OMG, I got a warning! Now what?

[p858snake]

The excuse "Most forums don't reduce warns etc" is stupid imho.

Neowin does, but because of a system issue, you arn't. That means you should be doing it, otherwise, there should be something said that states "Neowin will not reduce your warn"

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=513777 <<good enough for you?

[Sethos]

Where's the "OMG, I didn't get a warning! Now what?" Thread

[snyper]

Where's the "OMG, I didn't get a warning! Now what?" Thread

showoff :p

[Veedems Veteran]

Where's the "OMG, I didn't get a warning! Now what?" Thread

It got lost along with common sense and manners.

[Rappy Veteran]

I got a warning about month and half back...at first I thought damnit and gave up the forum for like 3 weeks then returned after I felt petty and stupid :D

[Slimy]

I got a warning about month and half back...at first I thought damnit and gave up the forum for like 3 weeks then returned after I felt petty and stupid :D

So THAT'S where you went. I was wondering where you disappeared to :p

[Rappy Veteran]

So THAT'S where you went. I was wondering where you disappeared to :p

You noticed eh when my feeble attempts at making better news posts werent around :D

[Slimy]

You noticed eh when my feeble attempts at making better news posts werent around :D

Who said they were bad news posts? Putting yourself down is never going to help your cause. Trying to improve, that's what counts.

[*John*]

We can, but why would we? Most boards don't reduce at all. We automated a system for reductions, and when it comes online again, people who are due for a reduction will get one.

What gave you the impression that most boards dont reduce warnings? They most certainly do. Normally warnings last for anything between a month and three months on most boards. Neowin's warning system is abysmal, and shows nothing but a complete lack of respect for the userbase. Either that or you just dont care?

Take me for example, I still cant change my username because I called someone advocating drug use "a moron" a year ago. Thats beyond ridiculous. The punishments for even the slightest offenses here are way over the top (N)

There are bigger forums than Neowin that can handle warnings fairly. Take a look at the Ubuntu Forums, or the Football Manager forums. Its not unmanageable because of the forum size. Hell, the forums I moderate on have just reached 100,000 members, and if they step out of line, they get a yellow card, which lasts for a month, which I or the other moderators remove when it expires.

One thing I notice though, the larger a forum gets, the less important the individual members become. With such a quantity of users and posts, who cares if an individual user is unhappy or feels that something is unfair, there are more than enough new users to replace the whiners eh?

[Veedems Veteran]

God the non stop whining is getting a little tiring. You know what? I can't speak for the whole staff, but the last thing I care about is if someone can change their name or not. You broke a rule, so now you have to deal with the consequences. Neowin isn't other sites so comparing the two is useless, no matter who's doing it. This is life and there are more important things on the staff's table than reducing a warning level. New skins, new forum upgrade including tons of custom hacks that need to be redone, continued work to sort out other software issues, increased focus on the subscribers, etc etc. Can you post? Can you read everything you had access to before the warning? If so, there's simply no need to complain.

[*John*]

God the non stop whining is getting a little tiring. You know what? I can't speak for the whole staff, but the last thing I care about is if someone can change their name or not. You broke a rule, so now you have to deal with the consequences. Neowin isn't other sites so comparing the two is useless, no matter who's doing it. This is life and there are more important things on the staff's table than reducing a warning level. New skins, new forum upgrade including tons of custom hacks that need to be redone, continued work to sort out other software issues, increased focus on the subscribers, etc etc. Can you post? Can you read everything you had access to before the warning? If so, there's simply no need to complain.

Thus validating the last sentence of my post. No wonder there is such a percieved atmosphere about this place if the staff members feel at liberty to post like that.

I dont think i've ever visited a forum where the staff are so hostile towards the userbase. :(

I post here because I like the occasional discussion with everyone, and the interesting topics discussed here, yet I do my best to avoid contact with staff members on the whole. Its a shame when a user feels like that isnt it? :(

[Joel]

What gave you the impression that most boards dont reduce warnings? They most certainly do. Normally warnings last for anything between a month and three months on most boards. Neowin's warning system is abysmal, and shows nothing but a complete lack of respect for the userbase. Either that or you just dont care?

