Rewrite of the Bannable Offenses

Summary:

I figure there's room for improvement in this section of the Site Rules.

Rewrite of the Bannable Offenses

Communism will win 04 Aug 2012 05:08

So, this is what we have at the moment in terms of our policy on bans: http://www.scp-wiki.net/site-rules#toc12

After an incident earlier today, I felt it might be a good idea for us to update the policy a bit, and do some general cleanup. I did some work and ran it past the staff chat a few times, and this is what I got:

http://scpsandbox2.wikidot.com/scantron#toc4

If you don't feel like referring to a link, here it is.

The following offenses result in immediate permaban, no negotiation:

• Obvious and Blatant Site Vandalism (deletion/vandalism of wiki pages.)
• Evasion of lesser disciplinary measures (for example: creating an alt and logging onto the site when under a tempban.)
• Obvious and blatant trolling (Forum posts intended to incite extreme emotional reaction; this includes trolling other sites in the name of the SCP Foundation).
• Spamming the forums.
• Blackmailing or extensive harassment¹ of a user, group of users, or the site as a whole.
• Excessive or flagrant breach of lesser rules.
• Other equally horrible things that the staff has yet to think of or that should be a given to any sane person.

The following offenses result in a 24 hour temp ban for the first offense, 7 day ban for the second, and permaban for third offense.

• Excessive rudeness to Senior Staff, Moderators, and/or Administrators acting in an official capacity.
• Failure to comply with a mod/admin directive delivered within the rights listed above.
• Voting on articles for reasons other than their literary merits.
• Excessive or flagrant breach of lesser rules, especially excessive rudeness.

The following offenses result in a warning for the first offense, 24 hour temp ban for the second, 7 day ban for the third, and permaban for the fourth.

• Excessive rudeness to other users.
• Excessive or flagrant breach of general site guidelines, i.e. repeated posting on staff posts.

The following offenses will never result in bannings.

• Writing shitty SCPs (although spamming the site with shitty SCPs can be considered an instant permaban.)
• Voting on any particular article as an expression of opinion on its quality or merits.
• Respectful disagreement with staff decisions.

It is also hereby stated that any and all of these rights, obligations, and punishments are subject to alteration, deletion or addition after review by the Staff.

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While I did make a number of minor edits for cleanup, there are a few things that I personally feel are worth emphasizing:

• An additional level of punishment: 24 hour bans are upgraded to week-long bans before being bumped up to permabans. This is because certain things we would dish out 24hr bans for aren't really worth a permanent ban for just two offenses.
• Further permabannable offenses: Blackmail, extensive harassment (think Kondraki stalking a kid into Second Life), and other things that we shouldn't feel we have to list, or haven't thought of yet (Murder, etc.). These should all be common sense.
• Excessive or flagrant rule-breaking bumps you up a level: Sometimes, while a specific act would technically qualify as one of the lesser offenses, its nature is inappropriate to the point where a higher level of punishment is needed.
• Users are explicitly protected from disagreeing with staff: I don't think that this has been a problem in the past, and it's listed as the fifth Right given to users. HOWEVER, I feel that this would be a good way to emphasize to the users that we allow and encourage discussion of and disagreement with our decisions. And really, there's no harm in putting it in there, is there?

This may need to be edited to be more in line with the changes we're planning for the site move, but I see no reason not to enact these changes as soon as we're able to.

Anyways, I propose that the "Bannable Offenses" section of the Site Rules be replaced this once we have reached an appropriate consensus on the issue. If there are any questions, comments, or concerns regarding this, post them here.

Note: If there's a difference between the version in my Sandbox and the version in the collapsible above somehow, use the collapsible as a reference.

Footnotes

1. While there are several possible interpretations of "harassment" and "extensive", a general rule of thumb is if you are told to stop interacting with a user, further interaction qualifies as harassment.

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if your reading this your gay

Last edited on 04 Aug 2012 05:08 by Communism will win Show more

Re: Rewrite of the Bannable Offenses

AdminBright 04 Aug 2012 05:23

Looks good.

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Admin, SCP Wiki

Re: Rewrite of the Bannable Offenses

thedeadlymoose 04 Aug 2012 05:19

I really want to make staff discretion more explicit. I think that if a user gets 24-hour banned and then hits up another offense that would qualify for permaban, we shouldn't be required to permaban. We already do use discretion, but let's make it explicit.

Also, what about the whole 'admins (or mods & admins) can put users on 24 hour no-posting time-out at their discretion' thing? I mean, if we're gonna hash out more of the rules, why not go the extra mile? Also, if we do go that direction, the 'automatic flight upgrade from 24 hr to 1 week to perma' thing is REALLY not going to be do-able because holy shit escalation.

I am sure there is more to add but I am going to hold off on thinking up another wall of text for now

edit: what about users appealing after perma-bans? we've considered this in the past. should perma-ban be able to be appealed after 1 year? also, isn't the jump from 1 week to perma-ban a little odd? If we HAVE to have perma-ban as the third step I'd prefer the second step be a month, not a week. Give the user more time to cool down.

Last edited on 04 Aug 2012 05:22 by thedeadlymoose Show more

Re: Rewrite of the Bannable Offenses

Communism will win 04 Aug 2012 05:39

I really want to make staff discretion more explicit.

Good idea. Will edit.

Also, what about the whole 'admins (or mods & admins) can put users on 24 hour no-posting time-out at their discretion' thing?

