Add some meaningful Infractions

[ohms_law]

Dee (or Clay or Ian),
Do you think we could get some meaningful infractions added to the current list? Not that I ever really use it (or anyone else, for that matter), but that's partially because we have to pick things like "inappropriate language" for... well, whatever. Their just not that descriptive right now.

Of course, I'm not really sure what exactly to add... I guess we should have a bit of a discussion about what should be added. So, let's hear it guys. What should be an "Infraction"?

By the way, does anyone know what exactly the deal is with this system? I see points and whatnot, but I don't have any clue what they mean.

[ohms_law]

Ah hah!
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/m...er_infractions

[HoustonGM]

Another forum I frequent uses the infraction/warning system to determine when to suspend/ban users. Their use of it is detailed here.

I don't think we need to implement anything with it really.

That forum has at least 5 times the number of users online at any given time, and nearly 3 times the amount of registered users, as well has 4 times the number of individual posts, and many different forums and subforums. It also features tough spam rules, whereas we're completely lax regarding spam (and by spam, I'm not talking about advertisement bots and the like. I'm talking about meaningless posts devoid of content. An "lol" post would be warned, or actually, infracted i believe, at that forum. For a forum of that size, it's needed).

So, frankly, I think we're better off just ignoring that system and just alerting any users via PM or in the thread itself if they do something they shouldn't.

[ohms_law]

I just finished reading the manual for it. I'm actually pretty jazzed about it now, although it would take some setup to really make it useful.

Dee, Ian, this could be really useful for the BMO league forums. What I envision is a user group for each individual BMO forum (or probably all of them, that might be easier). Permissions in the BMO league forums could then be restricted to... well, nothing by default. Being a member of the league would add the person's forum account to the league forum's usergroup, allowing them permissions to post, etc... League forum mods could then use the infractions system to remove permissions from people for their forums, as they see appropriate.
Basically, it really could make the League sub-forums almost their own independent forums. It'll allow BMO league forum moderators to "ban" people without having to open up the admin control panel to them.

[ohms_law]

Another forum I frequent uses the infraction/warning system to determine when to suspend/ban users. Their use of it is detailed here.

I don't think we need to implement anything with it really.

That forum has at least 5 times the number of users online at any given time, and nearly 3 times the amount of registered users, as well has 4 times the number of individual posts, and many different forums and subforums. It also features tough spam rules, whereas we're completely lax regarding spam (and by spam, I'm not talking about advertisement bots and the like. I'm talking about meaningless posts devoid of content. An "lol" post would be warned, or actually, infracted i believe, at that forum. For a forum of that size, it's needed).

So, frankly, I think we're better off just ignoring that system and just alerting any users via PM or in the thread itself if they do something they shouldn't.

Yea, I generally agree. It could be a useful system though. It'd be much better to use infractions then, say, temporary bans. I just used it today for something (which is what brought this up in the first place), and it's much more forgiving than a temp ban, for example. Gets the point across pretty effectively, but it's not so draconian as temp bans.
I agree that it's not going to be a system that we'll be using a whole lot, bu tit could certainly serve a purpose.

[Rongar]

An "lol" post would be warned, or actually, infracted i believe, at that forum. For a forum of that size, it's needed).

I don't see that, HGM...I applaud a Lol post 'cos of its brevity, and positivity, and, in response to a post that tries to amuse...well, it's applause

And in a long, oft acrimonious thread, this counts for me.

[robinhoodnik]

I just finished reading the manual for it. I'm actually pretty jazzed about it now, although it would take some setup to really make it useful.

Dee, Ian, this could be really useful for the BMO league forums. What I envision is a user group for each individual BMO forum (or probably all of them, that might be easier). Permissions in the BMO league forums could then be restricted to... well, nothing by default. Being a member of the league would add the person's forum account to the league forum's usergroup, allowing them permissions to post, etc... League forum mods could then use the infractions system to remove permissions from people for their forums, as they see appropriate.
Basically, it really could make the League sub-forums almost their own independent forums. It'll allow BMO league forum moderators to "ban" people without having to open up the admin control panel to them.

