Stupid Pointless Crap System

[Summit]

Somebody is very bored to come up with that...

I am on more web forums than I have fingers and only one other board tried a point based disciplinary system. At least they had regular violators. The systems for all their over-specific structure end up being laughable and arbitrary.

Lose the silly points system and deal with issues case by case as they come up! Better yet, come up with a representative forum self government if you want to spend time developing a system...

 

[MMiz]

What?

Our point system is in place because that's the system that comes with the software. When we used a different message board program, we had a different system.

A vast majority of the warnings that we issue include no points. If your offense is bad enough that we can no longer trust your judgment in posting appropriate content, then we put you on moderator preview. Lastly we have the option to ban a member for a specific or indefinite amount of time.

The points are insignificant, and a vast majority of our community will never see a point. We're making the best of a system we have to work with, and we've had great results so far.

If you have an issue with a specific event, then you're welcome to address it to a specific Community Leader or email us. Our goal is to create a community where all members feel welcome and comfortable, and our warning/points system helps us achieve that.

 

[Summit]

If you have an issue with a specific event

There are no events that I can think of... I've never been in trouble

 

[medman123]

I've never been in trouble

Your about to be lol

 

[bstone]

I agree. The point system is a bad one. In addition, the so-called "appeals" process does not exist. There should be a committee of the members here who review "infractions" and determine proper punishment. Afterall, it is the members here who make this site successful.

 

[BossyCow]

Yep, because what I need in my life is more protocols, policies, and SOG's.

 

[Flight-LP]

Ditto, get rid of the point system. It will be found as a useless tool. Just deal with a problem if and when it comes up..........This is kinda "pointless"


(sorry couldn't help myself)

 

[Medic51]

I'm sorry if I don't understand this...

Why does it really matter what system is in place?
Rules are rules, You either follow them and be respectful to others or you don't.
I mean, Is some people here nervous they may do something wrong in the future? I don't mean to be the outcast here, I just don't understand the reasoning of argument here. This is an informative board where we can express opinions and such.

Sorry If I offended anyone but i ask again, Why does it matter?

 

[MMiz]

I don't get why everyone is so worked up over the point system. The original post was made with the intent of showing the community that we just don't ban a member for minor infractions, and that we do our best to be fair and consistent.

We've had some sort of system in place since the forum's inception, and I have yet to visit any sort of online community that doesn't have policies and punishments for members who mess up.

The warnings/infraction system is what allows us to limit members who spam the community. The system allows us to apply punishments fairly and consistently. Most importantly, it is a semi-automated system that notifies both the offender and all of the Community Leaders, so we're all aware of what's going on.

The system is here to stay, but I have removed the original post detailing the system. It should not be the main focus of our community, but instead should facilitate free, open, and appropriate discussion.

 

[bstone]

Matt, when the members of the community rise up and say they don't like something then why not listen to them? It's good governence to listen to your constituancy and respond in kind. You say free, open and appropriate discussion, but how much input does the community actually have?

 

[BossyCow]

Sounds to me a bit like addressing the possibility of a probable issue that might occur at sometime in the future but so far hasn't created any difficulty and the issues associated with it are hypothetical. Geez.. ever heard of choosing your battles?

 

[bstone]

Since we spend a lot of time at this site it seems that this is a battle which we have picked.

Down with the point system. CLs- it's time to listen to the members.

 

[Medic51]

Why don't we just put a voting poll up for this and see how everyone feels and just go from there?

 

[MMiz]

Matt, when the members of the community rise up and say they don't like something then why not listen to them? It's good governence to listen to your constituancy and respond in kind. You say free, open and appropriate discussion, but how much input does the community actually have?

Brad,

Your personal issue with our system is by no means representative of our community. Please do not be confused, much like our own nation, this forum is not a true democracy. A select few members, who we feel represent the community, is in charge of creating and enforcing the rules.

This community would not exist without our current system, and that's absolutely not going to change. Our system allows us to create a safe online atmosphere, and I wouldn't want to be part of a community without some sort of moderation.

If you have a problem with this system, you're welcome to frequent other communities. Our current system has helped countless members. We've had members that have been spammed, harassed, and even threatened with bodily injury. Our system allows us to quickly and appropriate deal with such issues.

When you violate a rule, you'll receive a PM with all of the information. Most likely it'll ask you to calm down a bit, but sometimes we take further action.

Brad, you are the only person in this community who has whined and moaned so much about receiving a warning. We've had members who have been banned for months come back and contribute to our community. If you have an issue, which is quite apparent, then you need to address it to our CL team. Otherwise, I can't see any positive coming from stirring up the community.

Thanks,

 

[babygirl2882]

Personally I think this is awesome!! I think its good that if I do something inappropriate or something I will told and it keeps this place from getting out of control!! Great job mods!!!

 

[bstone]

Matt,

Not really sure why you wrote an entire tirade against me. Perhaps you should go to the first post and take notice that I did not create this thread. I simply chimed in with my input as a community member that I feel this point system is useless. Again, I am not the only person to think this and certainly not the first person to state so publicly.

Again, I haven't a clue why you aimed your musing at me when I am not the only community member to feel this way and, moreover, not the one who created this thread. Do you have something against me personally? I don't have anything against you, Matt, at all. Just this silly and useless point system.

A spammer doesn't care if they get a "point". If someone really wants to do bodily harm to someone else getting a virtual point isn't going to stop them. Thus- I don't get the point.

Respectfully,

 

[Chimpie]

...I am on more web forums than I have fingers and only one other board tried a point based disciplinary system. At least they had regular violators. ...

One of the reasons we don't have 'regular violators' here is because of our point/infraction system. When an issue arrives we deal with it. If points/warnings/etc. don't work futher action can (and has before) been taken.

