A few changes to the warning points system

[Clarity 3,094]

Now then, you might all be thinking, “oh look, another member complaining about warning points again! -_-”

 

Nope, not like that. I’ve only gotten 30 warning points in total, so I’m not that bothered by them in general.

 

But...as you guys all know, many people DO mind warning points given to them. Especially the heavy amount of the character limit violation. In fact, I believe many newbies leave not just because they’re usually unwelcomed in the Plaza, but also because they receive 100 warning points right off the bat, and they usually don’t even have any idea what they are.

 

Of course, I know it’s their fault. They should have been more aware of the rules. Which brings me to my point.

 

Every time a rule has been broken (I’ll use the character violation as the example), I think we should expand the warning a bit more, but also make it more friendly. The first time someone violates the character limit (or any other rule), the points given should be cut in half. So the newbie only receives 50. The next time and consecutive times afterwards, however, they will instead be given the normal amount of points, 100. That way, it’s like “we’ll forgive you once, but the next time we’ll have to step on you.” It’ll be less likely to scare newbies away, yet at the same time keeping the warning strict.

 

Also, it’d be quite helpful to tell the members which post they are being given warning points for. A few days ago I received a warning because I went off-topic in the Unpopular Opinions thread; however, I posted so many times in it that I don’t even know which post I’m being warned for. I had to file a support ticket, and as we all know, some of us aren’t patient enough to wait for a few days for an admin to reply to it.

 

It’s also good to highlight which rule has been broken--a simple copy & paste will do. A link to the F.A.Q. question about how warning points work should also be provided, better so newbies understand what they’re all about so that they realize that 50 or even 100 points aren’t that bad. 

 

I would provide pictures but I don't know a fck about Photoshop But it's basically an expanded "more details" on the warnings page. 

 

Thanks for reading!

[NavelColt 22,876]

 

I had to file a support ticket, and as we all know, some of us aren’t patient enough to wait for a few days for an admin to reply to it.

Unless they're a technical ticket, tickets shouldn't take so long to become answered, and this is something I know I at least want to see the staff work on. We push for tickets to be used for everything but frankly it's a minority of the staff team that check them regularly (Mods can access General Site Questions, too. Tickets aren't their primary responsibility but perhaps it should be at least an occasional duty to help with them, seeing as tickets sometimes take forever to get answered). Hopefully that will be talked about and changed in the future. No one should lose faith in Support Tickets. They're not going anywhere and as Feld0 has said himself, no issue is too small for tickets. We simply need to nail on them a bit harder.

 

As for this, the idea of letting members know what posts they got warned for makes sense. Pink bars aren't about to be made public again, but maybe if the hidden pink bars are made viewable only by staff and the individual posts' owner, then things might be better off. As it is, the description for why the posts get hidden aren't viewable to members due to pink bars not being viewable. I know I at least like to elaborate on why I'm hiding a post by giving it a description, but it's pointless if only other staff can see it.

 

I elaborate in the warnings themselves, but the issue is there are many times when a duplicate post, or topic for that matter is hidden for a non-warning issuable reason, like being a duplicate. Thus, the member may have no concept why their content was hidden, because there is no warning description to read. They then contact the staff via PM about why their topic/post was hidden. Some staff respond to the PM with a simple explanation, others refer them to tickets. Being able to crop out the misunderstanding process by making a member's hidden posts viewable to them, at least the pink bar remains of them and the description for why it was hidden, could be looked into.

 

As for the warning point slice for first offenses, I feel like that may have been talked about before at least once somewhere. Maybe I'm just crazy. I'll withhold any opinions of mine on that for a bit, I'm curious to see what others have to say on it.

[Lightning Fluttershy 1,844]

I think I got lucky. When I joined up they weren't giving out warning points for bypassing the character limit yet. I did it a lot though and I'd just get my post taken down and warned. x)

 

I do think this a good idea though. I can imagine how it would feel to be introduced to this new. friendly community only to be dropped in and given warnings and points without knowing what way is up. This seems like the kind of thing where your dog is being annoying but instead of punishing him you kind of tap him and tell him to shut up.

 

Edited January 16, 2013 by Lightning Fluttershy