I'd really rather put that into effect at the same time all the other big changes happen because of the changes to how banning and mod accountability will work. I'll leave a version with that in the sandbox, but recommend we go forward with whatever final version we think of here before that happens.

Also, if we do go that direction, the 'automatic flight upgrade from 24 hr to 1 week to perma' thing is REALLY not going to be do-able because holy shit escalation.

Noted.

what about users appealing after perma-bans?

Good idea, but that would perhaps be best put in as a User Right to appealing a permaban after one year.

also, isn't the jump from 1 week to perma-ban a little odd? If we HAVE to have perma-ban as the third step I'd prefer the second step be a month, not a week. Give the user more time to cool down.

Less odd than going straight from a day to perma. And I chose a week because that should be enough time to let a normally reasonable person cool down without forgetting why they were banned to begin with, or forgetting us entirely.

Let's give this another shot:

Bannable Offenses rewrite 2

The following offenses may result in a permanent ban at staff discretion:

• Obvious and Blatant Site Vandalism (deletion/vandalism of wiki pages.)
• Evasion of lesser disciplinary measures (for example: creating an alt and logging onto the site when under a tempban.)
• Obvious and blatant trolling (Forum posts intended to incite extreme emotional reaction; this includes trolling other sites in the name of the SCP Foundation.)
• Spamming the forums.
• Blackmailing or extensive harassment¹ of a user, group of users, or the site as a whole.
• Excessive or flagrant breach of lesser rules.
• Other equally horrible things that the staff has yet to think of or that should be a given to any sane person.

The following offenses may result in a 24 hour temp ban for the first offense, 7 day ban for the second, and permaban for third offense, all at staff discretion:

• Excessive rudeness to Senior Staff, Moderators, and/or Administrators acting in an official capacity.
• Failure to comply with a mod/admin directive delivered within the rights listed above.
• Voting on articles for reasons other than their literary merits.
• Excessive or flagrant breach of lesser rules, especially excessive rudeness.

The following offenses may result in a warning for the first offense, 24 hour temp ban for the second, 7 day ban for the third, and permaban for the fourth, all at staff discretion:

• Excessive rudeness to other users.
• Excessive or flagrant breach of general site guidelines or the Obligations listed above, i.e. repeated posting on staff posts.

The following offenses will never result in bannings.

• Writing shitty SCPs (although spamming the site with shitty SCPs can be considered an instant permaban.)
• Voting on any particular article as an expression of opinion on its quality or merits.
• Respectful disagreement with staff decisions.

It is also hereby stated that any and all of these rights, obligations, and punishments are subject to alteration, deletion or addition after review by the Staff.

And an additional User Right to put in:

1. You may appeal a permanent ban one year after it has been enacted. Staff, however, may deny your request for any reason.

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Footnotes

1. While there are several possible interpretations of "harassment" and "extensive", a general rule of thumb is if you are told to stop interacting with a user, further interaction qualifies as harassment.

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if your reading this your gay

Last edited on 05 Aug 2012 21:37 by Communism will win Show more

Re: Rewrite of the Bannable Offenses

Photosynthetic 04 Aug 2012 06:05

Thumbs up.

Re: Rewrite of the Bannable Offenses

thedeadlymoose 04 Aug 2012 06:08

I still have the feeling that this will need to be addressed again, but I can get on board with this iteration for now. Looks good.

Re: Rewrite of the Bannable Offenses

Communism will win 04 Aug 2012 06:09

It will, certainly. But I think that'd be best left for another time.

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if your reading this your gay

Re: Rewrite of the Bannable Offenses

Dexanote 04 Aug 2012 06:32

i like it.

Re: Rewrite of the Bannable Offenses

DrEverettMann 04 Aug 2012 06:34

Looks good to me.

Re: Rewrite of the Bannable Offenses

Eskobar 04 Aug 2012 08:31

I still think that "violation of user responsibilities as listed above" should explicitly be a warning-level offense. But otherwise good. Thumbs-up.

Re: Rewrite of the Bannable Offenses

Communism will win 04 Aug 2012 08:49

I did a minor change to reflect this, per our discussion in chat:

Excessive or flagrant breach of general site guidelines, i.e. repeated posting on staff posts.

has become

Excessive or flagrant breach of general site guidelines or the Obligations listed above, i.e. repeated posting on staff posts.

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if your reading this your gay

Re: Rewrite of the Bannable Offenses

TroyL 05 Aug 2012 08:19

Looks good, Scantron. Nice work.

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"WELL FOUNDATION. YOU MADE IT SO EASY. SO VERY VERY EASY." - dimensionpotato

Re: Rewrite of the Bannable Offenses

Communism will win 05 Aug 2012 08:21

http://i.imgur.com/vK4sz.png

Troy's in. I'm guessing we need at least a majority of active admins to weigh in on this before it passes.

EDIT: Fucking ninja'd. At least I now have an image on my computer named troysconsenttoeverythingever.png

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if your reading this your gay

Last edited on 05 Aug 2012 08:24 by Communism will win Show more

Re: Rewrite of the Bannable Offenses

Dr Gears 05 Aug 2012 13:41

I like this. The old guidelines were basically a framework for people who already knew more or less what was wanted…it's good to have it clearly stated, for both staff and users.

Re: Rewrite of the Bannable Offenses

Communism will win 05 Aug 2012 21:38

Enacted. Everyone can go back to whatever they were doing now.

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if your reading this your gay