Actions

Warning System

From The RadioReference Wiki

A Brief Explanation of the RadioReference Forum Infraction System

General

Violations of the various guidelines or rules established to preserve good order within the forums can be dealt with in various manners by the moderation staff. One of these methods is using the vBulletin® infraction system. The infraction system, as implemented here at RadioReference, allows the moderation staff to issue both warnings and infractions to those users who need to be notified of a problem with their activity in the forums.

Specifics

Warnings

For first offenses of minor rules violations a warning may be issued. Warnings are similar to actual infractions except they have no adverse effect on a user’s account with the exception that the warning is noted in the user’s account.

Infractions

Infractions are issued for serious violations of the established guidelines or rules of the forums or continued minor violations. Infractions have both point value and an expiration period. If a user receives an infraction, a notice sent to the user will include a point value and an explanation of the violation. Most violations (see chart below) are valued at 3 or 4 points. After the expiration period, normally 10 days, points are marked as not active and are not added to any other active points to form a total point value.

Effects

Accruing a total of 10 or more active points may result in a suspension of privileges to the forum use, a temporary ban, usually for a period of 7 days. Accruing 20 or more active points may result in a permanent ban from the forums. Users are notified of both warnings and infractions via the Private Messaging (PM) system, which is part of the vBulletin® system, by a message sent to you (automatically) from the moderator issuing the notice. Commercial spam messages posted in the forum typically earn an automatic 25 points and permanent ban immediately.

Miscellaneous

Users are responsible for infractions or warnings even if they do not receive the notification due to inactivating the PM system for their account. It is recommended if a user doesn’t want to receive PMs on a routine basis, that you leave the PM function active but limit receipt of PMs from administrators and moderators only; this may be set in your UserCP. Please note; you may incur warnings and infractions for violations of standards in private messages to members also.

Infractions

Predefined

Violation Description Points Period
Cross-Posting 1 1 Month
Radio Reference Rules Violation1 1 1 Month
Signature Rule Violation 1 1 Month
Thread hijacking 1 1 Month
Frivolous Post Reporting 3 2 Months
For Sale Rules Violation 3 1 Month
Inappropriate Language 3 1 Month
Thread disruption via trolling or flaming 3 3 Months
Intentions to acquire or provide copyrighted software2 3 6 Months
Insulted Other Member(s)3 4 2 Months
Activity unbecoming of a RadioReference.com member 5 1 Months
Ignoring a Moderator's request 5 3 Months
Moderator Attack 8 12 Months
Commercial Sales 9 6 Months
Spammed Advertisements4 25 Forever

Custom Infraction

Both point value and period are determined by the moderator


1 These are rules covered in Forum Rules and Guidelines
2 This is an immediate Infraction; no warning will ever be issued
3 Includes verbally attacking or belittling other members
4 Typically causes an automatic ban of the account