Grounds for being banned?

[LeaM07]

The infractions and penalties scared me some. Sometimes I have alot of typos and go back and correct them. Do I accumulate points for editing typos or is it only if you delete the whole thing? Im going to have to pay more attention!

Oh no, not at all. That's exactly what the edit button is for!

We do issue points for deleting entire posts (or large chunks), because responses to it no longer make sense and it messes up the thread. Even when this happens, the user will get a "you've received an infraction for deleting this post" message along with a point or two, we'll restore the post, and that will be it. It's still a loooong way from a ban... just a parking ticket, not a jail sentence.

If a member has a specific reason for needing to delete a post (e.g., a security issue), the best way to handle that is to report the post and let us make the edit for you, if that's the best course of action.

ETA: Or what Gumball said.

[Lexy]

Sometimes I have alot of typos and go back and correct them. Do I accumulate points for editing typos or is it only if you delete the whole thing? Im going to have to pay more attention!

Editing typos is fine. Points are earned in this case for substantially editing the content of the post. Most commonly someone says something inflammatory, gets negative replies and then deletes their entire post. The mods can compare edited posts with the originals, so we usually try to assess the reason for the edit. The idea behind the "no editing" rule is that we want to allow people to make sense of threads and to be able to read back through the boards and see the history of a member, a discussion or an idea. If people go willy-nilly deleting all sorts of things, very soon it will be impossible to figure out what is going on.

The important thing to remember about being banned is that it will not come as a surprise. If you've never had any contact with the mod team, you won't suddenly get banned unless you are very, very obviously a troll. Most members hear from us several (more often many, many) times before they are banned. Getting one or two points is like getting a parking ticket. The message is, "Oops, you got a little off track, please read through the rules again and make sure you understand."

ETA: Cross-posting with a bunch of other mods, but obviously we agree.

[CarpeDM]

This is good to know!

[Stagecoach]

I do have a quick question though.

I read once that points are for life. So, in theory, a member who's been around a long time COULD be banned for simple "parking tickets" if after enough years they've collected enough points for mild things.

Is this correct or am I missing something here?

[Nae]

Oh, and another question, is there a place where one could check to see if they have points. I had to have a mod contact me about something a few months ago but no one said anything about points. I would imagine they would have said something but........I like to check ya know?

[Finoriel]

( Am I glad that I hit preview post before sending it and quadrupel-crossposting with the others.)

Points expire, standard is after 90 days.
In serious occasions they get a longer expiration date like 6 months or a year.
In very serious and extremely rare occasions they do not expire.

ETA: Drat still crossposted with Nae
When we just PM somebody that is not even an infraction
The system sends out obvious "you just got an infraction"-messsage when you got one and you can see an extra tab appearing on your profile to review your infractions.

[Gladtobemom]

I just reread the terms, what exactly IS trolling?

[Gumball]

I just reread the terms, what exactly IS trolling?

In its simplest terms it's perceived as a person being in a location and doing something exclusively for disruptive purposes. Doing so tends to grind on the civility of what is going on, such as the respectful discussion of a topic in a thread.

Is it possible that it's not intended as such? Of course. Sometimes it really is just misunderstanding, where personal opinion, miscommunication, or misinformation/lack thereof caused a problem. That is where the KNIT philosophy comes into play. Good discussions tend to clear that up right quick.

[LeaM07]

I just reread the terms, what exactly IS trolling?

Gumball is correct. More here (even has a pic! ). Basically, it's posting just to cause trouble. We get this most often from new members who joined the forum for the wrong reasons (say, to post something like, "everybody knows long hair is ugly, why do you bother?").

[Gladtobemom]

Gumball is correct. More here (even has a pic! ). Basically, it's posting just to cause trouble. We get this most often from new members who joined the forum for the wrong reasons (say, to post something like, "everybody knows long hair is ugly, why do you bother?").

Thank you.
So basically if you jump into a thread just to cause trouble and disrupt things . . . that's Trolling.