[Goober5000]

This was debated in the admin forum sporadically over the past few months ago, and I think it's high time to make it public.

There has been a substantial increase in new members over the past several months, and a corresponding increase in both the quantity of posts and the need for effective forum discipline.  We've come up with two responses to this situation, the second of which I'll announce in a week or so.  The first is a change in monkey policy.  The following rules will take place effective immediately:

1) All currently monkeyed users will be unmonkeyed so everyone starts off on the same foot.  (This was actually done a few months ago, back when the idea first came up.)

2) Members in the Monkey group will be unable to post in any public forums.  They will be able to post in private forums if they would otherwise have access.

3) Monkeying will last a long but finite and well-defined period of time.  Originally three months was proposed, but I think we might start with one month.

That's essentially it.  Post feedback here if you like.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

 

[BlueFlames]

Why sugar-coat it?  It looks like a policy of using timed bans as a disciplinary measure (which I'm not condemning), so why bother calling it something else?  Ban the half-wits, set the clock, and unban them when the alarm goes off; no monkey crap necessary, pardon the pun.

[achtung]

Monkeying is a way of disciplining members without alienating them.  That's why you see it used more than bans here.

Anyway, I think that all sounds fine and dandy.

[karajorma]

Why sugar-coat it?  It looks like a policy of using timed bans as a disciplinary measure (which I'm not condemning), so why bother calling it something else?  Ban the half-wits, set the clock, and unban them when the alarm goes off; no monkey crap necessary, pardon the pun.

Cause several of the worst offenders are members of modding teams hosted here on HLP. If the rest of the team are willing to deal with their crap then fair play to them. Monkeying means the rest of us don't have to.

[Getter Robo G]

Wow, I never knew Monkeying meant banning here.

I always though it had to do with some Coding aspect, Like throwing a Monkey wrench in the works.

Particularly cause Kazan always had that Monkey blurb under his name. (like he was OUR Code Monkey!) 

(learn something new everyday...)
 

[Mobius]

I'd really like to know...

What it really takes to be monkeyed... There are jokes about virtually everyone here, who's able to get the difference between jokes and almost-serious offenses? I find incredibly boring and offensive certain comments about me... What is the moderation/administration going to punish, what they consider offensive or what IS offensive?

[karajorma]

It's based on what the admins consider unreasonably offensive.

If someone is thin skinned enough to take offence as things that most people would ignore or laugh at that's their problem. You do not have an absolute right not to be offended. Monkeying is called for if someone is being offensive in such a way as to cause disruption to the forum.

[Mobius]

What do you mean by "cause disruption"?

[captain-custard]

can we a have a ....... "thou shall not........;" list then at least we know whats happening and what the rules are ...

and is there a pre- monkey process like " please consider this your last warning etc"

and finally if its individual moderators who choose to impose the ban how will this be a level playing field , as some ppl here obviously have a sense of humour and some ppl certainly dont!!!!

any way keep up the great work and whose buying the beer

[Droid803]

You mean... a Forum rules thread?

[Goober5000]

Besides this one?

The rule of thumb is behave yourself and don't be a jackass.

[Droid803]

Oh, so there it is.
Might want to put it somewhere more prominent. At the top of an off-Topic forum isn't very noticeable. Never would have found it if you hadn't pointed it out. Maybe it should be stickied in the announcements forum where they usually are (and where new members can easily find it).

[Goober5000]

K.

[blowfish]

Will occasional, non-disruptive spamming be tolerated?

[Mobius]

You can always warn the spammers and lead them to moderate their actions...

[Polpolion]

I think it's a good idea for the most part. It makes monkeying seem more of like a temporary solitary confinement. Although the almost-enacted three months time seems a little harsh, the defined time for being monkeyed, I feel at least, is absolutely crucial in order to maintain fairness on the forum, mostly because this eliminates issues of when to un-monkey people.

One month is probably the best length for now, but perhaps at a later date revisions could be made that correlate the severity of the infraction with the time monkeyed. If that happens, I'd say maybe 2 to 3 months would be the longest, and after that the person should just be temp banned from the site.

[Scuddie]

To be honest, I can not agree with this idea of blanket monkeying based upon autocratic decision making.  I don't want to be bothered for calling a few idiotic people idiots every now and then, let alone being monkeyed for a month for such a trivial offense.  Sure if Kazan/TrashMan/BlackDove/an0n/everyone else goes on full rampage mode for several threads in several forums, I could see this kind of thing being necessary.  1 month, then 3, then 12.  Otherwise, don't lop off peoples heads for pissing in someone's cornflakes.

Unless of course there is a new member group (restricted user) that disallows minor offenders from replying in threads they have not started for X number of days.  That'd make more sense.

[Polpolion]

No offense intended, scuddie, but I think you're grossly underestimating the problem, which is in itself very sad.

[Scuddie]

Am I grossly underestimating the problem, or are others grossly overestimating the problem?  That's subjective.  Either way, it can easily be said that blanket consequences based upon "because I said so" enforcement is bad.