TST's New Warnings System for Users

[iacas]

On Huddler, moderators and admins would occasionally place unruly members of the site who were abusing the rules in the "Penalty Box" group. This group could not post, but could otherwise read the site. The group had an expiration date, so most of the time mods/admins (hereafter "we") would put people in the Penalty Box for a day or two or three - enough time to "cool off" and move on beyond whatever was bothering them.

As a general rule, we do not ban many people at all here at TST (spammers excluded). In fact, weeks will go by between bans, which on a site as busy as this one, is virtually unheard of.

When we moved to IPS 4 on October 1, 2015, we lost the ability to "expire" user groups after a certain amount of time. This means that if we added someone to the Penalty Box, we had to remember to remove them. And, let's be honest, the Penalty Box wasn't as transparent as we'd like, either. Though many members were aware of why a member might be in the Penalty Box, they weren't aware of the specifics, and other members would often be completely unaware.

So, "Penalty Box" is going the way of the dodo.

Though the expiring user groups is going away, IPS 4 brings with it a fairly straightforward warning system. Through it, we (mods/admins) can issue warnings to people. They have to acknowledge the warning before they can continue to post, and the warning is tagged with a title, points, expiration dates for those points, and a notice for both the user and for us to see.

Just as with points on a driver's license or something like that, as users rack up points, their privileges decline. To the right you can see our current schedule. A user who racks up 10 points will have his content moderated for three days, or one day after he's allowed to post again (he's restricted from posting for two days).

A user who somehow reaches 40 points will have his content restricted for 24 days and his will not be able to post for 16. After that, if a user has 50 active points, they're permanently banned.

Additionally, other penalties may be applied as well, including the loss of PM privileges, the loss of the ability to post status updates, and other features on the site that exist either now or in the future.

As points expire, it doesn't change the penalties already incurred. For example, if Random User is warned with three points that expire in 10 days, and that takes him to 11 active points, he'll be moderated for three days and restricted from posting for two, but the points will fall off after those 10 days and he'll fall back down to 8 (if the 8 have not also expired). This simply means that another two-point warning or greater will result in the same or greater restriction being applied, again.

Though moderators and admins can customize the number of points, the expiration date of those points, and even whether to over-ride the existing restriction/moderation settings or their duration, our base level warnings right now are:

- Spamming, 999 points, never expires.*
- Spamming (Light), 5 points, 180 days
- Inappropriate Language, 3 points, 36 days.
- Rude/Obnoxious Behavior, 5 points, 72 days.
- Trolling, 5 point, 72 days.

* Note that this triggers the 50 point permanent ban.

So, in essence:

• The Penalty Box functionality is replaced with the warning system.
• The warning system is a much more efficient, public way to handle this type of stuff.
• At the end of the day, we use this type of stuff to limit or restrict posters way, way less than virtually all other forums. Golfer are, generally speaking, good people.

[Elmer]

Is this a test to see how quickly I can go from 0 to 40?

[boogielicious]

Is this a test to see how quickly I can go from 0 to 40?

Think of it as more of a less public way to discuss inappropriate posting. In the old site, mods may have responded to a post and called out the behavior. We also would have PM'd on occasion. This system allows us to warn the user and have them acknowledge the problem. 

[mvmac]

Good stuff, thanks for posting.

I've given the 1 million day warning a few times already (spammers), feels good 

[iacas]

I updated the settings earlier today. Basically, the points last longer and the restrictions and moderation lasts a little bit longer.

[MuniGrit]

@iacas I've asked a couple times and you just delete my question. I can assume because it's off topic so I think it's ok here. Why can't I PM?

[iacas]

6 hours ago, MuniGrit said:

@iacas I've asked a couple times and you just delete my question. I can assume because it's off topic so I think it's ok here. Why can't I PM?

Because you accumulated too many warning points, and:

On 10/16/2015 at 12:56 PM, iacas said:

Additionally, other penalties may be applied as well, including the loss of PM privileges, the loss of the ability to post status updates, and other features on the site that exist either now or in the future.

Your PM discussion with the moderation team was particularly damaging to your reputation and our opinion as to whether you even understand the issues you've created for yourself. It was, since you asked it directly here, laughable how far off base you were in that discussion.

That conversation showed the same level of intellectual maturity as your current avatar.

[iacas]

Updated only to add that @MuniGrit skipped past page 7, page 8, and even page 9, and 10, right to Banville.

Here's a clue, @MuniGrit: when multiple members and ALL of the moderators see things one way, you're the one at fault. The staff is empowered and encouraged to tell me when I'm wrong. I was not about you. Not even a little bit.

[iacas]

1100 days old, so now's as good a time as any to bump this.

The warning levels and times for suspension/moderation are still what they were 1100 days ago.

[iacas]

On 4/15/2021 at 2:13 PM, iacas said:

1100 days old, so now's as good a time as any to bump this.

The warning levels and times for suspension/moderation are still what they were 1100 days ago.

Still the same in early 2023.

And @MuniGrit is still not living in reality.

😄