digibutter.nerr

[Francis]

The President is not a Moderator, but he/she will work closely with the moderation team.

What is your opinion of our moderation system (rules, mods, strikes, court) and what will you do to help keep this place safe, fun, and fair?

[Super Hario]

[Almaz]

Alright, we're finally getting into some territory I can claim a real stake into! *cracks knuckles* This'll be fun...

The moderation system is totally flawed, and this is no fault of the mods themselves. I can say from experience, and from reactions from other mods, it's not their fault. Rather, it is the fault of the very faulty rules that create this situation.

Let's take a look at the current Mod Squad. We Have Moi (TSSG3), Plastic (Plastic's still there, right?), Cid, Goomba, SA, and Orchid (Frozenwinters). Let's assume, for all intensive purposes, Cid and Goomba win this *cough*popularity*cough* contest. Now we're down to three, the lowest total mods since the days of Popple! TSSG3 is tiring of his job, and Plastic and SA aren't quite as effective as they were before. That leaves us with...Orchid. Wonderful. And this reality is not in a matter of months or even weeks, ladies and gentlemen. No, that decrease can be numbered by DAYS.

I will admit that Cid DOES know the protocol much better than I do; my opponent created an absolutely fantastic rulebook at the time of its release that I could only nod and say, "It's awesome" to. I'm not going to pretend I know the most about this. However, what is going to happen in this post is opinions of the absolute from a member who HAS been there, and will continue to be there. It's my honor just to finally give my opinion on this.

Our current system is absolute BS. Strikes are little more than warnings for Francis to deem absolutely useless, jailing is barely even an issue, banning is extremely rare, and a functioning and wonderful forum this is not. Spam runs amok in the Groups, loopholes are exploited in the rules every day in Off-Topic, topics become locked with absolutely no punishment, just an extremely weak warning which members do not learn from.

This forum simply needs stricter rules, first and foremost a redefining of the concept of "spam" and "flame". Here would be my personal definitions at this time, these could change with time:

Spam
Spam is identified by a post lacking any form of substance. This can be categorized by a post consisting excessively or completely of emoticons, single-word emotions (Such as baaawwwwwwww), or provides absolutely no comical or intelligent backup. Repeating said comical backup (for example, repeating HAIL BLECK or it sank in a topic many times in a row without adding anything else to the words that expands the discussion) is also categorized as Spam. Short posts that add to the conversation will NOT be seen as Spam (such as saying Goodbye in a role-play topic).

Flame
Flame is identified by a post that makes any member feel uncomfortable on a personal level, attacked, or greatly angered. The exception is difference in opinion, though the opinion must be attacked, not the member. If attacked member believes that they have been flamed, and the call seems debatable, it is suggested that a moderator be contacted to settle the case in court or in a conference if the court is unavailable/filled.

I believe these are far more efficient definitions. If there are any chinks in the armor, feel free to tell me, and I'll try to craft it back to form.

Speaking of the courts, they're inadequate. They serve as a way for members to convince Francis to go against the rules and look the other way many times. Either he hardens and goes by the book so help him Tippi, or this court needs to be permanently adjourned.

Finally, and this has been my hope for many, many months, PUNISHMENTS NEED TO BE STRICTER. We're doing a fine job of accomplishing absolutely nothing with our current system. However, when a member returns to the outside, out of that dank prison that really isn't very bad. I suggest that released prisoners, after serving time for 'cooldown', that certain features be removed for a limited time for said convicts. This is probably faster than the current court system, and can be personalized for every member. It truly allows us all to learn a lesson.

And, even if my current solution fails, I will continue to press for stricter punishment. Because digibutter is in severe need of it.

...I've made more enemies than friends through this, haven't I?

[Spiny]

The Court System. The problems in this were small near the start, but it's starting to get rediculous.

I feel that some reportings are out of hatred for the member on the chopping block rather than actuall charges.
To fix this, I propose whoever approves the court cases take a good look at WHO reported them.
If atleast three cases against the same defendant are found not guilty and were all reported by someone who is known to have a bad history with the defendant, than the reporter should be questioned.

