#14 Infractions

★Symbiosis★ said:
In my first year here I was a young teenager. I didn't know the rules nor did I even take time to read any of the rules. It lead to me doing things I didn't mean to, As well as getting into a few arguments and getting a lot of infractions. I got enough fractions my first year here that I think I was banned for a month. Since that ban I had not got a infraction in over 3 going on 4 years until this week. I am really upset about this in fact. I didn't even get a chance to talk my case over, I just had a infraction swung at me and now I have a 4 point infraction for the rest of my life on PC. This will hurt me the rest of my life and most likely will stop me from completing my long goal of one day becoming a moderator. I really still don't think its fair. I even tried to take it up with other staff and none of them will even respond to me. So this means if I am still at PC 10 years from now I will always have that black mark of a 4 point infraction on my account. I honestly think some staff just throw out infractions without even hearing people out.
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I had 2 infractions and still became a member of staff, so that theory is false. It's rather how you handle yourselves afterwards. I mean - if you had infractions from years ago, there are so many variables that can dictate your current behavior in a better limelight so I wouldn't count anyone out just because they received an infraction.
 
Yeah I've got some infractions, mainly for trivial reasons such as signature offences. Eh, that was 4 years ago anyway so it doesn't really bother me to be honest.

As for handing out infractions...I'm maybe more strict? I don't know. I usually just give the person a quick heads up or an actual warning instead of infracting straight away. I don't know really, I just do whatever seems right at the time, lol. I don't have a set system.
 
I double posted back in 2008, but other than that I have a blank slate.

I gave yellow cards when I was a mod just to act as a warning, and included an actually message with it to state what was wrong so we could avoid it. I don't think I ever actually gave a red card out since no one made an offense that deserved one.
 
Mind if I drop in?

I haven't received any infractions or yellow cards during my time here, nor have I given either of them out to people (haven't banned anyone either). Like some of the other staffers who've posted in here, I like to think that I'm more lax with those things and that they're not something you have to hand out like business cards. It might also have to do with the fact that X/Y doesn't get a whole lot of troublemakers in it.

Instead, I think it's most often pretty clear when a member has made an honest mistake or when they haven't bothered reading the rules or when they are stirring up trouble on purpose.
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There's that too.

I can't say I get why people have such a fear of infractions though. Yes, they should be taken seriously, but getting one is not the end of the world. Just because you've gotten a few infractions and yellow cards over the years doesn't necessarily mean you're some malicious rule breaker who's out to screw the forum over. If that was the case, elhero would be a huge dick, but he's not, so......Those people do exist, but not everyone's like that. And people do change, right?
Maybe it's because people generally don't talk about their infractions and the infraction system?
 
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Okay guys, for me it's not really "I want to PM instead of using the dedicated tools because I want to be nice". Instead, I think it's most often pretty clear when a member has made an honest mistake or when they haven't bothered reading the rules or when they are stirring up trouble on purpose.

In the first case, I never go for yellow or red cards. I see it as my job to help them understand what their mistake was instead, so that they won't make it next time. PM is a good way to do that.

In the second case, I think I'm not too against dealing out yellowcards. "Heads up on the rules" or something I think the automated PM title is for that, which is basically what I'd say in a PM as well.

The third case, I might go with yellow card first but honestly most often in the cases I've had to deal with, it's about people spamming or advertising so that they are banned pretty quickly without even trying to change :(

So yeah, my point is, the infraction system does have its place on our forum I'd say. But maybe it's not very modern... And I wouldn't want to infract someone for an obvious mistake. Serverlagging double posts or threads in the wrong place, for example :)


Oh, and myself I don't think I ever got anything. I'm not really a troublemaker, am I? :3 I stir up trouble behind the scenes THEY'LL NEVER CATCH ME
 
On previous accounts, I believe I've come close to it. However, I think I was a member of PC before the infraction system came into place as well. With that said, I don't think I've ever received any come to think of it. I've always been a very careful person due to the bad experiences I've had in the past on other forums. I think it's made me more aware of the rules and stuff like that, so I'm always doing my best to behave and not make a scene.
 
