Please kill the infraction system before it kills DP

if you have a problem with a moderator, contact another moderator or Shawn to explain what you think the problem is.

 

the_gallery - Posting to complain about infractions will get you another one. Read the infraction sticky.

And again, don't make up stories just to make yourself look like the victim. No mod was after you with a personal aggenda. You got 4 infractions from a mod (the last one who'd go after someone with a vendetta at that). They didn't go looking through all your posts to give you infractions to try to get you banned, as you'd like people to believe. They were all for inappropriate posts in the same thread. If the moderator wanted you banned, they could have. You have enough inappropriate posts still in that thread alone to rack up 10 infraction points and be out for a while. Start taking responsibility. Learn the rules, and follow them.

 

The thread was merged with old threads from many months ago and is now completely unfollowable and ruined. When was it against the rules to start another sales thread for a domain months after the first one.

To put it simply, I report a harrasing post, nothing happens, then I report the second harassing post from a member, the mod gets mad and ruins my thread and gives me 4 infractions without their name attached, bringing me half way to being banned. I am sure they will find a reason to give me the rest of the infractions and then they can be happy... This is not the first time this has happened.

 

Duplicate threads are against the rules. Unless there are significant changes in the offer, you cannot start a new one. And to start a new one you first have to request that a mod closes the original sales thread (which they may or may not due based on the reason).

Until very recently we had hundreds of pages of reported posts. It's very likely no one got to the first report when you made the second. There would have been absolutely no reason for them to get mad at you for reporting something a second time. If anything would have annoyed them it would have been the constant bumping. When people report others for breaking the rules, but they're breaking rules themselves in the same thread, they shouldn't expect to get a free ride. If you don't want to get infractions, be above reproach. Most people get infractions. No one's looking for reasons to ban you. We have far better things to do. But if you repeatedly break the rules and it results in a ban, then that's no one else's fault.

 

Actually I didn't bump the thread even once. The mod gave me all the infractions based on supposed bumps that occured many months ago.

 

Please review the BST sticky that details some types of posts that constitute bumps.

Bump.

Bump.

Those are just two of the ones that were deleted. You also have bumps still visible in that thread.

 

I agree 100% that DP mods should do whatever is needed to rid this forum of all those stupid "PM me", "PM sent" and "I'm interested" posts. If you're interested then contact the OP and do the deal! People in the real business world don't sit around waiting for someone to contact them...they go out and make it happen!!

The only problem with the infraction system is when the post is not so obvious like they are in the above examples. The definition of what constitutes a "useless post" for the purpose of giving an infraction is completely subject to the moderators opinion, as proven even within this thread, as different moderators here have already given differing interpretations.

I've received the "useless post" infraction claiming that I was trying to rack up my post count, which is totally untrue. I only post when I have something to say and I have no reason to rack up my post count, as I'm not trying to sell my sig or anything like that, so I have no "quota" that I need to meet to please anyone.

I come here simply to discuss things with other webmasters, as that is what forums are for. Sometimes I do get a bit heated with the scammers, but I won't apologize for exposing the truth, and I only point out obvious lies and scams when newbies are about to get suckered yet again.

At other times I will point out why something is a good deal, in an effort to help a noob see through all the crap and I've also reported posts myself. I've been thanked for that, including by mods, and I do my best to help.

Some of the mods here are doing a great job and I know its a difficult, thankless one, while others are on an obvious power trip, and they like having that power.

The forum should be a great, relaxed atmosphere where everyone feels welcome to discuss and LEARN. I'm just afraid it may be headed into more of a tyranny soon. Rid the world of the "PM sent" posts, yes, but try to have a little compassion for others just trying to join in on the discussion.

 

There's nothing obscure about the above examples. Posting to say an offer is still open is a bump, as is posting to say how much longer before an offer ends. They're clearly covered in the bumping sticky in BST.

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=380173

 

According to my experience here, the Buy/Sell/Trade thread always gets the confidence of the potential buyers if they see positive comments from previous buyers having a good reputation/old members. So now that this has been put in a list of reasons for infractions, how can we get a good/valid deal? If no one posted, and everyone sent PM's how do we come to know how that particular item/service lives up to the guarantee the OP has given.

And totally agreeing to both sides of the arguments here, i have an idea where we can perhaps stop spammers. We can have certain rules in BST like:
1) Only people with high posts/good iTraders/old members can start a thread.
2) Only people with average count of posts/itraders be able to reply to these threads.

Wouldnt this keep the BST section spic and span to a certain extent. It would certainly stop the scams that take place here.

 

The thread was merged with 2 other threads from many months ago.

Why am I getting retroactive infractions from months old posts, which I probably already received infractions for?

 

It's impossible to leave 2 infractions on the same post, no matter how old they are.

 

Well, in the OP could be allowed to close his/her/it's own thread, that problem would go away.

 

Mia - The only problem with letting people close their own threads is that we'd have people abusing it, and more complaints about it to deal with. For example, they might close it just to start duplicate threads which isn't allowed (just to bump their offer to the top), and we'd have people closing threads the moment they get negative reviews.

Slash84 - No one's stopping people from leaving legitimate reviews. If you took part in the deal and you were happy (or not), you can post about that. Reviews are allowed. Posting to say you're interested, saying you've PMd the OP (or asking them to PM you), giving commentary on the offer without taking part in it, and bumping your own thread are not allowed.

 

I think infraction system must be active, I also have 4 infractions and have 7day banned 2 times before, people do mistake. But they must correct it, so infraction system give a lesson for us. Otherwise there are lot of useless posts in Buy/Sell section.

Thanks
Blog.

 

Why is it that harassing posts are often not dealt with after being reported, and nonsense itrader ratings are not dealt with?

Of course the forum needs an infraction system, as long as the infractions are issued for the right reasons. For example, giving me an infraction everytime I post in this thread? Why? Some rule about complaining about infractions... I say it is better to post this in public, sending private messages are not doing any good, some mod actually gave me infractions for sending them a private message asking them a question???? lol

 

Harassing posts are dealt with when we see the reports. We don't see them immediately, and sometimes not even quickly. It's also at the discretion of the person seeing it. We get a lot of reports for things that don't get "dealt with" because people are reporting posts they don't like even if they don't actually break the rules. We have all kinds of garbage to sort through when it comes to reports.

Moderators cannot do anything about iTraders. Only admins can (and there are only two active admins). It's at their discretion and when they can get to them. In general, it's an unmoderated area. They often cannot prove if a deal did or didn't take place. Abusive behavior though is dealt with (such as people we can verify creating multiple accounts just to leave repeated iTrader for someone for revenge or something).

No mod gave you an infraction for PMing them. Even though things may say "private" in your list where posts were deleted, that has nothing to do with private messages. Mods can still see the deleted posts linked there. The closest would be a profile infraction (which you haven't had since sometime in '08), and on the occasion you got that, it was for bumping. We use those if someone is bumping a lot to give them a combined / condensed warning instead of issuing infractions for each individual post. The only times someone might get an infraction for doing something "private" would be if they're reported for PM spam (doesn't apply to you) or if they were repeatedly making inappropriate bad post reports for things that didn't break the rules, such as just to repeatedly bitch about another member whose posts they didn't like (also doesn't apply to you).

Your infraction questions belong in PMs. They're inappropriate for the public board. You've been warned about it. Keep it there in the future, or you will probably get more infractions. We have too many people who bitch about infractions they deserved for simply not following the rules. We don't have the time to deal with constant posts of people's whining every time they get caught and want to blame a mod instead of taking responsibility.