Proposal Solidifying a Rule for Mod Justification

So recently the debate for Mods leaving justifications for their actions in their posts has been raging on, and it was locked when Stalin said that it already existed and thus could not be debated. Of course I am happy to see Stalin in support of such an action, however circumstance would have it that the rule does not exist yet. However I would like to be the first in making it as simple as possible for Stalin this clause to be added and thus any discussion on the issue to cease.

This could be the section:

If it were edited into the rules it would look something like this:

Posting rules

Breaking any of the rules will automatically get user warned accordingly regardless of context or user excuses.

- Posting pornographic links, photos, videos & files is strictly prohibited.

- Revealing personal information of other member is also strictly prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to: numbers, addresses, pictures...

- No spamming or flooding. Same comment can be in multiple threads, as long as it is on topic & contributes to conversation. Note that "getting message across" is not an excuse under any circumstances.

- No user is permitted to have more than one account. Limited exceptions may be made with prior consent of the staff. Non-primary accounts will be banned immediately upon discovery, unless it's one of the previously described exceptions.

- Discussion of how to pirate copyrighted software, regardless of the source, is strictly prohibited. This includes posting files and/or links to download a copyrighted material.


Posting guidelines - Introduction

Breaking posting guidelines will not automatically make user guilty, unlike breaking rules. Staff member can independently judge the situation based on context and other factors if user is guilty of breaking posting guideline and act accordingly. These factors include, but are not limited to: humor, doing harm was intended or not, nature of the thread or comment and so on.

If user is found guilty & believes that (infraction) was not justified:
*If no infraction was given, user:
- can PM a staff member and try and prove that ones post was not breaking guidelines.

**If infraction was given, user can:
- PM a staff member and try and prove that ones post was not breaking guidelines.
- If user is unhappy after PMing staff member he can appeal to staff as a whole and issue an appeal.
- If user still believes he/she was not breaking the guidelines after two previous steps, one can appeal to JosefVStalin directly.

Note that this exchange is done privately, between user and the staff. It is not up to a public debate. For more information in regards to appeals scroll down further.


Posting guidelines - Responsibility of the staff

Moderators are bound to enforce posting guidelines, are expected to have unbiased and just judgement.


When an infraction is given moderators have to write a comprehensive message to the user as to what they are being warned for and a source (Posting guidelines) to back up their judgement. Personal note is also accepted if stated in a message.

If user believes that a staff member acts out of line, one should take it to JosefVStalin.

When any action (such as locking a thread, deleting a post, editing a post, etc.) is taken by a moderator, that moderator must leave some sort of notice as to why that action was taken*. This notice can be as short as a single sentence if the moderator sees fit. If, for whatever reason, a member does not understand the reason they may privately message the moderator for further information.

*If several of these actions are done in the same thread and in a close proximity of time, then the moderator would only be asked for one notice.

Posting guidelines

- Personal Attacks will not be tolerated. This includes any material which is vulgar, defamatory, libel, harassing, hateful, threatening, invading of others privacy, sexually oriented, racially motivated, or violates any laws. User will be given a warning or a ban, temporary or permanent, depending on severity if you violate this policy. ***Note that one can be warned for breaking this rule only if report is made by user(s) it was targeted at***

- Sexually offensive, sexually explicit material. This includes suggestive images, graphics, and comments.

- While political speech is generally tolerated, there are certain limits towards what is considered political, and what is considered hateful. The site recognizes hate speech as:

*Speech that carries no meaning other then the expression of hatred for some group, such as a particular race, esp. in circumstances in which the communication is likely to provoke violence.

**Further, genocidal comments, defined as "expressing the desire to cause serious physical and mental harm with the intent to destroy, partially or entirely a group of people" will not be tolerated.

**Groups include, but are not limited to

- Race

- National origin

- Gender

- Sexual Orientation

- Religion

- Political view

- Any post that causes script errors by entering any type of code in a message post.

- Any links or codes that causes harm or attempts to cause harm to another users computer.

- Do not post more than once consecutively, if you forgot to add something in your original post, use the edit post feature.

- Do not dig up old threads. If you want to continue an old discussion (older than six months), create a new thread and reference the old one in your post.


Infractions

NKVD uses a tiered infraction system with the corresponding point values as follows:

*1st Tier offenses (1 Point)

-Insulting another user

- Reusing a signature/avatar after staff had previously removed it

- Double posting

- Necroposting

**2nd Tier offenses (2 Points)

-Insulting another member after being previously infracted

-Inappropriate Material

-Posting of another users private information without the expressed consent of that user

-Piracy

-Hate speech

-Multiple accounts - One Week Ban

**3rd Tier offenses

- Malicious Content

- Spamming

-Third tier offenses will result in instant and permanent bans

-Third tier offenses are only appealable if the user can show evidence that his account had been hacked and the actions taken were not his.

Banning

*The accumulation of 3 points in a one month time period, will result in a 7 day ban

-Upon completion of initial ban, users will remain at three points for exactly 30 days unless further infractions are given

-Users who are infracted within the first 30 days after coming out of a ban will be given a 1 month ban

-Users who are infracted in the 30 days following this 2nd ban will be permanently banned

-All non routine bans pend JosefVStalin's approval before enacted

**Users in good standing who have been infracted will lose points at a rate of one per month

Appeals - Infraction

In order to insure users are given a fair experience, users who have been infracted by a staff member have the right to appeal their decision.

- Appeals will be heard in a timely manner, and involvement will be limited to the plaintiff, infracting staff member, and a third party staff member.

- Appeals will take both parties arguments into consideration with regard to the site rules, and applicable ruling precedents.

- Appeals will take place via private messaging unless otherwise designated.

- Once the Appeal is complete, the decision cannot be further appealed, and the decision is final.

- Appeals are not up for a public debate


Appeals - Bans

Most bans will now come directly from JosefVStalin unless

• The ban is Routine against a Spambot, Multi-account etc.
• The ban is required in order to stop a user spamming, posting malicious content etc.

therefore, appeals for all bans must go directly through Stalin, this can be done by emailing him at:comradestalin1@gmail.com, contacting him via Skype or other means.

(Currently it is located under "Posting Guidelines - Responsibility of the Staff)
Note: Obviously some edits would be made to make it clearer, more concise, and to add a personal touch of Stalin.

In this way I hope to aid in the clarification of this rule and by extension better the forum.

PS.

inb4lock/delete

You're really starting to get annoying.

I'm not annoyed. Press on.