New Powers to PP Members

[admin]

Dear members and guests,

as a result of recent foul activities in our forums I'd like to bring this to your attention to help prevent similar situation in a future. Regular PP members will now have the power to ban misbehaving user(s) if they decide so by using the User Infraction System. The User Infraction System is designed to automate the management of misbehaving users by other users. Let me explain how.

Note the image displayed below, area marked red in particular. Every single forum post has set of 3 icons on the top right. The first one - let's call it a "people" icon, gives more reputation to a forum poster or credibility. It's a positive reputation. The other two are the ones I want to focus your attention to.

The Warning sign gives a person an infraction point. It's up to you who you give infraction to. It can either be for spamming, inappropriate behavior, insulting other members, inappropriate language or whenever you think person deserves it. It can only be given by regular forum users. Who are regular users? Currently a user is considered a regular when he/she contributes with the minimum of 20 posts. Person who receives 7 infractions will be automatically banned in forums for 3 days. Infractions will expire in 10 days. So it's not something the user will carry forever.

After pressing the Warning sign you'll see a set of options. One of them is a "Warning" tick box. You can send person a warning using this before you give an infraction.

The Report button sends a notification directly to admin for a review. It does not automatically ban the poster involved. Use it when you don't want to give infraction point but you want to bring the post to admin's attention for consideration.


http://www.proudphotography.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=15242

The number of notifications needed to ban the person can be amended as well as the ban period and other options. We'll see how effective the system is and act fine-tune it as needed. Thank you!

[kinetic]

Admin I think the infraction system may cause nothing but trouble if every one can just hand them out whenever and for whatever reason they like.
I see the idea behind it, but see no structure to it.
But after recent events I totally agree that some form of system needs put in place.

So if I don’t like someone’s photo I can just give him or her an infraction…who is to know I did it and for what reason it was given.
Someone may get kicked out for three days for no good reason. Who will be policing any of the infractions being handed out, and is there a right to appeal against the infraction.

I think it could be misused, not to mention people getting a bit paranoid if the see they have been given one.

Have you thought of putting the question out to all members to see what collectively they can come up with?

I have always thought that the most senior members could act as a referee between any disputes and have the ability to suspend a person if they cannot control a situation, until admin can investigates it properly.
Or have members select 8 or 10 members to act as referees.
But as I said I welcome anything that would prevent what has happened over the past few days and probably weeks.
Regards
Mark

[admin]

Thank you for your input Mark,

as I said the system will be tuned-up as required. Not everyone can give infractions. Only users who contribute to forums. We can chose a specific group of people only able to use it, but I believe that someone who is a regular poster and has contributed with certain number of posts over time would have genuine intentions in forums and act appropriately. If the bad member decides to just give infractions left right and centre, nothing will happen - 1 infraction is not enough to cause any grief whatsoever. They cannot give more than 1 infraction to the same member and ban them. And given infractions have an expiry date 10 days.

Giving infraction is not anonymous action. Click on the warning sign (don't worry, you will not give an infraction after 1 click) and see the options you'll be presented with on next screen. Person giving infraction must specify a reason for it and their name will be recorded. It's easy for us to see who has misused the system.

[kinetic]

Thanks Admin...that sounds a good Idea then.
thanks
Mark

[Kaye]

Thanks from me also Admin, I agree that this is a good idea.
Hopefully, now that it is set up, we will have no need to use it!

[coffee]

I just added to your Reputation Admin :) Great idea, I hope it works out.

[jerryph]

I am kinda cold towards the whole ability of leaving administrative tasks or abilities to the users, but the general feel of this board is so totally different from anywhere else I visit, that it may just work. Notifications are great, its a way to notify the administrative staff that a thread requires attention, but giving users a say on who to ban? I cannot see that working very well.

