Time Outs/Bans
 

I have a question (I guess directly to the admins?), and I did not know where else to put it.

I searched the site, but I am unable to find any information in the TOS related to time out/bans (except for permanent bans related to racism).

What I am specifically wondering about is if there is some sort of system in place related to "repeat offenders".

Meaning, if a person gets Timed Out for two days for an infraction/ "not acceptable behavior" (just going to call it infraction for the sake of conversation), if they commit the same infraction and get another Time Out, will the number of days for the Time Out increase (for example, the next time it happens it goes to seven days, the next fourteen, etc.)?

Also, is there any stopping point? Can people receive only so many Time Outs before getting Banned? Or so many Time Outs over a certain period of time before being Banned? (whether it be for the same type of infraction, or different ones).

I guess what I am wondering is what motivation is there for someone to not be Timed Out a second, third, etc., time?

This question is not coming up for any actual reason (I have no concerns about the current system), it just popped into my head, so I thought I would ask it. With the site being so new, I was wondering if it has even been thought about yet.

Thanks.

Hey Dapper,

Sorry I missed this thread!

We have a *very* loose system with regards to how we time people out and how the time of their time-out is increased.

We do something called "the banned-wagon". This *loosely* means that if (example) DapperButch gets a 1-week time-out for leaving a crappy rep-note for someone and comes back from the time-out and does the same behavior of leaving a crappy rep note, we increase the time of the time-out usually by a week or two for each offense.

We do a lot of communication behind the scenes with folks and this can sometimes affect the length of their time-out. Generally, if we communicate with someone and say "Hey, leave so-and-so alone and stop making swipes at them in the thread" and they immediately go and make a swipe, we might start with a 2 or 3 week time-out since they have already been warned.

If a person keeps repeating the same behavior over and over again and we have exhausted ourselves sending dozens of private messages to them and they are escalating their behavior, making threats, or generally refusing to take responsibility for their actions, we might give them a 30-day time-out if we feel it will help them cool off or take stock in how they want to participate here.

We do have some members who are repeat offenders. They might have been given several 1-week time-outs for different offenses. The reason they would keep receiving 1-week time-outs as opposed to escalating the length of the time-out might be that they aren't repeating the same behavior but rather, doing different things at random times.

We try to look at how many issues we have had from the same member over a certain length of time, what kind of issues they are having, if they are trying to have a positive experience in this community or merely chasing their ex around the boards trying to get a rise from them, etc.

There are certain instances where have given people very long time-outs rather than just throw them away.

We haven't outright banned but just a few. One of them was a well-known troll. One of them made several death threats against Jack and I. One of them owns a competing website and refused to comply with our request to stop spamming our member database.

As far as someone going from "banned-wagon" where we increase the length of time of their time-outs directly to a longer time-out, this has happened a couple of times with us. Generally, there has to be something pretty egregious going on for that to happen.

If we feel that someone is repeatedly interacting in a negative way with the members or management here simply out of a desire to play games for lack of something better to do, with a complete disregard for the community or rule structure, or with intentional disrespect to this community, we feel it is more responsible of us to put the person on a lengthy time-out than allow them to contaminate the community with hateful comments or intentional disrespect.

We are kinda figuring things out as we go along, Dapper :)
Our main goal of starting this site was to see the community thrive in a healthy way. We kinda had pie-in-the-sky hopes that we would never have to moderate or time-out a single person but we quickly found out that there are some folks who are not going to be invested in this community in the same way we are, or who think that they dont have to follow the rules, or who dont agree with the rules here and therefore dont follow them by default.
And sometimes people dont read the rules at all! I was in chat one night and found this out the hard way :)

The most basic thing I can say about our view on bans and time-outs is that we want to be humane and allow room for people to learn from their mistakes, to evolve from bad behavior, and remain in this community even if their communication style is like a square peg in a round hole or if they are socially awkward, etc.
We also want to allow room for us as managers of this community to learn from our own mistakes and from what the membership best reacts to when dealing with problem posting or behaviors. We arent here to Mother people, dominate them, get our jollies by bossing them around, or insist that they tow the Planet line when here. We simply ask for respect for the community and a very minimum of effort on behalf of every member here to keep The Planet healthy, positive, and humane.

Its a work in progress but Im pretty sure we are moving in a good direction :)

Good questions!

Thanks!

Thanks, Medusa. I appreciate your thorough response.

That was a very detailed response, Medusa. Thanks. And, thank you Dapper for asking.

I have a somewhat related question and do not know if this is the right place to post it, but here goes: Why is a thread shut down due to specific individuals behaviors instead of placing said individuals on a time out from the site (after suitable mod warning)?
thanks, and I'll take my answer off line ... oops! this isn't the radio ...:)

Im trying to remember if we have ever closed a thread at all but I do seem to recall we have closed one thread over its highly inappropriate intention to mock and ridicule. There might have been another thread that we have closed but I'll have to research because I honestly cant remember :)

I will say that the times when I would be comfortable closing an entire thread would be if the thread's purpose was specifically to mock or ridicule one person or if a thread was explicitely, intentionally, and blatantly racist, transphobic, sexist, etc.

hmmm, then I am supposing that the threat of closing a thread is used to induce corrective behavior??? just trying to guess at what I have seen ... and I am pretty new to online communities.

Wax,

It looks like you are asking about a specific scenario that happened recently. In that case, the Mod in question was issuing a general reminder to the thread. If that were to remind people to stop taking swipes at each other and get on the topic of the thread and not on the topic of an individual, then I think that the Mod made a good decision.

We don't generally close threads but if they skate right on the line, then a Mod will generally have to keep a close eye on them to make sure that nobody is violating the TOS.

I will be glad to speak further with you about this in a private message if you like.

:)