The Banhammer and You: A User's Guide to the Forums

Taking your first steps into a new forum community, like any real life community, is a tough one. You don't know what to do, what to think and who to model yourself as in the eyes of others, but you do know that first impressions will influence the way people judge you later on in the life of your pseudonym. The amount of enjoyment you receive here is dependent on many factors of your environment, including people's opinion of you.

However, one of the many factors that people appear to forget is The Escapist's moderation system, the Mr. Fixits that clean up our society, making this forum a great place to waste spend your time in. The mods set the example that we, the community, follow; a thankless job that requires dedication and discipline at all times. Most of our moderators consist of the staff, who can be found easily by golden letters on their name, but the main ones of note are our voluntary 'Red Guards', the users:

These people keep the hamsters running and as such, their word is law.

Just as important as the moderators are the Forum Guidelines, the rules as to which this community is founded upon. Take them into consideration, and you will not regret it.

However, the guidelines are rather vague, and don't precisely outline the general rules or reasons why one would receive a ban. That is why I created this thread; to show, from an observer's perspective, what to do in a post/thread and, more importantly, what not to do in a post/thread.

In this piece, I will be discussing the many forms of moderator wrath that one will encounter, as well as why people receive them. I will also discuss what should (and shouldn't) consist a thread, and why certain ones become locked.

Firstly, I will explain the lowest form of moderator wrath:

Warnings are not a form of Moderator Wrath, as such, but a warning that is placed on your user record for further reference, should you break said rule you were warned about again. This can happen on the thread in which you have posted on, or via PM - be advised that these are generally given if the crime was not intentional, or merely an obvious mistake (in judgement or otherwise) made by the user.

Be reminded that, if you've been around long enough (or, conversely, if your post count is significant enough to prove you've been around the Forums), you may not receive a warning as you should already know what to do and what not to do (and be assumed to have read the Guidelines, linked to at the bottom of this post.

Also remember that once you have received a warning, the Mods will not be so merciful on your next offense.

Probations are the lowest form of moderator wrath. They do not hinder your posting ability whatsoever, but merely serve as a warning to a user not to repeat a particular offence.

Due to the revised Moderation system, Probations no longer appear under the users name. It will also only be removed after 6 months with no further infractions.

Here are some of the main reasons why people receive probations:

Suspensions are the next level of moderator wrath, a politically correct term essentially meaning 'You've been banned, but only for a while'. This essentially means that the user will be unable to post on the forums for the alloted amount of time given.

'SUSPENDED' appears underneath the username, and;

'User was suspended for: X. (Y Days)' appears on the bottom of every post that the user made.

An example of a suspended post can be found here.

Here are the most common suspension times that people receive:

(3 Days)
(7 Days)
(14 Days)
(30 Days)

As with Probations, sometimes the Y value can be filled with an obscure number. However, these are uncommon.

Here are some of the main reasons why people receive suspensions (disregarding topics for probations, which also apply):

Chances are that if you have received one of these, you won't be reading this. Bans are the moderator's last resort, a way to eliminate a user's foul activity on the forum for good, by going so far as to ban the very IP where the user came from (and thus preventing them from creating a new account). Better known as the Perma-Ban.

An example of a ban can be found here.

Here is what a ban looks like:

'BANNED' appears underneath the username, and;

'User was banned for: X. (Permanent)' appears on the bottom of every post that the user makes.

For bans, Y comes in only one flavour: (Permanent).

Few people receive bans, but they are mainly given to people for these reasons:

This kind of moderation is probably the most common on the forums, but has no effect on the user themselves (unless coupled with a probation/suspension/ban). What it does is prevent a thread from being replied to, thus letting it sink down through the pages to a point of obscurity.

There are two kinds of locks out there:

Here are some thread categories that are sure to receive a lock:

Here are some threads that may or may not be locked, depending on the circumstance:

Of the many badges you can receive, three of them are dependent on how your actions have reflected on the community:

Notable Poster: Known to many as 'Trinity' for obvious reasons, this badge requires that you make 100 posts without incurring any moderator wrath (whether it be Tier 1, 2 or 3), but the badge may only be granted 2 weeks after you join.

Epic Poster: Known to many as 'Morpheus' for obvious reasons, this badge requires that you must make 1000 posts without incurring moderator wrath. This badge will only be available 2 months after you join.

Real Ultimate Poster: Known to many as 'Neo' for obvious reasons, this badge requires that you must make 5000 posts without incurring moderator wrath. This badge will only be available to you 6 months after you join; it is an absurdly hard badge to get, and very few people on The Escapist have acquired it to my knowledge.

Please note that once you receive any form of moderator wrath, then these badges will be unavailable to you. Harsh, but fair.

Also note that having a thread of yours locked does not result in your inability to receive the badges.

Trolling And How To Deal With It:

'Trolling' and how to deal with it

What is a troll?
Troll is a derogatory term used to describe a poster with intent to offend, whether it be by posting offensive images, starting flame wars with other users, or just insulting another user.

Needless to say we don't need them tarnishing our pretty little forum, so how would we go about dealing with these unsavoury characters? The fool-proof way is to just ignore the troll.

How will ignoring the problem work?
To answer this we must first explain the term 'Feeding the Troll'.

What's 'Feeding the troll'?
This is a term used on the internet to describe the action of responding to a troll. Remember that a troll only gets his/her kicks by getting a reaction out of you, so by reacting you are effectively feeding the troll. By doing this you are just causing more problems by giving it a chance to continue trolling.

