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Posted by: Telec
Remember kids: when Uncle Delta tells you he has sweeties, he isn't lying.
Now get in the van.
The Black Chapter
Posted by: Viva la Vache
Where speeding tickets and other moving violations are warnings and license suspensions are bans, this is a more apt metaphor to how our forums do and should work.
You are right in that.
If I am a good driver but decide to go ten miles over the speed limit, I am fined the exact same amount ($100 dollars in MA) as another driver with a history of speeding. The only difference is that habitual speeders can have their right to drive suspended for certain periods of time corresponding to their history of offenses.
Habitual speeders get harsher punishments. Much like habitual trolls get harsher bans.
What I'm getting at is that if there is clear evidence a member is well behaved, that a post that may break the rules is accidentally submitted, by all means warn them, but they clearly deserve to be told why in some detail as the rule may well have eluded them.
The insurance metaphor was an attempt to show how I feel the forums should work. Behave well, be productive, and you are recognised as such (as with insurance good driving is rewarded). If there is no reward, the only incentive is the avoidance of a ban (which a good number of people attempt to circumvent with alts anyway).
Its not always about simply punishing those who have broken the rules. Its about trying to stop people breaking them in the first place. The best way to do that is incentivisation. Benefit of the doubt, or at least proper explanation, being treated as though the mods know it was a mistake and feel bad about having to issue a wan/ban to a well behaved user is preferential to simple "Spam" or "Off-Topic".
I have been sent a message in the past by a mod who carpet banned (I think this was waaay back in 07) who apologised that he had to ban me, but I was in the wrong thread and replying to something I shouldn't, even if my replies were civil. Messages like that make the user feel positive and learn from the experience to become better members of the community.
In that instance I was a good member simply posting in the wrong area. I doubt others intentionally breaking the rules got the same apology message. What I see as a perk of behaving well.
[Edited on 07.12.2011 8:46 AM PDT]