No. We don't need to mess with the league forums at all. They're quite autonomous and that's how it should be. The league's owner is paying for that forum as well as the league he's commissioner of. They don't need anyone on the outside looking over their shoulder. BMO forums are easily managed already, usually a removal from the league takes care of a problem poster, and if not, a short request to a mod does the trick. The biggest issue with BMO league forums is sticky/unsticky requests and those have been dealt with by making owners into moderators of their own forums.
So far as permissions to post go, again not a good idea. A lot of leagues have waiting list threads that people post in to get an available team, as well as past members dropping in etc. That's another area that's not a problem and has no need of being "fixed".

[robinhoodnik]

I think it's pretty d@mn insulting when some jerk comes along and decides your post is spam and deletes it or sends you a nastygram. Spam should stay as it is now. An unsolicited advertisement in the forum by a non-player.

[HoustonGM]

I don't see that, HGM...I applaud a Lol post 'cos of its brevity, and positivity, and, in response to a post that tries to amuse...well, it's applause

And in a long, oft acrimonious thread, this counts for me.

It contributes nothing to the conversation is the point. Like I said, in this forum, it's fine. In others, it's not.

I think it's pretty d@mn insulting when some jerk comes along and decides your post is spam and deletes it or sends you a nastygram. Spam should stay as it is now. An unsolicited advertisement in the forum by a non-player.

Yep, agreed, for this forum. I was just pointing out the differences between the forum I linked to, showing an example of how the infranction system is used, and this one. For a forum of such large size, meaningless posts would quickly make the site an eyesore to participate in. For our forum, everything is fine the way it is. We don't have many members, and there's only a small amount of consistently active posters.

[ohms_law]

I don't see that, HGM...I applaud a Lol post 'cos of its brevity, and positivity, and, in response to a post that tries to amuse...well, it's applause

And in a long, oft acrimonious thread, this counts for me.

He was talking about another forum that he's a member of, not this one.

No. We don't need to mess with the league forums at all. They're quite autonomous and that's how it should be. The league's owner is paying for that forum as well as the league he's commissioner of. They don't need anyone on the outside looking over their shoulder. BMO forums are easily managed already, usually a removal from the league takes care of a problem poster, and if not, a short request to a mod does the trick. The biggest issue with BMO league forums is sticky/unsticky requests and those have been dealt with by making owners into moderators of their own forums.
So far as permissions to post go, again not a good idea. A lot of leagues have waiting list threads that people post in to get an available team, as well as past members dropping in etc. That's another area that's not a problem and has no need of being "fixed".

robin, that's exactly the kind of thing that I'm addressing. See Ian's quote here:

Moderators of a league forum will have full control over the forum with the exception of banning users. I'm looking into how to ban users from a single forum without locking them out of the whole system.

That's exactly what this system can accomplish.

All the above that you're complaining about, that's exactly what I'm trying to help avoid. I don't want to be involved in BMO league forums, if I can help it. Let the league commissioners deal with their own league forums as they see fit.

[ohms_law]

There should be a step before temporary banning, and this is it. I don't understand why using tools that are available seems to be generating such angst, especially since those tools allow us to be nicer.

[HoustonGM]

I know on that forum I linked to, they have things known as "usergroups" and forums can be set to be viewed only by certain usergroups, and I believe moderator powers can be extended to them for specific forums, although I'm not positive on that one.

[ohms_law]

That's the way the system can work, according to the user manual (link in post #2).

To clarify, I'm not talking about changing anything here in the regular forums. Mostly, I see this system as a way to accomplish what Ian said that he wanted to accomplish for the BMO forums.
This can also be useful for the regular forums, though. I'd much rather hand out a couple of warnings than ban people and/or close threads. Robin wants to talk about people being jerks, that's it (especially when we don't have to).

[HoustonGM]

As a sidenote, how exactly do you "warn" or "infract" a post?

[ohms_law]

You click the little yellow and red cards in the top right of a post: