...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
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
