Manage Guideline Violations on Your Community

[ArticleBot]

This is an article discussion thread for discussing the SitePoint article, "Manage Guideline Violations on Your Community"

[Amirsan]

great article, applying it to my forums now :D

[wildcard]

Nice article, good ideas there. Its one of the unfortunate sides of running a forum(s) but is a necessary one.

[malikyte]

For those of us that allow the ability to change nicknames, do you have a suggestion on what to name a topic for a particular problem user? Perhaps the user's ID number?

[iFroggy]

Thanks for the kind words. I have to go ahead and say that Amirsan urged me to write the article.

malikyte,

Well, (I know it isn't what you asked, but) I wouldn't allow users to change their own username in the first place. I would allow them to request that you do it (and then you do it so that you know who is who), but to allow people to change their usernames is just a bit too much.

But, assuming you did, an ID number could work (if that sort of thing is prevalent in your community and displayed in areas, etc.). That would probably be the only other way. Not as good, but the only way, I would think.

Thanks.

[petertdavis]

Thanks for the informative article Patrick, I'm looking forward to reading what else you have to say about community management.

[iFroggy]

This is a very important article because this idea is so often over-looked. Keeping track of problem users is one of the best things you can do to ensure your community stays happy.

Very informative article... I would hope to see mor elike this in the future as it's grounds for new development

[clay_mckinney]

I had a problem last night with some wiper-of-other-peoples-bottoms trying to use my message board to sell drugs. How do you get their IP address? I'd love to kick this guy's rear.

[iFroggy]

Hey,

Thanks for all the kind words, guys.

As far as IP addresses, it depends on the forum software. vB and phpBB both log IPs with posts, so it is easy enough to find them. Sometimes IPs can be spoofed (although that is not usually the case). If they are real, they can vary for many users. That is to say that they get a different one virtually every time they go online.

Good luck.

Great article. I think it's a must read for all forum administrators.

I am having trouble with getting rid of a certain member on my site, which is run by phpBB. I have IP banned him, yet he's still able to get back on the forum, create a new account and post. He's still posting from the same location. Do you have any idea how he's doing this? How can I permanently get rid of him?

[iFroggy]

Thanks.

No, tough to tell. The way I would handle that would be to get creative. What type of banned message do you display? If it is something like you are banned, that doesn't really help matters. Try something like "The forums are unavailable at this time". True and more helpful to you. He may get it, but it'll slow him down.

Besides that, just keep banning accounts and IPs (if new ones popup). Remove all posts he makes and make no response to him of any kind. Instruct your staff to do the same. Nothing comes out. Gotta be tough. Keep it light with your staff - treat it as no big deal and take care of business. You'll be fine.

Have you tried blocking the IP through CPanel? It'll give them a denied message, which isn't terribly helpful, but might be worth a shot.

Good luck.

Thanks Patrick for all the suggestions, especially about how to handle it with my moderators.

Right now, the banning message is "You have been banned from this forum. Please contact the forum administrator for more information." You're right, if he doesn't know that he's been banned, he may not try so hard to get back in. So I will change that message.

I've only tried banning the IP through my phpBB control panel, so no harm in trying the CPanel approach.

Thanks again for all the help. :)

[rvidmar]

Hm... The article is good, but the hardest is to find a solution what to do, when a user violates. Because you cannot always throw them out, on the other hand, you can not accept it. So the balance of the reactions, what you do and what is between accepting the violation and deleting their account... - so what possibilities do you have - is the most important one.

[iFroggy]

Importance is objective, but just because something is not as important doesn't mean that it should not be carefully considered. But, what you said is very much what this article is about. Its says what to do. Your options are to warn or to ban.

For instance, generally when a user violates your User Guidelines, you would:

1. Move violation (if it a post or in posted content) to your Trash Bin.
2. Make a note of the violation and action taken in the Problem Users thread. For moderators, this would generally mean PM sent.
3. Contact the user making them aware of your violation.

As an administrator, you monitor these Problem Users threads to see how much a user has done. Your time to ban may be different from mine, but if I see a user commit the exact same violation 2 days after being warned, I consider banning him. If it appears that he doesn't care about our warnings, I consider banning him. If he sends me or one of my staff members an extremely disrespectful message in response to a warning, I consider banning him. There are a lot of situations, but those are the main ones, I find.

