Attention Everyone: Very Important

[Miranda_]

The forum staff have decided that it's time to address a couple of issues that have been cropping up recently. If you have any questions about either, feel free to ask them in this thread. However, please do not spam or flame; this is a serious information thread.

Profile Comment Warnings.

If you break rules on the forum, the first point of call is a comment warning from one of the staff, be it one of the mods (Elanorea, Sarah, Hayley or Wolfie); Kitty or myself. For a minor offence like breaking signature rules or spamming, you will get just one; for serious offences, you're likely to get more than one from different members of the forum staff. If you want to have the comments removed, then you have to wait two weeks before politely contacting the staff member who left it and asking for its removal.

Now, we get on to the real issue. It seems that some users on here are claiming that certain members of the forum staff are uncontactable and deleting their warnings. This is a lie. Every single member of the team can be reached thru Private Message or Dollmail, even if their profiles are private. Using this excuse does not help your case at all, it just makes you out to be deliberately trying to break the rules and escape your just punishment. I for one get very annoyed when people claim that I can't be contacted, just cuz my profile is private; I check my PMs and the mainsite every day, so if you PM or DM me, I certainly will receive it.

I am not about to make my profile public just to pander to users who think that they own the forum and that the forum staff should be around for them to harrass and abuse as much as they want. I used to have my profile public; however, constantly having to clean spam and flames out of it was very wearing so eventually I made it friends only. Everyone on this forum has the right to a private profile, not just you and your friends.

Harrassment And Comment Warnings.

This issue is being addressed due to certain people on here who seem to think they have a right to constantly bug the mod team thru PM and profile commenting about removing warnings. In case you forgot, harrassment is against forum rules and anyone who ignores this rule will be severely punished, whether they're harrassing a newbie or an admin. If you don't like having comment warnings on your profile, then just maybe you should have thought of that before you repeatedly broke the rules on here. The rules are not difficult to either find or understand, and you can always ask the forum staff about any you don't understand. This is preferable to spamming and harrassing and you will not get into trouble as long as you ask nicely.

Now, due to people who are harrassing forum staff about deleting warnings, we have introduced the concept of permanent warnings. A permanent comment warning is handed out only as a last resort, such as in the case of serious crimes like trolling, and also if a user is repeatedly harrassing and bugging a member of the mod team. These warnings will carry a penalty of a temp ban if they are deleted. Just stop and think about what you're doing before you start harrassing; how would you feel if you were on the receiving end? There's a human being behind every mod team member's name just as there is behind every user's name... and we don't have to take abuse.

[Silent_Wolf]

I want to point out a comparison for users who don't understand, as well. While I'm not familiar with the system yet (taking me awhile and I'm not appointed yet), there are two types of warnings: Comment and Profile.

Comment warnings can be deleted BY A MODERATOR ONLY. You CANNOT delete them yourself. E.V.E.R. The only time this doesn't apply is when it becomes a permanent warning, meaning you wouldn't stop bugging us about removing said warnings, like Miranda mentioned. They stay. FOREVER. Much like:

Profile warnings ARE NOT DELETED EVER. They are permanent and will stay in cy.berspace for all eternity and are an everlasting blemish upon your internet facade. These are usually handed out when you have done something serious and that warrants something beyond comment warnings. In the past these were given out as well to people who had their profiles set to Friends Only Comments and Moderators couldn't post on their profiles. They seemed to feel that because they had their profiles set to private and their comments set to Friends Only that they were safe from the moderators and their "horrible" warnings/infractions. WRONG! Profile warnings are NEVER deleted. They do not appear on your public/private/whatever forum profile you have, but the admin and moderator staff can see it. It is in fact these types of warnings that cause bans of any sort, not comment warnings (though sometimes users just don't seem to get the idea and we've actually had spammers who were banned within 15 minutes of joining...).

Also: Yes, I AM contactable. Just not on my profile, much for the same reasons as Miranda except people were rating me low for reasons unknown and yes, we can see what numbers you vote on our own profiles. Spam too was a factor... I'm available via PM and DM; I never want to hear anybody whining about how I can't be contacted, wah wah wah. It's called the PM system. And I also don't want to hear anybody saying 'but I don't know how' because there's a thing on here called Who's Online that we can use to see what you're doing. We see you using the PM systems too, you know. :\ Not necessarily who you're PMing, but that you are using it.

[Silver_Wolf_Kitty]

^Me and Miranda can view all activity. That's how we usually figure out that someone does know how to work the system.

By the way, this had to be put up because I was being harassed on my profile. To clarify, I leave my comments open for polite members who wish to speak to me and ask questions casually, but by no means does that make me the center for all activity. I don't want members arguing with mods through my profile since they can't go to theirs and I don't care for tons of comments asking the same thing, usually to delete comments. Its rude to ask me about warnings on my profile since its an area to speak to me casually, so please send me PMs regarding them instead.

If anyone has any concerns or questions about this, don't be afraid to ask. It is new and I don't want people to become overly concerned.

[iZUMiiA_]

Thanks for reminding Miranda_
I would never ever forget the rules now!

[Silver_Wolf_Kitty]

Apparently a user has though since she continues to harass me, though in private now. This applies to PMs too folks. I feel very attacked at this point in time and am not amused.

[delly1]

Originally Posted by Miranda_

Now, due to people who are harrassing forum staff about deleting warnings, we have introduced the concept of permanent warnings. A permanent comment warning is handed out only as a last resort, such as in the case of serious crimes like trolling, and also if a user is repeatedly harrassing and bugging a member of the mod team. These warnings will carry a penalty of a temp ban if they are deleted. Just stop and think about what you're doing before you start harrassing; how would you feel if you were on the receiving end? There's a human being behind every mod team member's name just as there is behind every user's name... and we don't have to take abuse.

Honestly I would permanently ban them if they continue harrassing any of you. I totally understand where you all are coming from as it is not fair. I don't understand why these members(generally being our new members) don't read the rules entirely and or read them and ask questions if they don't understand them. I haven't recived one email about questions they may have about the rules and instead a new member will break them the next day and you mods have to place the rules on their profiles, because they don't read them or don't read them carefully.

I wish there was a function for the mods to be able to view all members that have or haven't read the rules and the one's that haven't should be restrained from posting untill reading the rules...

[Silent_Wolf]

That would be having just the Friends and Newbies area visible to new users until they post a certain amount of times (and that means no spamming).

[Miranda_]

The problem with making an entire board private is that it means that newbies get fed up with not being able to post and go elsewhere. Tho you can have certain sections open (one forum I go on has a public GD area and a VIP discussion area for regular members), making the entire forum private means that newbies not only have nowhere to post, but it also makes it difficult to we'ed out the nogoods, plus might mean that decent posters might be put off.

[delly1]

Those are extremely valid points made. I did not consider that. It justs gets really frausterating seeing people acting so stupid on here by breaking the rules consantly.