Temporary Forum Rules v3 - Tiers, Plans, and Some Changes
Mar 4, 2016 20:21:56 GMT
Grammar Kaiser likes this
Post by Krall on Mar 4, 2016 20:21:56 GMT
Hello! So, me and my fellow mods finally got around to discussing the details of our rules system further and I'd like to share the fruits of our labour with you, as well as announce and discuss some other things.
Part 1: Infraction Tiers and Revised Rules
Infraction Tiers determine the moderator action(s) that may be taken by moderators against members for violating certain rules. Each rule is set in an Infraction Tier by default, and but violations of that rule may be downgraded to the tier immediately below the default tier if mitigating factors are present, or upgraded to the tier immediately above if aggravating factors are present. For example, personal attacks and insults are a violation of Rule 4.1 and would usually constitute an Orange Tier infraction, thus warranting a short temporary ban. However if the insults were meant in jest with no ill intent or the member made an honest apology then a moderator may decide to downgrade it to a Green Tier infraction, thus only warranting an increase in warning level. Alternatively if the insults were clearly malicious or if the member has a history of making personal attacks then a moderator may decide to upgrade it to a Red Tier infraction, thus warranting a longer ban.
Mitigating factors which, when present, allow a moderator to downgrade an infraction include:
-Accidental action (i.e. if the violation was made by accident, rather than knowingly or deliberately).
-Apologetic behaviour (i.e. the member recognises their poor conduct, apologises, and the moderator believes that they will not act in the same manner in future).
-First offence (i.e. the member has never before violated the rules).
Aggravating factors which, when present, allow a moderator to upgrade an infraction include:
-Clear malice or intent (i.e. the violation was made on purpose, or was clearly motivated to harm others).
-Previous offences (i.e. the member has previously violated the rules, especially when they have violated the same rule before).
Note that mitigating and aggravating factors do no automatically upgrade/downgrade an infraction - they merely allow a moderator to upgrade or downgrade an infraction immediately if it seems appropriate. However, once we have an appeals system in place, appeals may be made on the basis of mitigating or aggravating factors being present.
There are five specific Infraction Tiers numbered 4 to 0. Tier 0 isn't used in the rules, and only exists to be used when a Tier 1 infraction is downgraded due to mitigating factors. I've also colour-coded the tiers and coloured the rules according to their Infraction Tier. Here are the different tiers, and the moderator actions they correspond to (hopefully the colours will be visible in both light and dark themes):
4 - Purple Tier: Permanent Ban
-Infraction incurs a permanent ban.
3 - Red Tier: Major Temporary Ban
-Infraction incurs a temporary ban of at least two weeks, at most two months, in increments of two weeks.
2 - Orange Tier: Minor Temporary Ban
-Infraction incurs a temporary ban of at least one day, at most fourteen days, in increments of one day.
1 - Green Tier: Major Warning
-Infraction incurs a warning, and an increase in the member's warning percentage level of at least 10 points, at most 50 points, in increments of 10 points. Any Green Tier offence that would increase a member's warning level to 100 or more instead immediately becomes an Orange Tier offence, which aggravating and mitigating factors may alter further.
0 - Blue Tier: Minor warning
-Infraction incurs a simple warning, with no real punishment.
And here're the rules, with each rule coloured according to its Infraction Tier. Please note that I have also revised the wording of some of the rules slightly (mainly 1.2) to make them more clear. Specifically Rule 1.2 is meant to indicate that linking to copyrighted material is permitted, whilst posting it directly on the forum is not (so linking to a YouTube video that contains copyrighted music is permitted, for example).
Part 2: Future Plans for Rules and Moderation System
We've gotten a few requests to explain what we meant when we've mentioned possibly having some democratically elected moderation positions in the past, so I'd like to elaborate on that now. Nothing's certain at the moment, but the current moderation team generally agree that it would be a good idea to have board-specific moderators nominated and elected by the community for when individual boards on the forum need close attention. We expect to use board-specific moderators mainly for the Political Discussion forum, but they may be helpful elsewhere too. These board-level moderators would have minor powers within their own board and would exist to de-escalate arguments, and prevent disruption to normal, civil discussion within the board.
As part of our planned appeals system we are planning to have moderation positions whose sole responsibility is to hear and rule on appeals - they would not have normal moderating powers. We are thinking of making these appellate mods nominated and elected by the community, so that they interpret the rules in line with the needs and views of the community at large.
