little details.

For example, let's say Okhu is posting useless stuff in the Misc forum. I do not check it this week, because I frankly don't care to. Sanrin, on the other hand, does. So Okhu is given infractions. Now, let's say Okhu is now spamming up the Personal Forums, and is attacking peoples "oh so horrible lives". Mortica sees this, and then curb stomps it. She may or may not know about the disruption in the Misc forum; but with this infraction system... she doesn't have to.

So, having a long night? Feel you got to spend it eating up bandwidth with worthlessness? Well, now it's being counted. And tracked! I've wire taped your internets.

[NotMaithanet]

Lack of moderation was by far the largest criticism received in the "Run TNG for a Day (http://wow-tng.org/showthread.php?t=13175)" thread.


Seems kinda unnecessary. If you ask me, this board is moderated way too heavily.

But you were asked, as were we all, in that post up there. Nine pages long and this is what the community has asked for. The time for being asked is over, the time for the actions of that is now.

[Skafloc]

I think this initiative is brilliant and should prove to be a valuable monitoring tool. I like monitoring tools, they are my bread and butter at work.

To heavily moderated? Hardly. But in the end Mort is paying for the server space, domain name and putting in the maintenance time and effort. It is what it is. She has been tremendously gracious in soliciting feedback and suggestions and has taken them seriously I think.

[Ninorra]

I think it's an awesome idea.

[Nadea]

*applauds* Thank you, Mort. This is exactly what I was hoping for! Only... you organized it WAY better than I did in my initial post in that thread!

[Moknim]

Another thumbs up from the peanut gallery! Great idea!

[Amoola]

No complaints from me. :)

[Akuje]

Old news to me, as I've had one wear off already.

From that point of view, I think it's fair, as long as the standard of issuing is the same from the moderators. I.E. something said is off color, but not horribly mean, will likely be deleted, but may or may not receive a infraction, depending on the moderator. As long as this aspect stays as fair as possible, I'll say it's a good measure.

[Villayna]

I'm not sure if everyone has doused themselves in itching powder or what, but I'm seeing more nonsense popping up, so I will begin using this again...liberally.

Different parts of this site are used for different reasons. If you make a "funny" reply to someone in the blog section, I'm probably not going to give out an infraction because I've given each and every blogger there the ability to self-moderate. If they don't want to see anyone trolling their blog, they can either make it private, moderate comments (ie, a comment doesn't show up until that person manually checks it and allows it to be seen), or delete comments that offend them or they consider to be off topic. On the other side of the spectrum, if you troll the suggestions/bugs section, consider it an automatic infraction.

So people understand where I stand on this, I will delineate my view on the strictness of moderation by section:

Do NOT Touch Sections

The entire Stories and Art section. You chase away my writers and artists (ie, the primary participants of this site), and I will be pissed.

The entire Visitor's Center section. I don't want new people to get chased off by your bitterness and lack of better things to do. I do not want people to be afraid of asking questions that they don't know the answer to.

It'd better be "innocent fun" Sections

The entire WoW Related Discussions Forums section, and the Misc Discussions forum. The purpose of these sections is to exchange information and discuss various topics. Some minor innocent fun replies are ok, but purposeful trolling is not allowed. Some minor disagreements are ok, and I generally do take in consideration motives and/or lack of debate skills here but flagrant trolls (yes, in My MODERATORS Humble Opinions, which will sometimes be biased because they are human) will be given infractions.

Only in the most blatant and rude cases

Blogs and Social Groups fall here, because the owners have the ability to self-moderate to their own tastes. If I see something that can only be described as vicious and personal, I will still moderate it if I see it.


To everyone who doesn't consider themselves a troll

Remember, the moderators here do not read each and every post. If you see something you think is not appropriate, FLAG IT. To flag a post so that it comes to the moderators attention, click the little "Report Post" button under the offender's avatar (it looks like a little red triangle with an exclamation point in the middle). Flagging posts does not guarantee it will be moderated, it only guarantees that all of the moderators will SEE it.

[Rand_Shea]

The masses want more moderation, and thus they have received it.

Unfortunately for those who screamed the most for this system, I fully trust Villayna to be completely neutral and unmotivated by personal bias (positive or negative) when doling out the points to people.

I welcome this. It will be interesting to see what happens in the long run.

[Lelenia]

Personally, I'm quite happy to see this system going back into use...nine pages of filtering to find the few intelligent posts among the sewage has gotten quite old as of late.

Honestly...I didn't even know the system existed...now I know better, and the little "report" button will be used for blatant infractions n.n

[Alekander]

Brilliance.

Of course. Thank you for the reminder to flag inappropriate posts.