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To go along with the amended rules development, I am adding some new social mechanisms to the forums to help automate or make easier some of the moderator functions, allowing for increased openness and fair treatment. And some of the new functions will fit nicely with the updated rules.

Moderators will now see 2 buttons on each post, one to warn a user, the other to ban a user. (Figure 1)
In the past moderators gave out warnings via pm's and sometimes did not bother because of time or other reasons. But with the new system warnings have to be given through the site and reference a specific post (admins will have access to give warnings not connected to a post).

These warnings are viewable by on a person’s record and stay with a user in a warnings history. I have not decided if all members will be able to see this history or only mods.
This history will also help moderators make judgments, they can easily see what prior warnings or bannings a user might have had, rather than depending on memory.

Warnings have an expiry, so a warning might only last 1 week, then goes to the posts history. If someone gets more than a certain amount of warnings in a certain time frame, it will result in a banning. This is something I will have to modify in the current amended rules.

Warnings do not 'ban" or stop a poster from doing anything, it’s just a warning.

Also on the openness front, when a post is given a warning or banning, there will be a message at the bottom of the post with the date and reason for the warning. (Figure 2)
Mods must enter a reason when issuing warnings. Additionally when a user has "active" warnings against them, they will have a yellow card below their avatar. And if a user is on a temp "cool-down" ban, they will have a red card.

A post becomes locked after moderator or administrator has edited it, preventing the original poster from making changes. I am also looking at adding a check so people can't edit their own posts after a certain number of minutes

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There will also be a new post reporting system for members, that allows them to enter the reason they are reporting a post.

For the mods, this review system also makes things easier by adding a bunch of quick buttons to take action on the reported post.

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And the other large addition is the "Reputation System", which was discussed here.
This system will go through a trial period, to see how it works. There are a ton of options and settings, and may require tweaking on the fly to get the numbers right and stop abuse of the system.

Here are some highlights of the reputation system:


- Every user now has a so-called reputation, measured in a number
- The reason a user might get a reputation point (or lose it) are his/her posts
- User has to review one of the posts to add or subtract one point to post author's reputation
- User can review a post only once and (by default) won't be able to edit the review later
- Users can report reviews that do not comply with forum rules.
- Admin can choose whether expired warnings and bans are deleted or kept as expired
- Besides others giving someone rep, I can make the system automatically give a user reputation points based on things like, points for every X amount of days, point for every X amount of posts, point for every X reviews made on other users,
- users can lose reputation for every warning and banning they receive.
- users that gain certain levels of reputation can have more power in giving others reputation. So a new user might be able to give someone +1, but a highly reputable members could give +4

The ability to give rep will also be limited to users that have been registered for at least 30 days and have a minimum of 25 posts.

I am thinking about starting the system off so no one can give reputation... until they have +1 rep. They can get this +1 from a mod or admin, or from one of the automatic rep methods above. I was thinking this might stop people going wild giving rep and possibly abusing it.


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Like always any input or suggestions are welcome. I might have the system working and ready tonight or tomorrow.

   

Below is a screenshot example of what a warning will look like in a thread.

And here is an example of someons warning history page:
http://www.canadaka.net/modules.php?nam ... ings&r=4#4

   

That would be interesting. I like it!

   

I should have been more eloquent with my reason.......but I only got a few hours sleep.

   

The reputation system is just coming online now, in the last hour.

I still need to play with some of the numbers, but it needs some usage to see what numbers work.
I still don't know if I will allow negative rep points, but people have not been speaking up with there opinions.

I'm not sure how EyeBrock was able to give someone rep, seems something isn't working right. It should be that only someone with +1 rep can starting giving rep, and the only one with +1 rep so far is Newsbot.

   

chill out, I said this would be a trail period, far as the rep system goes. Because I will be playing with the numbers I will probably wipe the slate clean when a nice balance is found.

   

It's going to be used for posters that exhibit good behaviour. nd people that gain a certain rep will get some sort of award for setting a good example.

It's not going to be a wide open system where everyone can review/add rep to anyone. I just hanv't got the controls working yet to lock the right people out.

At the start it will only by mods who can give rep, then those people that get to certain rep can start also giving some rep.

   

I know who I'm going to test it on first.

**makes a note .....with one eyebrow raised**

   

This is so coool.....

High Tech look to it, eh?

   

for Now I removed the ability to give negative rep, but one can still get negative rep from bannings.

   

I have finished added a textbos to the "report post" page. So now people can add a short comment as to why they are reporting something.

   

And that's the way it should stay... In my opinion.

   

Yeah, if their were to be Negative Rep, I'd have the lowest all the damn time,

   

It already is.

There are warning cards in place and already in use:

Used here...

Is the little thumbs up beside the profile button not visible?

   

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