Since a few folk have mentioned that they've received "Infractions" I thought it might be a good idea to clarify what they are and what we're trying to do with them. They are a feature that we've never used until quite recently, so the Moderator Team, after some discussions, is experimenting a little to see how they might help us.

Basically they're a quick and easy way for any moderator to highlight to a user that their post content may be pushing the boundaries of what's acceptable. It could mean that borderline posts are less likely to be deleted; it should mean that anyone consistently coming close to that point is made aware of it earlier and given the opportunity to tone things down a bit.

It's unclear yet how useful these may or may not be in the long term, but whereas in the past we've often had (sometimes lengthy) discussions within the mod team about whether such-and-such an action, e.g. issuing a short ban, might be warranted, these allow us to quickly highlight an issue and move on. A record of these is kept and is visible to all moderators, so we can easily see if someone has a 'history' without needing to dig into past postings.

There are several infraction types available for us to use, each of which can be issued as an Infraction, which accrues a point score, or a Warning, which does not. Reaching a certain number of points within a certain timescale can be used to trigger an automatic action, like a one-day ban (which I only use as an example since it seems to be the system default). Each Infraction or Warning is required to be accompanied by a PM from the Mod giving some explanation if what it was for and a link to the offending post.

The exact nature of the Infraction types, the points and any associated actions is currently not fixed, so I'd rather not go into the full details here, as we may change them at some point if we consider it worthwhile. Equally we may decide that they're not helpful and simply stop using them.

So please bear in mind if you receive one of these that it's been used instead of any other action, like editing or deleting your post, and also, just like any other PM, that it's supposed to be Private. If the reason is not clear then feel free to reply to the PM for clarification.

Thanks for reading; thanks in advance for your understanding.

For the more competitive forum members: will the naughty list be visible for everyone?

EF used to have this link, where you could see who had been on-line, how many thanks etc. (if you searched for it). Guess it’s still there, just not visible for the likes of of us.

Got a mod message about "Deleting all the silly posts here", so I wondered what he considered silly. One might expect the opening message to be
gone but that's still there together with two lonely posts ..... everything else is gone although it was just the - usual - ones totally out of line.
This is hilarious! I suggest mods starting a thread should immediately close them, it saves us and them a lot of time.

Anyway, thanks for the giggle. I still think this newly used feature is like the "Punktesystem in Flensburg".

Only one?

I got 7!

Tom

So my response to this post which criticises ACE's behaviour was deleted with the reason "Deleting all the silly posts here".


FWIW, In my opinion EF is made up of at least 60% "silly posts".


Anyway, my post was deleted by ACE himself in a pure act of censorship and I call for ACE to be removed as Mod.



Don't know how long this post will last...

Just long enough to give you another red blob.

Also got 7 post deleted messages from ACE1 this morning - whenever I post here that’s always the response. Just not worth the hassle anymore

Let's not forget that you at least were part of starting this yesterday by bringing your aggression in an otherwise totally fine thread on the NZZ.

Is it true that people who flounce go to flounce heaven and get 72 EF virgins?

At least.

Got to keep em Krauts inline.
Oh lordy. Ive offended Germens.
With any luck this post might make it thru the day.

I think the infraction system seems quite fair and less subjective than many moderating actions that have happened in the past. The reasons for the infraction are clearly written and after a certain amount of strikes it's a temp ban.

It's transparent and cuts down on speculation... I like it so far.

I think any Germans reading this should be calmed after realizing that their English is probably better than yours.

Perhaps this warrants a bit of self-reflection.


Is that a promise?

Only in their dreams.

I was thinking about how some of these passive aggressive posts could be curtailed too, they’re hideous.

I received 7 “post deleted” messages from ACE1 this morning. He is now definitively yet another one added to my growing ignore list.

Also Green blobs from 6 other members (thank you), and other encouraging PMs in the sense of “ignore the trolls and please keep posting”. These were all from long-standing, respected EF members.

I think those that like to frame the term “passive aggressive” for their own means, should really be aware of the differentiation between that and neutrally formed, well thought-through and balanced comments.

I doubt you can add Ace to that list....as a mod, unless something has changed, you can‘t ignore mods. But if I am wrong, do let me know.

How do you determine that an EF member is respected? I suspect that‘s highly subjective.

Ask me the same question sometime after the next 3-5 years, and considerable helpful posts from you

Nah. Better things to do. Later.