So what's the advantage of not responding?
Think of the troll as a fire. A fire needs oxygen to burn as a troll needs someone to offend. By ignoring the problem, you effectively deprived the troll of oxygen. After all, who's he going to troll if there's no one to troll?

I see, but apart from ignoring the troll, what else do we do?
Well the most important thing to do is not to post anything and I can't emphasise this enough. The next step would be to use your friend the report button and/or contact a moderator.

Report button? How does it work?
If the offending post is reported twice (That is, the report button has been clicked twice.) the offending post is sent to a queue known as the 'mod queue'.The more reports it gets the higher up the queue it goes and the moderators will pick it out and hand out the deserved wrath.

Also, how do I contact the moderators?
You can send them a private message either in the forums or through IRC.

So are there any pre-emptive measures I can take?
Sadly when it comes to trolls, there really isn't anything we can do apart from deal with the problem as fast as possible and not add to the problem.

That's all there is to know about the elusive troll species, when you do see a troll I'm sure you'll be able to make the right decision following this guide. Once again, please do not post as it just makes the problem worse and some people have reacted in very silly ways to trolls and have been punished themselves. Surely you don't want to lose the chance of a shiny 'Neo' badge because of a troll do you?

This section is courtesy of Sevre90210 and Higurashi

If, by any chance, you receive a ban, you shall receive a 'Forum Ban Notice' via PM. Inside, it will contain the details of which post was moderated, why and what will happen to your account as a result of the moderator action. Remember that you may appeal to the moderators, but your sentence will likely be raised should you have an irrational tantrum in their presence.

If you have any qualms about the topic of moderation, contact Red Guards such as wilsonscrazybed, nilcypher and Alex_P for answers and resolutions.

In the end, the moderators are the people that keep the Escapist a great place to be. Don't make their lives harder by causing trouble; embrace the community for what it is (freaking utopia), contribute and participate. We aren't a totalitarian empire, we're a friendly message board devoted to the gaming industry.

Moderator Edit: This is not the official rules, but it a damn fine user point of view look and guide to the rules (which can be found here).

User was banned for this post.

Very interesting and helpful, so well done :) I found this very useful to be honest :D

So far the only moderator wrath I have ever incurred was a locked thread.

This information was helpful.

This will help give trolls and troublemakers new goals to reach. New lines to dance around. Maybe even force them to be more creative with thier drollings. We'll just have to wait and see.

neuromasser:
This wasn't helpful at all
User was banned for this post.

Oh noes! D:

I think letting me know how to use that was probably a bad thing...
But love the thread, trying to keep my slate clean. So far so good.

Great format, my friend. This is a very useful guide indeed. When Inverse comes back, he'll probably add this to his thread. In the meantime. Here's for hoping it does some good

This thing needs to instantly be made into a permathread. Everyone go spam the thread about that, quick! (Note: thread-spamming is still bad :D)

Only thing I would have like to see would be a little more info/discussion on necroing(and when it is/isn't appropriate), especially since a wave of necroed news threads seems to have been popping up recently. Also, a mention of BB abuse would likely be appropriate.

User was banned for this post.(Permanent)

Well, there goes my chances at the Neo...

MaxTheReaper:
If you are so inclined, you should contact Inverse_Skies to have him put this in his thread of threads.

Thanks, I'll do that.

Lukeje:
Pretty interesting, but the actual "User was banned for" is made using [small][/small] tags,
i.e. User was banned for this post.

Yeah, I sort of didn't know what to do there; should have researched Forum Markup first.

Thanks for the help, I'll add the small tags in.

scotth266:
This thing needs to instantly be made into a permathread. Everyone go spam the thread about that, quick! (Note: thread-spamming is still bad :D)

Only thing I would have like to see would be a little more info/discussion on necroing(and when it is/isn't appropriate), especially since a wave of necroed news threads seems to have been popping up recently. Also, a mention of BB abuse would likely be appropriate.

Excuse my uninformed-ness, but what does BB stand for?

And as for necroing threads, I am not too sure how to say when it's good and when it's bad. Really, I deem it to be good until a month after its connception, but others (like PurpleRain's Quote Thread) tend to survive.

Thanks for the feedback though; I'm glad that these few hours of work wasn't a waste of time on my part.

I shall be keeping this thread bookmarked so that I can refer others to it whenever needed. Luckily, I already follow all these rules, so that Neo badge is as good as mi--

User was banned for this post.(Permanent)

WHAT!?

Ouch. Lots of words make my brain hurt.

I hate to be such a lazy peeve, but I'll just skim read it. Very indepth though. Good job.

bitzi61:
People just have to realize that, if they arn't stupid, they won't get banned

It's not that simple. Far from it. I was once banned for laughing at someone's joke, which I didn't think actually fitted the forum rules.

But lo' and behold, after I re-read them, I actually came to the conclusion I that the moderator was right to put me on probation (However, it was still quite harsh).

If I've read it right, this thread is trying to help people find the where the line is, inbetween voicing your opinion, and being a ban-able jackass.

iain62a:

MaxTheReaper:
How very helpful of you.
If you are so inclined, you should contact Inverse_Skies to have him put this in his thread of threads.

What, like a meta thread?

its a thread designed to direct people to some of the best threads on the forums. It's great because rather than needing to bookmark a million threads, you only need to bookmark the one.