by Howard Mass on Mon Aug 13, 2012 10:58 pm
The main points of the new policy are as follows with NO EXCEPTIONS
1st Violation= Warning
2nd Violation= Read-Only Access To General NBA Forum
3rd Violation= Complete General NBA Forum Ban
All violations will also come with a 12-hour Suspension so the user can cool down and be informed of the violation before posting further.
Everyone will start with Zero General NBA Forum warnings on September 4 and warnings will not count as a warning for any other forums.
Note:
- RealGM Three-day and Seven-Day Suspensions and Full Bans could apply depending on how many warnings a user has or how severe the violation was.
- The Following Violations will immediately result in Read-Only Access or a Complete General NBA Forum Ban
Racist, Insensitive and inappropriate Remarks
Personal Attacking A User(s) or Moderator(s)
Excessively Violating Forum Rules
Other Reforms To Improve The Forum
New User Waiting Period Restriction (Read-Only Access) Extended from 30 to 100 Days
Users who use Gifs or Pictures to bait users or derail discussion will be warned and could lose the right to post Pics and Gifs on the forum.
No Provoking Signatures or Avatars- If a user insists on having one that does this and does not want to take it down, Moderators have the right to request to have you get Read-Only Access.
Revokation of Ability To Start Threads- Users must look to see if there is already a thread for a particular topic before starting one. In cases of a breaking story and multiples threads are made within a few mins, that will be excused. Moderators have the right to lock those topics with a link to the appropriate thread to post in if there are multiple topics on the subject or ones that belong on another forum.
Should a thread be locked and a user ignore A Moderator's action and make a new one, they will lose their priviledge to start threads on the General NBA Forum and be given a warning. If users ignore the warnings, openly complains about it on the forum instead of in private or call out Moderators, they automatically get at least a read-only ban.
Users who lose the ability to start threads will be able to appeal to have this reinstated just like they would appeal a Read-Only Ban.
How Read-Only Access Works
When a user gets Read-Only access, it means they can only read topics on the General NBA Forum and cannot post
In order for a user to regain full access, they will have to write a PM request to Howard Mass which will be reviewed by a committee that will consist of Howard Mass and some General NBA Forum Moderators.
In the request, the user must prove that they understand the violation they committed and explain how they plan to conduct themselves on the forum if given back full access.
Note: If any user with Read-Only Access gets another user to post their thoughts on any thread. That user will automatically get a full General NBA Forum ban and the user who assisted will receive a warning or Read-Only Access themselves depending on where they are on the three-strike scale.
It is possible that we will ask you follow up questions.
Myself and The Committee would then vote on the request. All requests will be decided on within 60 days.
If a majority approve, the user will be given back full access with the understanding the next warning is a full General NBA Forum Board Ban.
If a request is denied, the user will be able to appeal again in 60 days provided they have no other violations during this period anywhere on RealGM. If they do, the appeal date will be 60 days since the last violation occured outside of 60 days.
Other Notes
Many times users complain that they got in trouble while someone else did not. Myself and The General NBA Moderators put in a lot of effort to give everyone equal justice but sometimes we do not get everyone or the user has less warnings and is not eligible for a suspension. We handle discipline privately and will not comment on what the other user(s) got.
If you have an issue use the report function, don't insult the poster, don't complain to a mod when you get a warning for insulting a poster, just report it and we will deal with it.
Each user needs to only worry about their own actions.
Users who currently are Board Banned from our General NBA Forum have the right to reply and request read-only access but their appeal dates to attempt to regain full access are the same as before.
. Why did the policy go from 30 days to 100. Also new users can't post pics or links, but they can post youtube videos. Why is that? thanks in advance for answering my questions. 
