How the Warning/Infraction System Works

I have seen a few questions on how the new Infraction System works so I thought I would touch on a few key aspects.

Here is a sample of what a member will see in their "My profile" on the Infraction page:

*Note* The above is a dummy account and is not a representation of an actual active member.
 

Lets examine a few of the key pieces here:

The most important aspect of the system is at the bottom left of the above screenshot. In this example the member has 5 points. If the member reaches 20 points a ban would be enforced. Now lets look at the individual items. At first glance you may notice that there are Red and Yellow "cards" next to each item. For those of you familiar with soccer/football the yellow and red cards are not new. A yellow card represents a warning and DOES NOT affect your total point count. A warning carries no expiration or points, it is simply a reminder of the rules. A red card is an infraction and DOES add to your total Point count. There are also dates representing how long the infraction will be active. Let's take a look at the infraction listed above. It shows that a "Rude/Disrespectful post" will only be active for 30 days. This means that at the end of 30 days the user's point total will go back down to zero. 

You may also take note of the Warning/Infraction counter at the top centre of the above screenshot, this a simple breakdown of the Warnings/Infraction received over a given period of time (30 Days, 6months, 1 year, All time). This will also help you monitor your Warnings/Infraction in an effort to avoid previous mistakes.

One question that comes up often is: Why do the warnings (that carry no "point" value) remain in my profile? Consequently an expired Infraction will not disappear either. These items remain in the user's profile to help other Staff decide how to handle certain situations. They also help remind the member that there may be a certain area of behaviour that needs to be kept in check. The member above is also reminded every time he/she looks at their profile page that they must watch their conduct on the forums. 

On top of the basic Infractions/Warnings, we implemented a new policy that is designed to weed out members who have demonstrated no desire to follow the rules - this policy works as follows: If during your membership here you accrue more then 10 infractions, your account will be banned. Please not that this policy does not include Warnings, and they are not counted towards your "10" Infraction limit. This does seem like a low number, however, it is rare that members approach this number without first finding themselves in other more serious issues, and it was determined that only a very small percentage of our members are even at risk of finding themselves subject to this policy.


Let's take a look at some of the more serious Infractions:

Trolling (4pts / 90 Days): When a member posts in a thread or creates a thread just to cause trouble will receive this Warning/Infraction. 

For Sale Bashing (5 pts / 30 Days): If a member is selling an item please refrain from negative comments. If you have a question about the item, please PM the seller.

Software Piracy (5 pts / 30 Days): Anytime that a member discussing acquiring software illegally or even admits to using pirated software this Warning/Infraction may be used. We take piracy seriously; after all we are protecting you by preventing you from posting material that would incriminate yourselves.

Rude / Disrespectful Post (5pts / 30 Days): Anytime that you insult another member or make ugly comments this Infraction can (and usually will) be used. Most of these infraction stem from reports of the post by the person that was offended. While not every post that gets reported will receive an Infraction they *ALL* get looked at. Members who have received this type of infraction or warning in the past are looked at more critically as they have already been warned.

This is a small snippet of the list and is not exhaustive.  

Warnings/Infractions are not for public discussion: 

Warnings/Infractions that you receive are not for public discussion on the open forums. They are only to discussed with the Staff member that issued it or other Forum Moderators/Senior Moderators if the issuing member of Staff is not available. Please be aware that discussing Warnings/Infractions can be met with a Warning or Infraction depending on the severity/occurrence of the event.

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The key point that I want to get across is to not overreact if you receive a Warning or Infraction. They are just here so that you act more carefully in the future. If you wish to contact a member of Staff with regards to Warnings/Infractions, please do so calmly and they will be more than happy to clear things up.

1. If you are getting worked up over a warning, you need to revisit the first part of this thread. A warning is nothing so serious as to cause a great deal of panic or stress. I state this again to imply a great deal of importance. Warnings help to remind you of a rule that was broken. Perhaps you didn't even know a rule was being broken, so the warning lets you know.
2. All infractions and warnings are made public to the director team. In fact every warning or infraction has it's own thread in the director forum. Often these threads are used to modify the warning or infraction. Sometimes they are reversed and sometimes the warning or infraction is upgraded to something more serious. So this means that more than one person has a chance to comment on each warning/infraction.