Moderation Policy

[fader6818]

The DM Staff feels there are some issues currently in the methoid which board moderation is done. We also feel that official procedures for certain things are lacking, therefor we've enacted a moderation and banning policy that we'd like all moderators and all members of Dm to be aware of.

 

***Moderation Procedure***

 

Step One - Censoring

Moderation should entail the censoring of the ENTIRE post, with

a message similar to "This message contains potentially questionable

material, and needs additional attention before it can be displayed".

This public message should not contain why the post was censored. Also,

the moderator who is censoring the post should identify themselves, so

the poster knows who to begin discussion with. The moderator should then PM the poster the ENTIRE contents of the post (so it may be reposted later, if approved) and highlight what is offensive and why s/he feels it needed to be removed.

 

Step Two - Rebuttal

The poster has two options at this point. Option one is the best, to

remove the objectionable content, reword a questionable phrase, or

provide a bit more explanation to make the point a little less open to

interpretation. Option two, would be to reply that they feel the content IS appropritate. If the moderator and the poster come to an agreement, then the post is allowed back up (in accordance with step three). If the mod still feels that it is inappropriate, the post can then be sent to community@dm for final review by an admin.

 

Step Three - Reposting

After some kind of agreement is made, the post should be allowed back

up, with a brief note stating it has been approved, and again, the

moderator should be identified.

 

 

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***Banning Procedure***

With a unifrom moderation procedure in place, banning will be something

that happens a bit less often, and when it does, we will have

documentaion of attempts to resolved the issue before hand.

 

For the sake of this section "Admin" means anyone who is authorized to

ban users. Currently, that is Jason, Fader6818, Matalina, Kathana and Alin. Should we ever give this responcibility to another, non-admin person, they are also covered here as an "admin".

 

Step One - Requesting a ban

Should a moderator have to repeatedly (three or more times) moderate

comments from the same user, that moderator can send a message to

community@dragonmount.com with copies of the PM communication and the offending posts.

 

Step Two - Banning

Should the admin feel a ban is warrented, s/he will notify the user via

e-mail (CCed to community@dm) that a temporary ban is in place, and

that the matter is under review. It should be stressed at this point

that NOTHING is permanent, and should we agree the situation does not

warrant a ban, they will be unbanned. The admin should then ban the user by name.

 

Step Three - Review

On the banned user forum (an admin only forum), a new thread should be created with that user's name in the title. Copies of the PM communication should go in it. Admin should then give their opinions on the matter. The majority opinion (unless directly overridden by

site owner Jason) will be followed through. Options are flexible, but will generally fall into unban, ban, warn or place on probation. Should we decide on probation, we may disallow a user to post

in a certian forum, but return to DM otherwise. Time based bans are also an option.

 

Step Four - Follow Through

Having come to a majority opinion, one of the admin should e-mail the person and explain our decision in a general manner. Conditions of probation should be clearly explained or the time that a ban will be lifted.

 

*Exceptions* IP's banned for spamming (obvious bots) or hacking do not

need to be reviewed in this manner.

 

***

 

This policy adds two new rules.

 

1. Impersonation of another member of DM is a bannable offence. Such

impersonation would be adding an "Editied by fader" comment to a post

that had not in fact been reviewed. This would also include loging in to another members account.

 

2. Using a second account to access DM while a temporary ban is in

place, regardless of the review decision, is a bannable offense. The

same goes for using a second account while on probation to post in an

off-limits forum.