Suggestion Finalized Banning Procedure

[The Chairman]

On January 15, 2003, 7 users were banned from Scubaboard. Most of the moderators and a few of our users were not satisfied with the process, and so we began discussing the hows and whys in the moderator’s forum. Subsequently we even opened up a new forum for our users to be able to express their thoughts and ideas.

In formulating the new process, we wanted to ensure to resolve a few issues germane to the larger issue. These would be communication, fairness, consistency and moderator responsibility. To this end we have come up with the following process:

Temp bans (5 days) can be called for by any moderator and are automatic. This can be in response to any violation of the TOS (moderator’s discretion), harassment of others, flaming others, or trolling. The moderator must send a notice (even though an administrator has to flip the switch) to the affected user’s e-mail and detail why the suspension was initiated. These should be rare and can be conditional.

Perm Bans are considered when the user exceeds 2 suspensions in less than 6 months, openly challenges authority (not just asking a question), threatens anyone in any way, or has blatantly violated the TOS. A perm ban requires 8 moderator’s approvals or a 2/3s majority of the mods voting, which ever is more. A temp ban should be called for first and then perm banning should be discussed for at least 5 days. The mod who initiated the temp ban is in charge of the process. They will also set the time for a vote (at least 5 days) and send the appropriate message if so needed. These should be very rare and can be conditional.

Under no circumstances will Scubaboard moderators or administrators disclose reasons or rationale for any disciplinary action to a third party. We view this as a privacy issue and are committed to protect the privacy of the board's users at all times. While we do respect a user's desire to request a review of the status of their account, we specifically forbid the use of sock puppets (multiple user accounts) or another user's account to make your case. All such requests must be sent to scubaboard@moderninsider.com for consideration. At this point of the process, we will not feel obliged to correspond any further unless we change your status. All moderators and administrators will forward any and all such requests sent to them personally as well.

Perm bans can be re-visited by any mod at any time and only need a simple majority of the mods voting to be rescinded.

As with any “invention” you are never sure how it works until tested. So it was suggested and then decided by the mods to subject the January 15 bans to the new process. 4 of the original 7 had perm bannings initiated and those are being discussed. While we hoped to have 3 of those 4 finalized today, server issues have made that impossible. However, we can report that Cobaltbabe, Raven C and 00Scuba have been subsequently restored to full user status. We welcome them back into the Scubaboard fold, and extend our sincerest thanks to those users who gave us input into this issue.

 

[WreckWriter]

Maybe Pete will re-moderate me for 5 minutes and I can take care of one of this board's biggest problems? nah, that's a fantasy

 

[chrpai]

Nice try, but this won't hold water. They didn't call you a stroke now, did they? (Please copy and paste where they did if I'm wrong).

If you're willing to mislead everyone on this point, what else can we expect?

He's not misleading anyone. When a diver refers to Rule #1 and a certain diver, everyone knows EXACTLY what that person is implying, and its not a compliment. Since Pug knows what was said, I'm assuming that he's the moderator that claimed Genesis was abusing the report post. To me its unexcusable for a DIR moderator to use his power to blame the victim of an character attack.

 

[TCDiver1]

Its very simple to find out GED

All you have to do is query the user database and look for all user records active within, say, the last two weeks.

Since the system keeps track of this for cookie maintenance purposes, the data is there. Its a simple query to retrieve.

I suspect that if what I've seen on the other boards I've been involved in (with the access to pull such a query) holds true that number is anywhere between 1 in 10 (on the high side) to 1 in 30 (on the low), and that for "active posters" its closer to 1 in 100.

20,000 is actually a very small number.

Uuuh ..... your talking to a non-computer type engineer who loved DOS and went to Windows kicking and screaming. Speak english man!

 

[chrpai]

Uuuh ..... your talking to a non-computer type engineer who loved DOS and went to Windows kicking and screaming. Speak english man!

What he's saying is that out of the 20,000 registered users of scubaboard, probably only a couple hundred are active users. The rest probably just rarely post, only lurke, or registered and then never used the system again.

I tend to agree. I used to run BBS's many years ago ( similar concept ) and I frequently ran a job called auto-maintenance. One of these functions was to purge unused accounts after so many days. I wasn't interested in claiming I had hundreds of users, I was interested in knowing who my users were.

 

[TCDiver1]

What he's saying is that out of the 20,000 registered users of scubaboard, probably only a couple hundred are active users. The rest probably just rarely post, only lurke, or registered and then never used the system again.

Yeah that was my original point. I just wasn't sure how to do the query he was talking about.

Not all of us in here are computer jockeys!

 

[cornfed]

So in other words you better not question a Mods diving practice because they can claim that your question isn't sincere and that your really questioning their authority. Glad to know thats the policy these days.

Exactly... that's exactly what he said...

 

[chrpai]

Yeah that was my original point. I just wasn't sure how to do the query he was talking about.

Not all of us in here are computer jockeys!

I don't admin bBulletin systems everyday, but I suspect he's right that it can be done. Almost every system I've ever used had some way of reporting user activity metrics. Especially useful to have these statistics for when trying to court advertisers.

 

[The Chairman]

Chrpai,

You are more than free to twist my words as you see fit. You have my answer and that isn't good enough for you. Probably nothing will be. When you want to be reasonable, I will continue the dialogue.

 

[cornfed]

You are more than free to twist my words as you see fit.

Hey Pete, can I use that as my signature line? LOL

 

[DennisW]

Now, I seem to remember, quite a while ago, someone actually did call me a stroke. I didn't have a clue what it meant then. Walter told me and I thought, "Cool, I'm a stoke and proud of it." Should I go back and find that thread to get someone banned for a week?

Not likely, call me anything you like. Name calling just shows ignorance.

So far, I like the rules. I suspect there are some others that reside behind the scenes. Like what happens if a Mod abuses the rules. I suspect that could happen as well. I don't need to know that rule. I trust Pete with the way he wants to handle the board. I also suspect that he will do what's right when and if the time comes to make things right.