Reputation ratings, now on that I never see anything bad, nor do I see much good come from this. Reputation comes from quality of posts, and often they may not be that nice but still have value. In one wedding forum, I am absolutely BRUTAL with every CC I give (figure about 20 times more aggressive than I am here)... I am known as the ogre of CC, no one gives me any points for reputation yet I am the first one everyone mentions when they want a strong honest CC.

Just my 2 cents. :)

[tjc]

In one wedding forum, I am absolutely BRUTAL with every CC I give (figure about 20 times more aggressive than I am here)... I am known as the ogre of CC, no one gives me any points for reputation yet I am the first one everyone mentions when they want a strong honest CC.

Kinda like Simon Cowell. His opinion was the only one that mattered, the others just said nice things all the time.

I tend to agree with the position that the users shouldn't have that much influence, but I think the way it's set up, one vote from one user wouldn't get another user punted. It would take at least 7, which I think is pretty fair. If you piss off 7 people on this forum, you've really stepped in the S$%^ somewhere along the line.

[coffee]

Kinda like Simon Cowell. His opinion was the only one that mattered, the others just said nice things all the time.

With all due respect, I certainly don't think brutally honest opinions are the only ones that matter. Photography is like anything else in that everyone see's something different in an image/song. One persons brutally honest opinion is just that, "one persons." Others will see things in the same tore down image/song that someone strung too tight won't. There's also a way in which one critiques something where the image taker can take away something useful, instead of feeling like they are doing something wrong or shouldn't be doing it at all. It's a good thing the good instructors here at PP use proper critiques, and not BRUTAL. That wouldn't instill any kind of inspiration in their students, and would just make the instructors come across pompous, uncaring, uninspirational, and too snooty to really look at an image and see something good in it. There's no need to tear someone down. I like to give my honest option on how an image can be improved if I have one, but I think there is something good in every image posted in these forums because the photographer posting it must be proud of it in some respect, and should be respected for it.

As far as the new warning system- There doesn't seem to be but 2-3 instances in the last 2 years where someone got out of hand or was inappropriate. The other members gave admin a heads-up and those members were dealt with in record time. Myself, I don't see a reason for the members to be giving other members warnings, unless they are the ones personally involved in the problem/altercation.

[shirlm2]

Personally I'm not keen on the ratings system as feel it could be open to misuse. I do however think the reporting option is an excellent idea to quickly put a stop to anything inappropriate.

[delboy]

Well said Joseph

Delboy

[jerryph]

With all due respect, I certainly don't think brutally honest opinions are the only ones that matter. Photography is like anything else in that everyone see's something different in an image/song. One persons brutally honest opinion is just that, "one persons."
That is a fact, especially when it comes down to something as continually conceptual as photography is. Everyone sees something different in the same work.


As far as the new warning system- There doesn't seem to be but 2-3 instances in the last 2 years where someone got out of hand or was inappropriate.
Which is why I said that this possibly could work here, however, if this site continues to grow, that will turn from a novelty to a thorn in the administration's side.

Just my opinion of course... my ESPn is not strong this week... lol

[Kaye]

QUOTE: jerryph: "Which is why I said that this possibly could work here, however, if this site continues to grow, that will turn from a novelty to a thorn in the administration's side.

Just my opinion of course... my ESPn is not strong this week... lol"
__________________
"I know that if I throw enough crap against the wall... SOMETHING has to stick!"
- Zack Arias


Hey Jerry, my ESP never works as well as it used too :D
Re the new warning system.... I personally believe it is good to have at least some rules set in place as now set by admin.
No-one can really predict what will happen, so I guess we trust Admin to take it step by step with how the site runs.... and what type of new members register.

(Although) I personally feel that not all members should be allowed to use this, but the current set up may work for now. (As Joseph said, There doesn't seem to be but 2-3 instances in the last 2 years where someone got out of hand or was inappropriate.)

But, as you mentioned, IF THE SITE CONTINUES TO GROW, or has an influx of new members all at once, I would like to think that Admin would then consider purely allocating the warning system to perhaps just those members say from "Dedicated Members" and upwards.

This is just my opinion.