Probation

Fratton Fred

I’ve been put on “Probation” for three months. One more ban or infraction and I get a site ban.

Is there an actual process for this, or is it just an arbitrary thing based on an Admins own judgement?

KERSPLAT!

Cause enough trouble you get put on probation. There's no set number of infractions or bans but if you're put on probation you've already had enough chances, IMO. You need to be wasting a serious amount of mod time to be put on it.

Tokyo

I'm not going to post details of your record here publicly, but I can tell you that the number of warnings, infractions and bans against your account are all in the double digits, a couple per month for the last few months, with no reprise.

It's fair to say that this is a ridiculous workload to put on the mod teams in various forums, and there's no indication that you are taking heed of any of those various infractions. So probation is definitely warranted.

To answer your specific question, we assess on a case by case basis, but taking the example above, it's fair to say that we don't hand them out like candy. By the time a probation is issued, that user has had multiple opportunities to reassess their posting style and has ignored each and every one.

Fratton Fred

mike_ie wrote: »

I'm not going to post details of your record here publicly, but I can tell you that the number of warnings, infractions and bans against your account are all in the double digits, a couple per month for the last few months, with no reprise.

It's fair to say that this is a ridiculous workload to put on the mod teams in various forums, and there's no indication that you are taking heed of any of those various infractions. So probation is definitely warranted.

I wasn't asking you to post my record, or to justify your actions.

mike_ie wrote: »

To answer your specific question, we assess on a case by case basis, but taking the example above, it's fair to say that we don't hand them out like candy. By the time a probation is issued, that user has had multiple opportunities to reassess their posting style and has ignored each and every one.

so is this in conjunction with the forum mods, or does an admin just decide to take action (I have had first hand experience of Admins doing this and causing major issues, so I am a bit wary of the possible implications).

Surely, if there is no actual guidelines, it comes down to the personal opinions of Admins and therefore can be open to accusations of unfair treatment.

Also, do the number of posts a user reports get taken in to consideration when applying this arbitrary action?

Fratton Fred

one last question, why does my post in this forum not appear until it has been approved by a mod? is this an attempt to stifle open discussion?

Tokyo

There's no conspiracy to stifle discussion. The helpdesk is a magnet for trolling - premoderating threads allows us to actually provide help and feedback where it is requested.

As to your inquiry, persistent troublemakers are generally brought to the attention of admin by forum mods/CMods. It generally takes a case of someone constantly causing issues for forum mods or abusing the system for this to happen. Once that happens, each instance of probation is assessed case by case by admin on its own merit. Personally I think that's a good thing - it means that an actual person is looking at your case, and allows admin to give a user the opportunity for them to improve their posting style before they end up being site banned.