Ban Structure

Subject: Ban Structure Tue Jun 24, 2008 1:38 pm

1) Admonition. This is the catch-all term from us telling you that a certain behavior is frowned upon by role-play rules. It's not a Warning, it doesn't get recorded anywhere, and it should be seen as a friendly "heads-up."

2) Warning. A warning is a statement by us to a group or individual that they're breaking a Rule. They are recorded backstage. Warnings themselves do not carry any penalty, but we do review a user's history of warnings when deciding sanctions. In practical terms, we tend to forget about warnings after a month or so when viewing a user's history, so warnings from a year ago will rarely have any effect - or even be remembered by the staff. Warnings are a luxury, and we are under no compulsion to hand one out before administering a more significant sanction.

3) Plot-Bans. A plot-ban is simply a sanction wherein you are forbidden from taking part in a single plot. The ban lasts for the duration of the plot.

4) Topic-Bans. A topic-ban is a sanction where you are forbidden from posting regarding a single-topic. We use these when we like a user but feel that a single topic pushes them toward a permanent sanction like a ban.

5) Storyline-Bans. A Storyline-ban is a sanction wherein you are forbidden from posting in a particular storyline anymore -- often due to digressing suddenly from one course of action or thought and turning to another, if we feel that matter is causing you trouble but we value your interaction, we'll sometimes use a Topic-ban.

6) Suspension. A suspension is a prohibition from interacting for a span from one day to a year. Creating a new profile or using a second profile to post while under a suspension is grounds for automatic, permanent banning from any contact with the forum. This is sometimes called a temp-ban.

7) Banning. Banning is permanent removal from our aid. There are a variety of levels for banning, but they're all indistinguishable to normal users. This is sometimes called a perma-ban.