The full system of how these positions would be nominated for, elected to, and possibly removed from their positions has not been worked out, but it's important that the community maintains the ability to recall any moderators it elects, and that the main moderation staff does not have control over dismissing appellate mods (so they cannot simply dismiss appellate mods who keep overturning their actions).
Additionally, whilst we aren't planning to leave rules changes up to a vote, we are all agreed that we will publicly consult the forum community about any possible rules changes before they take place, so we can gather and act on their feedback (you may have noticed we're sort of doing this already, hence this post ).
Part 3: Custom Profile Fields and Member Ranks
Some time ago I floated the idea of using ProBoards' custom profile fields option to allow people to put in a custom gender (as the standard "Male/Female" options don't cover everyone) as well as pronouns (as pronoun confusion is a common problem in internet communities, where people are often assumed to be male), and I got entirely positive feedback. Somehow I've neglected to actually implement these changes until now, but there are now custom Gender and Pronoun fields in your profiles! You can access these by clicking "Profile" at the top of the page, then clicking "Edit Profile" and going to the "Personal" tab - the new fields should appear at the bottom. At the moment they're text fields, so you can type in whatever you wish, but Proboards does have the ability to have custom profile options with a list of standard options you can choose from, so let me know if you'd prefer to have a list of pronoun sets or genders to choose from rather than having to type in your own. Both of these fields should appear in your Mini-Profiles next to your posts once filled in, so it's easy for people to check and remember without having to go to your profile page.
Some time ago I *also* stated that I would revise the member ranking system so that they're more easily achievable for members at this early point in this forum's history. I've now revised it so that ranks are achieved at 50, 100, 200, 500, and 1000 posts, rather than the 100, 250, 500, 1000 default. The rank titles are still a work in-progress - I'm just using the default "(adjective) Member" titles at the moment - so please let me know if you have any ideas for rank titles and rank title themes!
Part 4: Feedback and Questions
If you have any comments and questions at all, please do post them! Feedback is really important to the way we want to run this forum, and we're always happy to answer questions! So, if you think any of the changes above are a good or bad idea, or you have any suggestions of your own, or if you're confused about all this and need clarification, please go ahead and post (or PM me, if that's easier)!
Part 5: Thank You
Finally, I'd like to thank you all for coming to AltHistoria and making it the wonderful place that it is! I had no idea what to expect when I first made this forum, but in retrospect I'm very happy I did. Thank you all so much!
Part 1: Infraction Tiers and Revised Rules
Infraction Tiers determine the moderator action(s) that may be taken by moderators against members for violating certain rules. Each rule is set in an Infraction Tier by default, and but violations of that rule may be downgraded to the tier immediately below the default tier if mitigating factors are present, or upgraded to the tier immediately above if aggravating factors are present. For example, personal attacks and insults are a violation of Rule 4.1 and would usually constitute an Orange Tier infraction, thus warranting a short temporary ban. However if the insults were meant in jest with no ill intent or the member made an honest apology then a moderator may decide to downgrade it to a Green Tier infraction, thus only warranting an increase in warning level. Alternatively if the insults were clearly malicious or if the member has a history of making personal attacks then a moderator may decide to upgrade it to a Red Tier infraction, thus warranting a longer ban.
Mitigating factors which, when present, allow a moderator to downgrade an infraction include:
-Accidental action (i.e. if the violation was made by accident, rather than knowingly or deliberately).
-Apologetic behaviour (i.e. the member recognises their poor conduct, apologises, and the moderator believes that they will not act in the same manner in future).
-First offence (i.e. the member has never before violated the rules).
Aggravating factors which, when present, allow a moderator to upgrade an infraction include:
-Clear malice or intent (i.e. the violation was made on purpose, or was clearly motivated to harm others).
-Previous offences (i.e. the member has previously violated the rules, especially when they have violated the same rule before).
Note that mitigating and aggravating factors do no automatically upgrade/downgrade an infraction - they merely allow a moderator to upgrade or downgrade an infraction immediately if it seems appropriate. However, once we have an appeals system in place, appeals may be made on the basis of mitigating or aggravating factors being present.
