All,
Following the success of the Tour de France strikes system in managing the forum, it has been decided to keep it on as the ongoing moderation process to make sure the forum discussion stay polite and interesting. It is called Three Strikes and You're Out.
Basically,
All infractions will be given a 1 month expiry period.
Someone with no current infractions will receive a warning which is considered to be strike one.
A second active infraction will result in a 24 hour suspension (second strike)
A third active infraction will result in a 1 month suspension. (strike three).
When returning from a 1 month ban, the member will still carry 2 strikes for the month, meaning any further poor behaviour that month will earn a new 1 month suspension.
At moderator discretion, certain offences will bypass this system completely, such as spamming, threats of violence, returning while suspended, etc. The cases can result in anything up to and including a permanent ban.
No exceptions!
All strikes causing 1 month suspensions are reviewed automatically by the moderation team to ensure the penalty is appropriate.
What are violations? This covers the listed rules of the forum, and things which really are more or less common sense:
obscenities, including trying to avoid the forum filter; insults; other offensive statements; going off-topic after a mod has said to stop; generally doing anything a mod has said not to. .... and this list is not all-inclusive.
Situations not covered in this system such as: Sock puppets, spammers, severe trolling, abuse, threats, etc will be dealt with as usual and may receive anything from a short to permanent ban from the forum.
Anyone who receives a sanction (first, second or third) will of course be notified of the action taken in the infraction email.
All infractions have a 1 month expiry. Therefore it is possible to get a warning each month without being suspended, however once you HAVE been warned, any further actions that month will result in some form of suspension.
We simply want to insure that the Cyclingnews forum remains a place for everyone to virtually sit down together for a pleasant chat about our favourite sport!