Thanks, Reports and Warnings

[BUSGO]

Three of the new options on the updated forum are the additions of the Thank, Report and Warning buttons at the base of a post.

The Warning button is only visible to the admin team.

The purpose of these buttons should be clear to everyone but just in case they are not, maybe they need some explanation.

If a member is happy with the advice, suggestion or an offer of assistance given within a post, that member is quite entitled to click the “Thank” button and their appreciation is noted on the forum and is visible to the other members. It is a reward to the member who provides the service. Overuse of this option will diminish the purpose of it and those who genuinely deserve to be thanked will not appreciate the thank you that they deserve.

The number of thanks given and the number of thanks received by each member is displayed along with their avatar.

In a similar way, the Report button can be used to alert the admin team of a post that violates the Forum protocol and signup agreement. The admin team, get a notice of such a report and can act on it in a timely manner rather than possibly stumbling across the post at a later time during which a conflict between members may have happened or a spammer has hit the forum etc.

A warning can be issued by any of the admin team for a member who willfully violates the signup agreement. Warnings can be temporary or permanent. Warnings appear on a memberâ€s avatar and accumulate like demerit points. If a total of 100 is reached, that member is banned from access to the forum for a term determined by the admin team who would normally consult with each other about the situation.

All of these options have been used and seem to be working well, however, if they are abused, their benefit is diminished to the detriment of all members.

[Volvi]

UPDATE:

The "Warning" system will continue to function on this forum. However any warning issued will not be a permanent feature on the user as has been to date. Everyone should have the opportunity to redeem themselves without a permanent record.

Though the warning system will be stricter then before and will follow a similar line to that of the National Demerit Point System, as all of us are only to familiar with. Any violation will incur 3 points or 30% and have an expiry period of 12 months (unlike the national of 3 yrs). The 4th warning crosses the thresh-hold of 100% and will turn to an automatic ban from the board of a 30 day period. After serving the 'time' their points will reset to zero, if not having expired by then. If the offender continues in misbehaving and treating the system as his private/public joke they will be considered for a permanent ban from the forum.

For a warning to be issued to any user the admin will have to seek the support of another admin ie. no 1 admin will be able to issue a warning without the support of another admin or Webmaster/Owner. If a warning is issued you will know its by order of at least 2 admins or 2 Forum Team Members. All prior warnings to date will now be deleted, so you start with a fresh page and hopefully a fresh attitude.

Thanks