There are five specific Infraction Tiers numbered 4 to 0. Tier 0 isn't used in the rules, and only exists to be used when a Tier 1 infraction is downgraded due to mitigating factors. I've also colour-coded the tiers and coloured the rules according to their Infraction Tier. Here are the different tiers, and the moderator actions they correspond to (hopefully the colours will be visible in both light and dark themes):
4 - Purple Tier: Permanent Ban
-Infraction incurs a permanent ban.
3 - Red Tier: Major Temporary Ban
-Infraction incurs a temporary ban of at least two weeks, at most two months, in increments of two weeks.
2 - Orange Tier: Minor Temporary Ban
-Infraction incurs a temporary ban of at least one day, at most fourteen days, in increments of one day.
1 - Green Tier: Major Warning
-Infraction incurs a warning, and an increase in the member's warning percentage level of at least 10 points, at most 50 points, in increments of 10 points. Any Green Tier offence that would increase a member's warning level to 100 or more instead immediately becomes an Orange Tier offence, which aggravating and mitigating factors may alter further.
0 - Blue Tier: Minor warning
-Infraction incurs a simple warning, with no real punishment.
And here're the rules, with each rule coloured according to its Infraction Tier. Please note that I have also revised the wording of some of the rules slightly (mainly 1.2) to make them more clear. Specifically Rule 1.2 is meant to indicate that linking to copyrighted material is permitted, whilst posting it directly on the forum is not (so linking to a YouTube video that contains copyrighted music is permitted, for example).
Rule 1: No Illegal Activity
1.1: You must not post images of any sort sexually depicting people under the age of 18.
1.2: You must not post material that infringes on any existing copyright or trademark directly.
Rule 2: No Spamming
2.1: No account may be used by an automated computer program to post nonsensical or commercial messages.
2.2: You must not post any content expressing an opinion regarding current politics or engage in current political discussion outside of the Political Discussion forum. Discussing politics in a historical or fictional context is permitted, but please use tact.
2.3: You must not engage in the following activities:
2.3a: The deliberate creation of identical posts or threads.
2.3b: The posting of messages which have no content (i.e. they add nothing to the discussion in the area in which they are posted).
2.3c: The posting of a large number of posts or threads in a short period of time which results in the disruption of discussion in the board or thread in which they are posted.
Rule 3: No Graphic Content
3.1: You must not post any images which display graphic violence or gore, or texts which glorify violence and harm.
3.2: You must not post any images which constitute pornography, specifically:
3.2a: Images which display people engaged in explicit sexual activity.
3.2b: Images displaying genitalia or female nipples for the apparent purpose of sexual arousal.
3.3: You must not post any text describing explicit sexual activity for the apparent purpose of sexual arousal.
Rule 4: No Hateful Speech or Prejudice
4.1: You must not engage in personal attacks or insults against another member of this forum.
4.2: You must not make posts with the specific intention of causing an uncivil argument or provoking anger and hatred.
4.3: You must not engage in prejudice or support prejudice on the basis of race, religion, gender, disability, or any other such category. This includes the use of slurs, except for in historical and fictional context, but please use tact in these latter cases.
4.4: You must not threaten or encourage violence against any forum member or real person. This includes wishing harm upon people and engaging in revenge fantasies.
Rule 5: No Disruption of Site Administration and Function
5.1: You must not deliberately attempt to avoid the effects of any sentence passed on you for infraction of these rules, except through appeals.
5.2: You must not deliberately attempt to disrupt the site administration's investigation of rules infractions.
5.2: You must not deliberately attempt to disrupt the normal functioning of the software and hardware that this site relies on.
1.1: You must not post images of any sort sexually depicting people under the age of 18.
1.2: You must not post material that infringes on any existing copyright or trademark directly.
Rule 2: No Spamming
2.1: No account may be used by an automated computer program to post nonsensical or commercial messages.
2.2: You must not post any content expressing an opinion regarding current politics or engage in current political discussion outside of the Political Discussion forum. Discussing politics in a historical or fictional context is permitted, but please use tact.
2.3: You must not engage in the following activities:
2.3a: The deliberate creation of identical posts or threads.
2.3b: The posting of messages which have no content (i.e. they add nothing to the discussion in the area in which they are posted).
2.3c: The posting of a large number of posts or threads in a short period of time which results in the disruption of discussion in the board or thread in which they are posted.
Rule 3: No Graphic Content
3.1: You must not post any images which display graphic violence or gore, or texts which glorify violence and harm.
3.2: You must not post any images which constitute pornography, specifically:
3.2a: Images which display people engaged in explicit sexual activity.
