Guidelines for enforcing the rules

[Leslie Clarke]

This post describes some guidelines to follow when enforcing this forum’s rules. They are explicitly guidelines because they should be followed in most circumstances in order to make moderation more consistent, but on the other hand exceptional circumstances may arise. In those situations a different set of actions may be required.

Remember: as a moderator you have great power, and with great power must also come great responsibility. Fail in your duties (be it through neglect or abuse of your authority) and you will be relieved of those duties!

From infraction to warnings to ban

When you spot an infraction against the rules, or if one is reported to you, it’s necessary for you to consider whether a) it’s truly an infraction; and b) if it’s worth pursuing. Very minor infractions may be tolerable, perhaps with a verbal warning (not accompanied with a raised warning-level).

In other cases, the user should be given a verbal warning. If they apologise or at least seem to understand why they were told off, and ideally also say they’ll refrain from repeating the behaviour, no further action may be needed – being able to forgive is, after all, an important virtue. Leaving a staff-note on the account (not a warning-note) is useful for posterity. State explicitly that the user’s warning-level was not raised, and be descriptive so other staff-members (and future you) know what’s going on.

In other cases, their warning-level is to be incremented by one and the verbal warning repeated as a warning-note. If you notice that a user has a high warning-level, you may want to start a thread in “Staff-discussion” or, if necessary, “Private staff-discussion” to discuss whether or not further further action against them is necessary.

A notable exception to the above is when dealing with accounts that seem to be automated, and especially spam-accounts. Accounts that just post spam can be escalated immediately to being banned. State “spam-account” as the reason.

Enforcing dubious user- and display-names

A “dubious” name is one that’s offensive (e.g. it contains a slur or something like “I want all the gays dead”) or manages to contravene the rules (e.g. a display-name that’s a URL to a porn-video).

If the username is concerned the forum-account must be deleted since neither you nor the user can change their username. Explain to the user by PM that their username is unacceptable and that they’ll have to come back with another one, and that they have 48 hours until their account will be deleted. After 48 hours have elapsed since you sent the PM delete the account, regardless of whether or not the user has responded.

If the display-name is concerned you must explain to the user by PM that their display-name is unacceptable and that they have 48 hours to change it. After 48 hours have elapsed since you sent the PM, check back. If the user has changed their display-name no further actions are required. If they haven’t remove their display-name. Increase their warning-level and add a warning-note stating that their display-name had to be cleared.

Removing threads

If a thread itself is in violation of the rules it has to be removed. Leave a reply stating that the thread is being removed within 24 hours, and also state why it’s being removed. Lock the thread and apply the label “Pending removal.” Remove the thread after 24 hours have elapsed since you left the reply.