Let me clarify; most board software does not reduce warnings. If other communities choose to do so, that is their choice. We chose to implement the system, and we had to take it offline after an upgrade broke it. Since then, we've heard nothing but whining about it, because people can't get down to the very serious business of changing their username. The horror!!

You know why I just don't care about this anymore? Because of the incessant impatience and whining. We've done our best to get it working again, but all anyone cares about is now now now, my username is teh suxors.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

We are in the process of porting over to Invision Power Board 2.2.1. This will take place on the live site shortly.

The new version of IP.Board brings more new features and we have also successfully moved over our own enhancements like member-name (color) formatting across the board and news comments. The auto-warn reduction system has also been re-implemented.

We have spent the time testing and porting over our board theme and hacks at our beta site and we are confident that everything is ready to be moved over. This does not include Shift for the forums, this project will be restared after the upgrade to 2.2.1.

Timan has done a fantastic job of porting over Swift (the default board theme) it is lighter and more compliant and literally everything has been taken into account. We have also even got a new default button set thanks to our coder Rob.

So if you see the board offline between now and the 1st of January, the reason is due to this upgrade.

Thanks for your patience on this matter.

https://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=36695

[snyper]

I dont think i've ever visited a forum where the staff are so hostile towards the userbase

I will be honest and say ive seen forums that are alot worse. As far as im aware there are over 30 staff here.

All of whom are fine with the exception of about 4 that always spring to mind when the words "power trip" are mentioned. All the same, i suppose its a fair reflection and representation of any walk of life..theres always a few..

[Boogiman]

I must say, I've never seen such prof. mods......

respect!

[saxondale.]

So has the automated warning reduction been implemented now?

[_I am Reptar]

So has the automated warning reduction been implemented now?

Hope so

[CaKeY]

I dont think so. I'm still at 40%.. Been 40% since March lol. I really dont give a **** either lol.

[DaveLegg Developer]

So has the automated warning reduction been implemented now?

Not quite yet, but it'll be back soon.

We want to be sure everything else is running smoothly first, so we're spending our time working on other issues, once the number of bugs has dropped, it'll be coming back.

We wouldn't want it going wrong and reducing everyone to 0 now would we? :p

[CoLdFuSi0n]

I will be honest and say ive seen forums that are alot worse. As far as im aware there are over 30 staff here.

All of whom are fine with the exception of about 4 that always spring to mind when the words "power trip" are mentioned. All the same, i suppose its a fair reflection and representation of any walk of life..theres always a few..

I have to agree with you there are at last 5 that i can think of that are always on constant power trips. but heh

[Rappy Veteran]

Not quite yet, but it'll be back soon.

We want to be sure everything else is running smoothly first, so we're spending our time working on other issues, once the number of bugs has dropped, it'll be coming back.

We wouldn't want it going wrong and reducing everyone to 0 now would we? :p

:whistle: Slip of the finger and I could be free of my 20% :laugh:

[*John*]

I have to agree with you there are at last 5 that i can think of that are always on constant power trips. but heh

I just find some of the staff here so hostile when addressing people with concerns tbh. I understand that Neowin is a large community, with lots of problems and whining, but IMO there is no need for them to adopt such a generally hostile attitude when dealing with people. It gives this place an atmosphere, and personally I feel a bit uneasy about dealing with the staff members here. It seems like my warning level might get increased if I have a concern about something? I know that is maybe not the case, but thats the vibe I get from their public posts to people with concerns. :(

AFAIK, the Ubuntu Forums are bigger than this, with over 700 registered members online at most times, yet if you look at their staff members, they are always pleasent to talk too, and always helpful and friendly if you have a concern. I guess, I just dont get why Neowin staff members cant be like that? Have they really had such a bad experience with whining users in the past? :(