Good luck.

[Spencer F.]

Thankfully I don't really have any violations to worry about it... yet.

[pah]

I created a new vB warning called moderator advisory. It's purpose is to document a history of the member for all those actions that would normally require a PM. Having the complete history with each member negates having a forum and a list of threads to browse. It is quicker to just click "view warnings" and you won't miss what was anotated previously

[iFroggy]

Yeah. Possibly. I'm not particularly aware of the vB warning system, so I have a couple of questions.

1. When you say "normally require a PM", does that mean a PM/e-mail is not sent when a user violates your User Guidelines?

2. Is the administrator notified (or is there a view new warnings link, like view new posts) every time a new warning has been made?

Thanks for the comments. The general premise of the article is to set out a system that anyone can use without installing hacks. (Pretty much every forum software has forums and private forums). And then if you have something else, you can adapt the general philosophy to work within your system (such as a warning system, etc.).

[subnet_rx]

I think warning systems are kind of dangerous. I wouldn't want to have a warning tacked onto my username, and I may not know all the rules, so I just leave your forum and choose one that will be a little more subtle.

[iFroggy]

Yeah, that's one of the things that popped into my head. Public warnings shouldn't really happen. But, if he was mentioning it, I assumed it could be done with the same spirit as the system I describe (which is private warnings, nothing public)

[SoCalled]

Nice article. We already have those things in place.

Always have the trash forum as it gives new moderators an idea of posts and threads they should remove, naturally to trash. Helps them get a handle on what's not acceptable. Also gives staff a chance to express their opinions on violators LOL

The second forum to document certain members activities probably is only necessary for large forums however, as generally us guys running smaller communities will just start a thread in the Mod room (or whatever you call it).

Good work, and it's nice to see Sitepoint doing some community focus in it's articles.

Waiting with held breath for Peter T's article .....

[lpapworth]

very nice clear article. :) Perhaps I can list some additional features which you may or may not need?

If your system traps and retains the Users's original signup email address and IP and all changes (ours does) that can be helpful in tracking and managing naughty posters who simply come back and create a new username to continue the flame war. Always capture those details in the Rap Sheet (problem users) forum. There is nothing that shut's 'em up more than a quick PM to say, "stop creating new usernames". Be prepared to ban by IP range if you are in a hardcore community. Or by MAC address (Admin only).

Have two special Moderators forums - again on a large community - one to educate and discuss issues. Requests to join another moderating team's site, changes of shifts, how to handle a user who is bordering abusive "what would you do?". Moderators have their own community. Give 'em a general off-topic forum where they can post stupid fotos and jokes and talk about Desperate Housewives (whaaaat doesn't EVERYONE? :p)

Slightly off topic, but be aware of volunteer community moderators issues. If you have a large gaming forum for instance, stress can be high , death threats and whatnot. Decide early how you will handle moderators who want to hand the Rap Sheet on a poster to the police. And make everything clear up front - don't get sued like UO for "below minimum wage" violations (zero dollars is a wage?o.O)
Hope this helps.

Oops I forgot to mention - a calendar (again for a large site) to manage the banning or unbanning of posters. I never ban (or hardly) permanently. 3 days or 3 weeks - link to it from the Rap Sheet. Cheerio :)

[subnet_rx]

Nice article, I think I'm going to propose this to my mod team. I have one question though. You say to move everything to the trash bin, but what about small edits? Maybe the person breaks the profanity rule and that has to be edited, but the rest of the post is good?

[lpapworth]

subnet, perhaps ask the member themself to edit it. Or just remove to the Evidence Locker (I don't call it trash bin, too confuzzling). I never, EVER do the work (say, edit) for the members - they get lazy and expect you to edit for them all the time.And then scream when you remove it or warn them or whatever. Better it disappears (and they have to re-post more considerately) or they do the work themselves. But then again, I dealt with volume, so your mileage may vary.

I forgot to add above, note the number of posts of the user on their Rap Sheet - someone who made an error at post number 8 is different from someone who does it again at post 2 million. Posting history and regularity helps determine whether someone has just stepped out of line a few times over the years or a serial problem maker.