3.2b: Images displaying genitalia or female nipples for the apparent purpose of sexual arousal.
3.3: You must not post any text describing explicit sexual activity for the apparent purpose of sexual arousal.
Rule 4: No Hateful Speech or Prejudice
4.1: You must not engage in personal attacks or insults against another member of this forum.
4.2: You must not make posts with the specific intention of causing an uncivil argument or provoking anger and hatred.
4.3: You must not engage in prejudice or support prejudice on the basis of race, religion, gender, disability, or any other such category. This includes the use of slurs, except for in historical and fictional context, but please use tact in these latter cases.
4.4: You must not threaten or encourage violence against any forum member or real person. This includes wishing harm upon people and engaging in revenge fantasies.
Rule 5: No Disruption of Site Administration and Function
5.1: You must not deliberately attempt to avoid the effects of any sentence passed on you for infraction of these rules, except through appeals.
5.2: You must not deliberately attempt to disrupt the site administration's investigation of rules infractions.
5.2: You must not deliberately attempt to disrupt the normal functioning of the software and hardware that this site relies on.
Part 2: Future Plans for Rules and Moderation System
We've gotten a few requests to explain what we meant when we've mentioned possibly having some democratically elected moderation positions in the past, so I'd like to elaborate on that now. Nothing's certain at the moment, but the current moderation team generally agree that it would be a good idea to have board-specific moderators nominated and elected by the community for when individual boards on the forum need close attention. We expect to use board-specific moderators mainly for the Political Discussion forum, but they may be helpful elsewhere too. These board-level moderators would have minor powers within their own board and would exist to de-escalate arguments, and prevent disruption to normal, civil discussion within the board.
As part of our planned appeals system we are planning to have moderation positions whose sole responsibility is to hear and rule on appeals - they would not have normal moderating powers. We are thinking of making these appellate mods nominated and elected by the community, so that they interpret the rules in line with the needs and views of the community at large.
The full system of how these positions would be nominated for, elected to, and possibly removed from their positions has not been worked out, but it's important that the community maintains the ability to recall any moderators it elects, and that the main moderation staff does not have control over dismissing appellate mods (so they cannot simply dismiss appellate mods who keep overturning their actions).
Additionally, whilst we aren't planning to leave rules changes up to a vote, we are all agreed that we will publicly consult the forum community about any possible rules changes before they take place, so we can gather and act on their feedback (you may have noticed we're sort of doing this already, hence this post ).
Part 3: Custom Profile Fields and Member Ranks
Some time ago I floated the idea of using ProBoards' custom profile fields option to allow people to put in a custom gender (as the standard "Male/Female" options don't cover everyone) as well as pronouns (as pronoun confusion is a common problem in internet communities, where people are often assumed to be male), and I got entirely positive feedback. Somehow I've neglected to actually implement these changes until now, but there are now custom Gender and Pronoun fields in your profiles! You can access these by clicking "Profile" at the top of the page, then clicking "Edit Profile" and going to the "Personal" tab - the new fields should appear at the bottom. At the moment they're text fields, so you can type in whatever you wish, but Proboards does have the ability to have custom profile options with a list of standard options you can choose from, so let me know if you'd prefer to have a list of pronoun sets or genders to choose from rather than having to type in your own. Both of these fields should appear in your Mini-Profiles next to your posts once filled in, so it's easy for people to check and remember without having to go to your profile page.
Some time ago I *also* stated that I would revise the member ranking system so that they're more easily achievable for members at this early point in this forum's history. I've now revised it so that ranks are achieved at 50, 100, 200, 500, and 1000 posts, rather than the 100, 250, 500, 1000 default. The rank titles are still a work in-progress - I'm just using the default "(adjective) Member" titles at the moment - so please let me know if you have any ideas for rank titles and rank title themes!
Part 4: Feedback and Questions
If you have any comments and questions at all, please do post them! Feedback is really important to the way we want to run this forum, and we're always happy to answer questions! So, if you think any of the changes above are a good or bad idea, or you have any suggestions of your own, or if you're confused about all this and need clarification, please go ahead and post (or PM me, if that's easier)!
Part 5: Thank You
Finally, I'd like to thank you all for coming to AltHistoria and making it the wonderful place that it is! I had no idea what to expect when I first made this forum, but in retrospect I'm very happy I did. Thank you all so much!