Minor Rules/Infractions Changes

[dc dalton]

Well done Dan, it's something that has been needed for quite a few months ... the 'attack dogs' (e.g. trolls) have really been coming out of the woodwork.

The moderation here IMO does a damn good job but lately it seems they were overwhelmed by that amount of nonsense happening.

[RaisedByWolves]

Originally Posted by danp

Some people just have issues with boundaries and authority, and I think that character trait naturally runs a little deeper with generally-conservative, individual gun-rights type folks

I have serious authority issues, but here I feel among peers to whom I can grant authority easily, mebbe just easier, but you get the point.


Something I was going to start a thread about was the topic of "Cabin fever". On the Chainsaw forums we not only had much the same type of people we have here, but many of them were nearly shutins during much of the winter being from Canada and Sweden and the PNW.


Right around this time of year people usually get a Forum of Cabin fever and start going after each other.



Seen it a Thousand times.........

[ScaredOnce]

Originally Posted by danp

Due to the fact that there seem to be an increasing (but still small) amount of adults who want to behave like children on the forum and seem to have the inability to debate and discuss civilly we have made some modifications to the rules.

The infraction for Harassment: Excessive Personal Attacks is now worth 10 points, this means that receiving it will result in an instant 1 day ban. If you can't cool your head and treat your fellow forum members with a basic level respect, we will assist you in taking a break.

We have created a new infraction: Trolling: Instigation. We've seen an increase as of late in people who seem to have no useful value on the forum except to act like idiots and rile people up. This infraction is also worth 10 points and will result in an immediate 1 day ban.

Please keep in mind that even though these infractions individually only result in a 1 day ban, they stick with you for 30 days, so coming back the day your ban expires and getting another one will then result in a 1 week ban.

The beauty of this is, it will probably affect very, very few people since 99% of our members seem to be able to conduct themselves as mature adults. This is targeted at the 1% who seem unable or unwilling to do so and in turn drag everyone else down to their level.

Happy foruming.

Dan,

Good updates; thanks. Would it be possible to catalog the incidents in some running .xls file or something? Obviously, member info and details could be sanitized. The idea would be to list the generalities of the incident (no personal identifiers), a basic attempt at what the Root Cause was for the infraction, the rules violated and the consequence. Hopefully members would use that data as an "internal audit" of the general memberships' behaviors. If ISO or IAQG are right in their approaches to 'quality', having these metrics tracked and visible to the membership should improve the overall accountability of the group's actions (with a little management commitment, of course). This is often referred to as "ownership".

Currently, the ownership lies mainly with the mods for all regulatory activities. There is some stake placed with each member's individual reputations, utilization of the site, etc... But, if the organization was also able to balance the ownership of moderation more mutually, I believe we'd see an across the board improvement. Just some thoughts... thx

[Michele]

Originally Posted by RaisedByWolves

Right around this time of year people usually get a Forum of Cabin fever and start going after each other.
Seen it a Thousand times.........

I DEFINITELY THINK YOU'RE ON TO SOMETHING THERE......

[dc dalton]

Originally Posted by RaisedByWolves

Right around this time of year people usually get a Forum of Cabin fever and start going after each other.

Man I can attest to that .. if the damn weather don't get better soon so I can get outside, clean up the mess and start working in the garden damn soon I could very well 'go postal' ... seems like winter has been going on for 2 years

[Warpt762x39]

Originally Posted by headcase

I would hate to have anyone new think we have tyrannical mods

So you're saying that the mods have very short arms and big heads? J/k.

I agree that this is one of the better moderated forums out there. I was on a few different ones that were not moderated at all. It's amazing how something simple can spiral out of control and turn into something that gets a lot of people bent out of shape.

Keep up the good work mods. (even if you have big heads and little arms)

[Azzy]

heh... I infer a warning as much as you would pull a friend aside and say "Are you OK today?"

But then again, some people cant be talked to. Thanks again to you guys for being the deputies around here... i know sometimes it is a thankless job.

[Paradigm]

You mods must be doing a heckuva job. This forum is quite tame...even during spirited debate.

Unfortunately, you can't regulate perception, which is usually the culprit of online disputes. Some people have thin skin, some don't understand humor online, some don't understand sarcasm online, some are just prone to knee-jerk reactions and claim "attack" if you disagree with them. Some don't like having their beliefs or feelings questioned.

The only recourse is time. The more time people spend on a message board, the more they understand these things and get to know each other's posting styles. You (moderators) are only able to police it to make sure it doesn't get out of control.


Kudos to the mods. I've enjoyed my time here and I've always felt welcome. I've made some new "online friends" in the process. And I've learned a ton of good info.

[JayBell]

Originally Posted by ScaredOnce

Dan,

Good updates; thanks. Would it be possible to catalog the incidents in some running .xls file or something? Obviously, member info and details could be sanitized. The idea would be to list the generalities of the incident (no personal identifiers), a basic attempt at what the Root Cause was for the infraction, the rules violated and the consequence. Hopefully members would use that data as an "internal audit" of the general memberships' behaviors. If ISO or IAQG are right in their approaches to 'quality', having these metrics tracked and visible to the membership should improve the overall accountability of the group's actions (with a little management commitment, of course). This is often referred to as "ownership".

I'm not speaking for Dan here, but for my own part, i say...

LOL... SRSLY? after having worked many years in an ISO regulated office... all I can say is nope... thats a LOT of work for 0% reward.. the data would have to be culled post by post from our infractions report forum, and other staff related forums. Any records kept are strictly informal, as this isn't a reporting requirements busines, but a internet messaging board

I'm not being mean here, but... honestly, I'm gonna guess that the 99.999% of the folks here probably dont care about what folks got in trouble for... all that really matters is that generally, folks should realize that text does not convey the visual and audible nuances of a verbal face to face communication, so react accordingly when reading something you may disagree with... use emoticons when possible, it's what they were invented for.

add to that "treat others as you would have yourself treated" along with "dont say anything in text that would get your ass beat down if you said it to someones face" and you've got some good rules to live by

your idea is interesting, but its really something that should have been started when the site opened, as opposed to 3 years and 14K+ members worth of records later.

Mods are an unpaid position, and I cant thik of any one of us, Mods or Admin that would be remotely interested in siting down and wasting hours on such a project.

and on that, aside from the HUGE amount of spammers that we've banned, I'm going to offhand say that there have been less than 30 participating members banned permanently for cause.

for cause is generally:
excessive trolling
sock puppetry
personal attacks and harassment
illegal activity
total refusal to abide by any forum rules


less than 30 from 14K+ members ... I'd say the staff and mods here are more than evenhanded... and this comes from me having almost 10 years of mod work on another, MUCH more "wild west style" board, BEFORE this site even opened.

[RocketFoot]

What he said...LOL

Plus the endless supply of members (new and old) that don't seem to understand the Classified 3 Day Bump Rule! Those actions would fill up an .XLS doc in its self!

For the most part, this is one of the best group of people I've ever had the pleasure to know. There are only a select few bad apples in the bunch...eventually, they come to the top of the pile and get weeded out!