There are no events that I can think of... I've never been in trouble

Your about to be lol

Nope, Summit is free to post his thoughts as long as he/she doesn't break any of our rules. I think EMTLife.com has allowed our members to post what they are feeling with very little interruption. We've allowed this post to continue haven't we?

I agree. The point system is a bad one. In addition, the so-called "appeals" process does not exist. There should be a committee of the members here who review "infractions" and determine proper punishment. Afterall, it is the members here who make this site successful.

The point system (or a variation of it) has always existed with this forum. We received some questions about it from differenet people and we thought maybe we should post our system for everyone to see. Only a very few people seem to have a problem with it. In fact, out of our 300 active members only four have posted a negative or some-what-negative comment about it.

Also, there is a 'committee of ... members who review the infractions and determine proper punishment.' They are called the Community Leaders. Matt (MMiz), the founder of EMTLife.com, couldn't take on the task of being the mod/admin all by himself. So he started to look for others that could help him run a successful forum. SafetyPro, FFEMT8978, myself and a few others all stood out (to him) as one's who were rationale and could 'do the job with a cool head'.

You might have read about the Tribunal of Community Leaders. When you send an email to the 'moderators' each of us get it. We take the time to discuss what happened and to see if the best decision was made. Have we changed someone's previous decision before? Yep. Maybe the original leader who took action read something the wrong way. It happens on forums all the time. Have we backed each other up before as well? You better believe it. And we will continue to do so in the future.

Yep, because what I need in my life is more protocols, policies, and SOG's.

Some of our rules have existed from day one. The others have come from instances as we've grown. I, personally, feel that the rules that we enforce (and we rarely have to enforce any to be quite honest) is what makes EMTLife.com what it is today. I know I have read in multiple posts that people have left other forums and stayed with us because here they didn't get bashed for their thoughts on an issue or because they are new to the forum and or emergency medicine. They have posted that they feel safe and comfortable here.

Ditto, get rid of the point system. It will be found as a useless tool. Just deal with a problem if and when it comes up..........This is kinda "pointless"
(sorry couldn't help myself)

I actually chuckled at that one. As one of the Community Leaders I feel that the point system has worked out well for us and our members.

Matt, when the members of the community rise up and say they don't like something then why not listen to them? It's good governence to listen to your constituancy and respond in kind. You say free, open and appropriate discussion, but how much input does the community actually have?

The community has a lot of input. We have created numerous threads in our off-stage section where we discuss what is brought up in your posts. I believe the Military/Tactical/Wilderness EMS was created from a request from some of our members. This is just one example.

Since we spend a lot of time at this site it seems that this is a battle which we have picked.
Down with the point system. CLs- it's time to listen to the members.

We actually have listed to you Brad, and everyone else in this thread. The point system has worked for us very well. At this moment we have no definite plans to change it. We are, however, looking at other forums and coming up with ideas of our own. If we find something that might be better, we will put it to use.

Why don't we just put a voting poll up for this and see how everyone feels and just go from there?

Because as Matt said before me (and I realize that it was after your post) our disciplinary system will not changed. What I believe he meant by that is that it's not going away. Whether it's points or another form of 'punishing' (I really hate that word), a disciplinary system of sorts will always be there.

Matt,

Not really sure why you wrote an entire tirade against me. Perhaps you should go to the first post and take notice that I did not create this thread. I simply chimed in with my input as a community member that I feel this point system is useless. Again, I am not the only person to think this and certainly not the first person to state so publicly.

Again, I haven't a clue why you aimed your musing at me when I am not the only community member to feel this way and, moreover, not the one who created this thread. Do you have something against me personally? I don't have anything against you, Matt, at all. Just this silly and useless point system.

He responded to you because he was addressing a point that you made. You are correct. You didn't create the thread. But you made a post in it. You've also made more posts about this subject than the thread starter.

A spammer doesn't care if they get a "point". If someone really wants to do bodily harm to someone else getting a virtual point isn't going to stop them. Thus- I don't get the point.

It's not about the 'point'. It's about a system that deals with problems as they arise. Again, we didn't create it. It came with the forum package. It has worked for us before and we will continue to use it. If we find something or create something that works better, we will use that.

Thank you to everyone that has posted in this thread. We welcome everyone's feedback.

Chimp

 

[ffemt8978]

As the starter of the thread that created this little firestorm, I've held off on posting this because I didn't want to add fuel to the fire.

In retrospect, posting the point values for infractions may not have been the best idea. What I was trying to show our members is that we allow you multiple chances to comply with our forum rules before we take any action such as placing you on Moderator Preview or suspending you from this site. Depending upon the seriousness of the violation, of course.

The Community Leader team as a whole, tries very hard NOT to use the point system. We would rather handle it in an unofficial manner if at all possible, but sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do.

As far as the appeals go, you will find that we are one of only a very few sites that allow you to appeal a disciplinary action to all of the Community Leaders. On most sites, there is no process in place for this, nor do they want one. Please remember, though, that just because you appeal does NOT mean that the decision will be reversed. Just because you didn't get a favorable appeal does not mean that there is no appeals process.

I'm a member or moderator on several sites that all have different types of disciplinary systems in place. Some are member moderated, others have a ton of mods, and some aren't moderated at all. I do believe that we have the best system in place for our forum, because all of the other sites have serious flaws in theirs.

 

[Summit]

Woah this thread has a lot of posts... I'll have to read...

but just by glancing something caught my eye...

The system allows us to apply punishments fairly and consistently. Most importantly, it is a semi-automated system

What do you mean semi-automated?

 

[Flight-LP]

Chimpie, glad I could bring a smile to your face...........Now get back to work and tell me if Dean is going to ruin my weekend next week!!!!

Do we get gold stars if we are good??????