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[Kite]

With our upgrade to IPB 3 out of the way, we've finally decided to go through with some changes to our warning system now since the software is far more flexible.

 

Here are the changed sections of the rules:

 

Spoiler

Staff Action

 

Usually, you will receive notices to stop doing something within the thread in which you may have done something borderline. This usually happens for minor things and is meant more as a reminder to everyone, not just you.

 

However, if you are getting a warning point increase, you may end up receiving a PM telling you as much. This will not always be the case (especially with minor warnings that are directly related to posting), so it is important to make sure you have enabled staff warning notifications. Don't worry about missing warnings by accident if you want to continue posting since the system will force you to acknowledge them before you can post again. But if you turn off warning notifications entirely, you run the risk of missing vital information from the staff and ultimately getting banned if you continue doing whatever got you a warning increase.

 

Warning points expire individually after approximately 60 days (this is run on a scheduled task, so the expiration is not instantaneous once the expiration date is reached). So this means if you have 2 points and a 1 point warning expires, you will go down to 1 point.

 

If the staff fails to react to a posting offense after 7 days, it is considered off limits for banning or being added as a minor offense to the record (though you might still receive a notice for it so long as it isn't ancient.

 

Warning System

 

Note: Only you and the forum staff can see your warning levels. To view your warning levels and the reasons for them, click your warning level in your profile.

 

Minor Offenses will get you 1 warning point. While you should heed what a moderator tells you, these are generally really minor things. Keep in mind the points will go away after 60 days, so having one or two of these generally isn't a big deal. You should definitely pay attention to them though since these can stack up if you ignore them.

 

Major Offenses (harassment and others that are noted as such in the rules) will get you 3 warning points. The majority of the time, getting in trouble for a major offense will also net you an additional punishment thanks to how our punishment system is laid out.

 

When you enter certain warning point ranges for the first time in a while, you may receive a punishment outside of a verbal warning.

 

3-5 Points: Cannot make posts for 1 day. Other features are still available. If you cause trouble during this time, it will be upped to a ban lasting for 1 day.

6-8 Points: Cannot make posts for 2 days. Other features are still available. If you cause trouble during this time, it will be upped to a ban lasting 2 days (even if more than a day has already passed).

9+ Points: Receive a ban. Ban lengths vary depending upon the severity of the actions performed to receive the ban and the number of previous bans you have received. Generally the first ban lasts for 1 week, the second ban lasts for a month, and the third ban is indefinite. But we reserve the right to change that in certain circumstances.

 

After the first ban is over, your warn level will be reduced to 3 points. After the second ban, it will be reduced to 6 points. After the third ban, there probably won't be any additional chances.

 

The staff also holds the right to ban or warn you at any time if they feel that you consistently cause problems to the PureZC community. But this will be extremely rare since "the staff" means "the staff as a whole" instead of "a handful of people on the staff" since we do not want to abuse that. It also won't be done without provocation. Basically, do not purposely game the system because it's rather flexible if it needs to be.

 

Reporting Posts and Content

 

We highly encourage people to report posts, site content, and such that they feel clash with the rules or comfortable environment we are trying to achieve. The staff is not perfect, so we are prone to missing things if they are not brought to our attention.

 

You can either use the "Report" button that is next to or below a lot of content or post about it in the staff dropbox. We will usually reply to you via PM to confirm that we received the report and have taken it into consideration.

 

The short version is that we've changed to a 9 points system as opposed to the 3 points system (33%, 66%, 100%) we have been using up until now. Probations will happen every 3 points (when reaching those boundaries for the first time in a while).

 

The side effect of this is that minor offenses now show up on the warning meter. But don't be too scared off by that. Minor offenses are still minor things. They are not a big deal as long as you pay attention to what is being said. All this change means is that there is now a visual representation of something we have already been doing (3 sequential minor offenses = 1 major offense).

 

Another change worth noting here is that individual warning points now automatically expire after 60 days. This means if you have 2 points and a warning that had 1 point expires, you will go down to 1 point. This is handled by a scheduled task that runs once a day, so it may be a bit off.

 

And finally, I'd like to take this opportunity to ask that people check their notification options and make sure "Notify me if I am warned by a moderator" under Members has some sort of notification enabled. While we will still be sending PMs out for the most part, you should definitely make sure that setting is enabled.

 

If you have any questions about the system, feel free to ask.