Wow so out of character for you of all people to disagree with everything I say . Have a good day you've really proven yourself, I hoep you feel good
That happens, but we don't do anything with those reported posts. The reports are to bring something to our attention, then we decide what to do with it. A reported posts does not equal action taken. We see enough every day that makes us roll or eyes and think 'grow up'. Luckily the majority are indeed serious enogh violations.
Think about what you are really asking... you want a moderator to write you a personalized PM for something that really is no big deal. Let's say there's 100 infractions a day x 3 minutes per PM. That in itself just added 5 hours/day of work just in writing personalized PMs to people asking them to not do something. Then you also have the problem of keeping track of who's been PMed about what historically to see if they have already been warned. Even if that takes 1 minute to manually check and 1 minute to log, you now are up to 5 minutes per infraction (8 hours, 20 minutes per day of extra work). You would be amazed at the amount of stuff that goes on behind the scenes by moderators/admins. There is no way that stuff can be kept track of in your head (especially with multiple moderators doing stuff at the same time). The infraction system certainly isn't the most personal approach, but as a forum grows, it's something that is necessary to realistically keep the reins on stuff. Think of it as a parking ticket... in itself it's no big deal, but if your parking tickets rack up and go unpaid you'll temporarily loose your license at some point. And asking for a personalized letter from the meter maid about why you received a parking ticket isn't practical as far as the realm of time constraints and what else do you want them to tell you that you don't already know (you got a parking ticket for parking illegally)...
You are totally missing the point, my problem is not with infraction system itself but with the fact that mods are increasingly getting involved in the discussions and the content of the posts and acting as a teacher in the kindergarten. The infractions are not the result of actually doing something wrong but disagreement with mods point of view. I got 2 infraction points for attacking another member, I send PM and asked if he has complained, he said that he didn't and I told him that I believe him, here is the last PM that he send to me: What infraction system is doing is to kill the only thing which is unique about this forum. I got another infraction point for hijacking a thread, I posted in the same thread that I think my post was relevant to subject but I never got any response about why a mod thought that my post was not relevant. Use the infraction system to organize the forum, don't use it to influence discussion or content of a post.
It never worked for me... Too many users to try and keep track of who you PMed about something, or if another mod already PMed them, etc. You end up giving someone 10 "warning" private messages about the same thing because no one knows (or remembers) if they were already warned or not.
There's simply going to have to be an agreement to disagree; a resolvement to accept; and, a realization that Shawn is not going to back away from this. I've gotten a PM from a mod (likely prior to the infraction system - I honestly don't know when it was implemented) about moving my post and a 'note' about its (why) placement, and yes that was great, felt honored that they would take the time and all that jazz. BUT ... I have to succumb to the facts that are at hand: Nearly 15000 active members with thousands of posts per day ... the only way to continue to maintain and absorb the continual growth is an automated system; Shawn calls it infraction, I like demerit but the fact is that it's a necessity. For some who've been members a really long time no doubt its a bit of culture shock not to be given more personalized attention and consideration, but then where would that end? Didn't someone mention cupcakes? Hell I'd go for some cupcakes!
and growing... close to topping 5,000 posts/day (which would work out to a new post every 17 seconds 24/7): http://www.big-boards.com/board/1676/
Infractions are not issued because you disagree with a mod, gworld (and you know that). Please, let me know where you came up with this one... Are you really going to make me cut and paste the same answers to you over and over again...Okay, here: Weeee. So you guys like to fight and call each other names. That's constructive. Do it over PM or IM then. Well, that thread doesn't revolve around gworld and posting a "WAH, I got an infaction, this is so unfair (even though I was warned in the same thread)" post had nothing to do with the topic at hand. I would suggest that you PM me or post a YAIT (yet another infraction thread), BUT we've gone around in circles with you numerous time and it's old, so don't. (Can you tell that playing dumb annoys me? )
A post in a mod opinion can be classified as hijacking a thread while in user opinion is relevant. The infraction is the result of difference in opinion. Unless a post is clearly irrelevant, there should be no infractions. Everything that is posted in a forum, can be also done through PM but then it will not be any forum, would it? I didn't say it will revolve around gworld, in fact I only posted in that thread in response to your post that mentioned I was hijacking the thread and asked why did you post that since my post was clearly related to the subject of the thread, in fact I didn't even mention the infraction in my post and only asked about why you thought it was irrelevant. Summer post My response to above post
I'm sorry, but that really makes no sense at all. So we should just have a free for all with no rules. Great idea, Gworld . If you feel this way, why have you reported 14 posts, just this month, for "personal attacks"? So you should be allowed to break the rules, but your going to tattletale on other people? That post was in response to the 3 or so "reported posts" I got about your previous posts in that thread. Gworld, this whole game where you play stupid is getting so incredibly old. Why don't you find something more constructive to do.