I propose fees to get out of strikes be changed to a percentage based on the crime, with some just not being able to be greased loose with coins.
Repeated felons get off virtually scot free thanks to lurking, and the price as far as I know never changes.

Spam-10%
Censor Bypass-20%
And so on.

Aside from that, Mister I has voiced everything else I have to say, such as definition of Spam and Flame.

But I'll add onto it by stating this:

Flamebait
Posting something with the intention of reciveing a flame, and reporting it to make oneself look innocent. If the post that triggered the flame carries more than the normal amount of "over the edge pusing" content, it could be considered actual flamebait unless proven otherwise.

Hacking threats
If one implies in any way that they have hacked, are hacking, or are planning to hack the site, it can be considered a threat to the site. Even if it is blatently a joke, it is to be punished all the same. Simply saying "hax" in the title/body of a topic followed by an image that is clearly an edit, however, should not apply. If it is actually considered otherwise, than the maximum punishment should be a 5% fine.

And lastly, Francis is being too soft.
I'm not editing this no matter what anyone says.
He's directly disowned the rules HE made in some rulings for reasons that are either unclear or unreasonable.
There is no way to fix this, however, other than bringing it to direct attention for him to see.

I don't care how many votes I lose from the last two paragraphs. They had to be said with no exceptions.

[Die4Less]

Okay, first and foremost, the SFC system (Strike, Fine, & Court) needs some work.

I believe that a system more like the one used in real life would work here. The accuser will state his side and evidence, the defendent states his side and evidence, then 7 members handpicked by Francis, would be the jury and decide their verdict. At any time, Francis may override the verdict.

Strikes aren't necessary anymore with this plan. If you perform a crime, as soon as it is reported, a topic is placed in court in which the accuser(s)/defendent(s) can state their sides and judgement is delivered. Francis could also set a bail for the defendent to escape having to go to court. Depending on the seriousness of the crime, it could be anywhere from 25 coins to 500 coins.

Punishments could be like in real life as well. Months IRL would equal days in Digi, and years would equal months. A life sentence would be equal to a temp ban, and a death sentence would be equal to a permaban. It could work.

[Gold Prognosticus]

I agree with Mister I that the current moderation system is completely useless. I do, however, think that a bit of tweaking could get the court to work.

1. No fines as punishments. As almost everybody agreed yesterday, coins are almost worthless these days, and taking them as a punishment has no real effect.

2. Mods can also give the verdict on court cases. The mods are seriously underpowered these days, and Francis isn't always online to close a case. This would give them back some authority.

3. Extended jail sentences after court cases. Several members use the court as a way to sneak out of doing punishment. I say double the jail time for anybody who goes to court and is found guilty.

More shall be posted here as I think of them.

[lovegod703]

I think the moderation system is fine right now, but the mods needs to look at the posts, because it seems that they just let anything though if someone reported it, no matter how dumb. If I'm elected, I'll work to keep them from letting stupid cases through to the court.

[Paper Peach]

The strike system that we have now is flawed in several ways. The biggest seems to be court and fines (but that's everything isn't it?)

If we keep fines, they should be higher. And not a set amount either. How about 10% with a maximum and a minimum set? That way it's a porportional to their amount of coins, but not too much for the richer users and still enough for the poor users. And fines should only be able to be used a set amount of times before a cooldown of equal amount of jail time must be served. For more severe crimes, a temporary ban might be of use.

Court needs to go through some changes. The original plan was to give the user a chance to explain his stand and have witnesses and other people involved explain the situation. Look at Pokémoneinstein's court topic. Five pages! Of what? Arguing about whether he is guilty or not. Francis asked to post only if you were involved with the case. Well, nobody listens. I think we should filter the people who are able to read the court topic to only those who posted in the topic of evidence. That way you know they were involved, and nobody else can try to convince Francis. I've been able to slip out of a strike before, and I'm not happy about how the members helped convince Francis.

Also, I give credit to Vid Inferno for pointing out my mistakes in the first paragraph, Thanks.