New Moderator Guidelines The purpose of this post is to build a new set of comprehensive moderator guidelines. The current guidelines, as most of you know, are fairly...open, which allows for a lot of moderator freedom in making decisions. Unfortunately, this also leads to people being punished in different ways for the same crime. Part of the role of Senior Moderators is to unify the moderators and their actions so that we present ourselves in accordance with the vision of GameDev.net. How we'll structure this This thread should be used to build a basic idea of the actions that should be taken for various crimes that GameDev.net members commit. While the list will not be able to cover every scenario, it should be thorough enough that most moderators will be able to make appropriate decisions for crimes not covered by the guidelines, or know when to bring in the Senior Moderators. We want examples. Lots of them. Real life examples would be best, although if we cannot find a user who has committed a particular crime that we are detailing, a contrived example will do. We'll work out the guidelines in the following way: First a post, in this thread, will be made in regards to a particular incident. Then a discussion will ensue, including moderators, senior moderators, and staff. After a verdict has been reached, then that information will be appended to this post as a formalized guideline. Please, if you are responding to an issue, make sure to quote the initial issue. This way if you join the thread later, but have an opinion about an earlier issue that has been brought up, then we'll know which issue you are referring to. Please: Only Senior Moderators and Staff should edit this post. Initial Guidelines

• Evidence: All punishments must be accompanied by evidence. Evidence should include links to the appropriate profiles, forum posts, or GDMods topics. The links should be preceded by a brief summary of the reason for the punishment. In the case of accounts that have been flagged on the AAA forum, please make sure to post under the appropriate topic on the action taken and remove the flag. For example: Genjix was suspended for promoting drug use. Instead of waiting for the suspension to expire, he created several duplicate accounts, as noted on his disciplinary page. The accounts were all banned as well.
• Consulting Senior Moderators: If you aren't sure what to do, either post on GDMods, in the Senior Moderator forum, or PM a Senior Moderator. There are advantages to each of these options, and disadvantages. Should a the Senior Moderators make a ruling on a particular subject, that ruling should be added to the moderator guidelines, if applicable.
• Banned Members Unless the staff has explicitly given permission for a banned member to be allowed to create a new account (see Drevay), they are considered KOS.
• Special forum rules If your forum has special rules in regards to posting, you should be sure to clarify those rules in the Forum FAQ. For instance, the For Beginners forum has a very clear statement by Michalson that all posts shall be on topic, and helpful. Such a rule should be incorporated into the For Beginners FAQ, instead of just being part of a post on the forum (Such things get deleted, move, disappear, etc...)

[Edited by - Washu on January 9, 2006 3:39:11 PM]

Might want to mention this thread/forum in the gdmods list. This is very important and everyone needs to participate.

Special forum rules:
If your forum has special rules in regards to posting, you should be sure to clarify those rules in the Forum FAQ. For instance, the For Beginners forum has a very clear statement by Michalson that all posts shall be on topic, and helpful. Such a rule should be incorporated into the For Beginners FAQ, instead of just being part of a post on the forum (Such things get deleted, move, disappear, etc...)

How about we start with a list of standard/typical 'crimes'?
The we can add default/suggested discplinary action for each.

Enacting Piracy:
Delete post/thread
- 1st: Ban

Goatse Drop
Delete thread
- 1st: Ban

Spamming
Delete thread(s)
- 1st: Ban

Violating TOS
Delete thread
- 1st: 1 day suspension
- 2nd: Ban

Promoting Priracy:
Delete post
- 1st: 1 day suspension
- 2nd: Ban

Newbie Bashing:
- 1st: Warning level increase
- 2nd: 1 day suspension
- 3rd: 1 week suspension
- 4th: Ban

Flaming:
Delete post
- 1st: Warning level increase
- 2nd: 1 day suspension
- 3rd: 1 week suspension
- 4th: Ban

Violating Forum Rules/FAQ
Mod's discretion if different rules get seperate warnings
- 1st: Warning level increase
- 2nd: 1 day suspension
- 3rd: 1 week suspension
- 4th: Ban

Cross-posting:
Leave 1 post, delete rest
- 1st: Warning level increase
- 2nd: 1 day suspension
- 3rd: 1 week Suspension
- 4th: Ban


With piracy I have some grey areas though, I'm trying to remember the case... someone offered to let another user download a package from thier website, the package was free - something like MSDN stuff - but it did not permit re-distribution. I deleted the post and sent them a PM and asked them not to do it again (they replied in kind).

And what's our policy on GBA & PSP hacking? Cell phones might fall into this category as well, the tools you need as an indie developer could easily not be legal in the US (DMCA).

[Edited by - Shannon Barber on August 31, 2005 8:26:31 PM]

Well we've got a thread on noob bashing, with Washu's proposed penalties.

Quote: First off, I tend to take a rather strict approach torwards those kinds of posts: Delete the post, and warn the user. Should they continue to post in such ways, a 1 day suspension is in order. Further abuse could be followed by a 1 month suspension, and possible ban depending on their abuse history and the class of abuse. I take the same view torwards flames and other abusive posting habits.

Quote: Original post by Shannon Barber
How about we start with a list of standard/typical 'crimes'?
The we can add default/suggested discplinary action for each.

Goatse Drop
- Ban

Violating TOS
- 1st: 1 day suspension
- 2nd: Ban

Flaming:
Delete post
- 1st: 1 day suspension
- 2nd: 1 week suspension
- 3rd: Ban

Violating Forum Rules/FAQ
Mod's discretion if different rules get seperate warnings
- 1st: Warning level increase
- 2nd: 1 day suspension
- 3rd: 1 week suspension
- 4th: Ban

Cross-posting:
Leave 1 post, delete rest
- 1st: Warning level increase
- 2nd: 1 day suspension
- 3rd: 1 week Suspension
- 4th: Ban

I think flaming should probably start with a warning increase, unless they have a history of other offenses.

Quote: Original post by Shannon Barber
And what's our policy on GBA & PSP hacking? Cell phones might fall into this category as well, the tools you need as an indie developer could easily not be legal in the US (DMCA).

Hmm.. I've been wondering about that for a while. Distribution of anything from the official SDKs is obviously totally out of the question, and should result in an instant ban (and possibly an email to Nintendo/Sony, though it's not our job to protect their IP, only to be seen to be doing it). Beyond that I'm not sure - I think it's all legal in the UK, at least.