If you noticed, those reports usually started with "I am joining the other children in kindergarten and report according to Shawn instruction" I never reported even 1 post before I start getting banned and getting infractions because I simply answered to personal attacks. I prefer the old style when mods stayed out of discussion. In fact, I think anybody who reports a post to mods should get an infraction point.
I for one will just go back to lurking on this forum. The infraction system causes way too much drama and forces people to be overly cautious when posting. There are several other forums that meet my needs, and I'd rather contribute to them without fear of misguided reprisals than get more impersonal infractions due to a moderators opinion. To me, it seems that lurking and gleaning information from this forum would be a much more rewarding experience than actually trying to contribute to it at this point. I've gotten two infractions, one that made no sense to me at all, and another which was completely justifiable and had a decent explaination to go along with it. Unfortunately I feel the whole system is a juvenile, ill-conceived example of how not to moderate a forum. If you're having trouble doing all the moderation tasks, there's an easy solution to that. Get more moderators. There's no reason why this forum couldn't handle an additional queue of moderators, especially considering the pool of veteran posters that post on a regular basis. I've moderated and admin'd several forums, and I know how much of a pain in the ass it can be. However, I've personally experienced the destruction of several boards due to bad moderation. The result was a splintering of the forums into many side forums that consisted of the best members of the forums, minus the previous admins and moderators. I'm not sure DP is capable of such mutiny, I'm just saying I've seen it happen before.
Fair enough. I take it I'm suppose to know that due to the yellow icon to the left? You'll have to excuse my ignorance of a system that I've never encountered before on vBulletin, especially when it lists my "warnings" under a heading entitled: "Infractions".
That's an awful lot of conculsions you draw out of a short time experiencing a system you obviously don't comprehend jquindlen. If such hasty decisions were the standard, not many people would get laid after their first encounter... Just to state a few facts... The only people who think we have moderating capacity issues are just a couple of members. That idea seems largely based on the fact most of us don't want to send PMs for minor offences. I can repeat the parking and speeding ticket analogies again or a dozen others where you don't get personal attention but I don't see the need to be honest. So far I've counted less than half a dozen people truly complaining and so far only one has actually left, though that was about rep, not about infractions. So let's do some maths. Since the start of this thread one left and a few hundred signed up. Since the start of this thread we handed out roughly a 250 infractions. We had maybe 3 or 4 complaints about them. Since the start of the infraction system we saved cumulatively a few days work. Some say get more moderators, I say increase efficiency so the task is more enjoyable for all mods - because there's more time left for us to post for our own interest, to contribute and help members and write PMs about stuff that's not trivial. So given the fact we host thousands of members and a negligble fraction so far has complained (what do you expect in a large crowd anyway) and none have left directly due to the new system, I say it's a big success. Then again, just like it's new to you it's also new to us (and just like you lot make mistakes, we occasionally do as well) so we do take feedback on board and see how we can use threads like these to make this place even cooler than it already is.
I do not agree with you. I dont feel infractions has any effect on my posting. there is drama because a couple of people have created it. there is no point crying over infractions. you just need to stick with the posting guideline of this forum. If you play any game specially Cricket or soccer, there are situations when you get overheated due to many reasons and then if you violate any of its rules you get a penalty. Sometimes ban for one match or two. That decision depends solely on the match referee/Umpire. So do you quit playing? No, because you know it happens. The same rule applies here. If you violate any of rules you'll get infractions, solely depended on the opinion of moderator. Dont whine about it and no one will know. After sometime it will expire aoutomatically. Fair enough... you are always free to make your choice. Again its your choice... I have been here for a while and seen enough of moderation. And trust me (if you want to) the moderation here is way too lenient than many other good Webmaster's forums (take the example of Sitepoint, WMW, SEO-Karate-akkkk-Belt-Chat)
The general rule of any business, for every customer who actually complains, there are about 20 others who quietly take their business some where else. What you should consider here and ask yourself is: what is it that separates DP from other webmaster forums? Why has it become popular and so many join everyday? Take away what is unique and after awhile you will notice the effect on the number of people who join too.