I have a few from making some comments that I guess I could have not posted. But I felt something needed to be said in those situations and nobody was saying it so I took it upon myself to say it. They're all from disrespecting members though I disagree with my latest infraction, I don't care enough about it to really argue against it. It's whatever. Infractions aren't that big of a deal around here unless you are aiming for a spot on the staff and I'm not so I don't really care all too much about the ones that I have. I don't go out of my way to get them of course but if there's something I want to say, and it isn't exactly the nicest thing to say, I'm probably going to say it anyway if it's something I think needs to be expressed. Though I'm sure many of you will disagree that there's never a need to be mean. I don't really think what I say is mean just not very tactful. I'm not a mean person.
 
I have never received one because I am a perfect little angel *bats eyes*


But in all seriousness I hate infractions and I am not really a fan of how they are handled. From my experience on staff and being able to see infractions of everyone; I noticed that everything seemed inconsistent. Which isnt necessarily a huge issue because everything is subjective to each moderator, but still bothered me. I felt often times infractions were handed out without warnings for very minor offenses such as going slightly off topic, double posting, etc. I always found that giving warnings was a much more effective method. Not only were you letting the member know what they did was wrong, but you are showing them that making a mistake isn't the end of the world because it happens. If I were to be infracted as a newer member I would probably be too scared to ever post again in that section :s But that is just how I feel haha. I was a pretty lax moderator and only handed out one infraction or two to a very troublesome member who is no longer with us.


Also for the love of god why is infracted recognized as a misspelled word :(((
 
I've never gotten a warning or infraction, mainly because I'm a stickler for rules and I absolutely hate to break them. I did break a few of them when I first joined, but a few people who I can't recall at the moment helped me get on my feet.

As a moderator, I've only handed out infractions for offenses that you have to give an effort to break. If you revive an old thread, or post something off topic, I normally just delete the post and send over a message. They apologize, I tell them it's not a big deal, and the problem never happens again! Really, infractions should never be handed out for honest mistakes, unless the member has made an obscene amount of them. Then I'll send one over to remind them that there are actual consequences, but that hasn't happened yet.

I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to talk about me handing out infractions, but I've handed out a few. It was actually over six months before I handed out my first infraction to a real person, so don't worry, I'm not trigger happy. Infractions are my last line of defense.
 
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El Héroe Oscuro said:
It seems - at least to me - that each staff member varies when it comes to handing out infractions. Do you guys think that's a good thing, or do you believe that it should be constant across the board?
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Variation is fine because we're all people. However, receiving close to 9 points for hacked Pokemon is wretched. I wasn't a mod in 2009. Sorry bud. -pats-

No infractions here, but I recall getting a PM warning once or twice for breaking the 4word rule in the forum games. I have achieved true laziness.

I'm pretty lenient when issuing yellow/red cards. I've become more and more laid-back as the years progress. I'm still harsh towards wifi scammers because I've been scammed before. Know that feeling.
 
Here in my three years on PC, I've never gotten any infractions or warnings. However, I did do a couple of stupid things over on Serebii. (In my opinion though, all but one of those cards don't even belong there...)

I suppose the community is just a bit more relaxed over here. As a moderator of other message boards in the past, I like to see things from a more "level" point of view. Unless they're scammers or something, I'm generally rather laid-back if their actions or intentions haven't harmed others. If they're not out to cause trouble and actually learn from their mistakes, I never really did see the need to hand out any cards at all. In fact, most of the time it was just a fluke and they continued like normal.

Or it could just me being a lazy mod. :P
 
Being a mod, I've only handed out up to 10 yellow cards and less than 5 red cards. I modded TWL, which was a section that requires you to be super lenient to members that visit, especially newer members. So frankly the only infractions I've handed out were for adbots and for signature offenses. I've only banned one bot in my current tenure as FC&G mod. When I started for the first time, I was strict. Like, SUPER STRICT, but I was able to calm down, and I'm more of a relaxed mod when it comes to issuing infractions & such.

I've never had an infraction in my 4 years here.
 
Character/word limit bypass – January 2008 by Ausaudriel – 0 / Expired
Character/word limit bypass – February 2009 by Signomi – 2 / Expired

The system is perfectly fair since warnings expire and don't add points, and AFAIK this place nowadays makes it very clear to new members that they should read the rules. Moderators should be handing them out like candy and I find it unfortunate that many consider yellow cards to be harsh in any way.
 
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