I do find that Neowin is a strict place though. I was a new member, still adjusting to this place when I called a member who advocated that drugs were safe "a moron". I didnt know that calling someone a moron was unacceptable here. Rather than be given a "heads up" that that wasnt acceptable because I was new and still adjusting, I was given a 20% warning. Ok, I thought that was harsh but I suppose I did break the rules. But that warning has lasted almost a year? I only said "moron" aswell :(

I dunno..... I dont mean to whine, i'm just trying to give some feedback on this place I guess, so please dont ban me or anything, I dont mean to sound hostile :(

[Rob Veteran]

I just find some of the staff here so hostile when addressing people with concerns tbh. I understand that Neowin is a large community, with lots of problems and whining, but IMO there is no need for them to adopt such a generally hostile attitude when dealing with people. It gives this place an atmosphere, and personally I feel a bit uneasy about dealing with the staff members here. It seems like my warning level might get increased if I have a concern about something? I know that is maybe not the case, but thats the vibe I get from their public posts to people with concerns. :(

AFAIK, the Ubuntu Forums are bigger than this, with over 700 registered members online at most times, yet if you look at their staff members, they are always pleasent to talk too, and always helpful and friendly if you have a concern. I guess, I just dont get why Neowin staff members cant be like that? Have they really had such a bad experience with whining users in the past? :(

I do find that Neowin is a strict place though. I was a new member, still adjusting to this place when I called a member who advocated that drugs were safe "a moron". I didnt know that calling someone a moron was unacceptable here. Rather than be given a "heads up" that that wasnt acceptable because I was new and still adjusting, I was given a 20% warning. Ok, I thought that was harsh but I suppose I did break the rules. But that warning has lasted almost a year? I only said "moron" aswell :(

I dunno..... I dont mean to whine, i'm just trying to give some feedback on this place I guess, so please dont ban me or anything, I dont mean to sound hostile :(

I'll respond to you as best I can, not speaking for Neowin but speaking for myself as a Staff member and my own experiences.

Firstly, I can promise you that if you have a concern, it will never result in you having a warn increase. I know that your point is that sometimes you are made to feel like this is the case, but I wanted to point this out very clearly. All warnings are logged and moderators are held accountable for any mistakes they make.

There is a certain amount of members placing too much importance on warn levels: it's not like it prohibits you from doing much other than changing your name. Ultimately, you broke a rule here and there are consequences for that. I agree that a year is too long for maintaining that level from your individual case, but that is why we have the automated reduction system. Yes, for now it's broken, but it's been re-coded and will be fully implemented very soon now that IP.Board 2.2.2 is out the way. We followed staff policy stating that we wouldn't reduce warning levels manually during this period because there simply isn't the resources to do that fairly.

On a board this size, it's easy for moderators to seem 'cold' sometimes. And yes, we deal with a load of crap that comes our way because of the positions we are in. I apologise if it sometimes comes across as vindictive or hostile, and that is certainly something that should be avoided at all costs. If you feel a moderator has responded in a way that has offended you, I invite you to PM the individual concerned. If your response is unsatisfactory, use the chain of command and contact your favourite Supervisor, followed by an Administrator as a last resort.

I do apologise if you're made to feel uncomfortable, but it is important to keep these things in perspective, particularly with regards to the issue of warns. I hope you'll stick around Neowin and contribute the community in the future.

[Chode]

There is a certain amount of members placing too much importance on warn levels: it's not like it prohibits you from doing much other than changing your name.

Which is why I am still highly confused why they are displayed personally to individuals for every post they make.

I mean, they have an importance of course, but if it's not THAT important then why do we need to know any more than a PM telling us our warning level has been increased? :s

PS: btw, thanks for such an honest and earnest post.

[Rob Veteran]

Which is why I am still highly confused why they are displayed personally to individuals for every post they make.

I mean, they have an importance of course, but if it's not THAT important then why do we need to know any more than a PM telling us our warning level has been increased? :s

PS: btw, thanks for such an honest and earnest post.

It was actually because back in the day, the members were always PMing staff asking about warnings.

You see how it is, things like this split the community 50/50 - half accept that it's just a small part of maintaining control in a forum of this size and not a big deal, and the other half take it as some sort of personal attack if they're warned.