Well we sure had a big discussion yesterday about this subject but I am happy to say, no fights and no margin busting, so that is good.
The following is the last draft made by Vieravisionary based on what he got from the input of members yesterday. I am posting here pretty much as he sent it to me last night, I did remove some lengthy descriptions and changed the word Prickish to Jerkish.
This is still a work in progress,what I would like to do with this diary is whittle it down a little, take suggestions for language changes and so on and come up with a concise message to post on the site that will exemplify the etiquette rules, this is what I have come up with so far for posting:
Cordial and civil behaviour is required and strictly enforced
The second part of this the QRT, or community board part needs further refinement and simplification.
Modification of Site Etiquette Resolution
It is hereby resolved that the site rules of conduct shall be that vicious ad hominem attacks are forbidden.
Vicious is defined as ANY use of profanity in an attack against another member, ANY suggestion that a person needs to seek psychological counseling unless they are asking for personal opinions and interventions from the community, and ANY SUSPECTED outing attempts. This does not mean that all personal criticism or joking is forbidden. It means that if you attack someone in a way that is vicious, as determined by community consensus, you will pay. You also may not engage in any other kind of jerkish behavior. Jerkish behavior is defined as . . . . [Still need to define this term], as determined by community consensus. Community consensus means the views of the site owner [Executive] and those with administrative privileges, in consultation with the Community Board.The first offense shall result in a warning
Second offense shall result in a temporary blocking of the member for a period of twenty-four hours cooling down period.
Third offense shall result in a temporary blocking of the member for a period of two weeks cooling down period.
Fourth offense will result in a permanent blocking of member’s IP address and membership.
A Community Board shall be nominated and elected (in a poll and subject to ? renewal) by the membership to serve as an arbitration body or to act and represent for the benefit of members as opposed to management, similar to the minority party in congress, and to act on the behalf of the Site Owner [Executive] when he is not present.
The Community Board will consist of ? elected site members. Age or length of membership shall not be limiting factors to election on the Community Board. Maximum length on the Community Board will be ? months. The Site Owner [Executive] is not eligible to be elected as a Community Board member.
Six or more Community Board members can reach decisions by single majority vote and be allowed to take immediate binding action up to and including a two week time-out for a repeat offender. Six out of nine Community Board members’ votes (two-thirds majority) are required to recommend permanent banning of a site member and shall be to the Site Owner [Executive] for review or veto. There will be a minimum of ten days cooling off period for the entire Community Board and Site Owner [Executive], which may run concurrently with a two week suspension for the repeat offender.A Quick Response Team (QRT) comprised of three Community Board members shall be able to recommend temporarily suspend a member from posting for twenty four hours.
Enforcement of the rules for suspensions shall be strictly enforced.Such rules shall be prominently posted on site so that all are aware.
To all those that say what, more rules, I say we are modifying and clarifying site rules, which we have always had and members collectively wrote those rules before. The biggest change is the consequence area for violations and the QuickResponseTeam set up.
FWIW after the pie wars and the influx, the founding members of the FBC, Froggy Bottom Cafe were very much involved in a QRT effort, and we used our Yahoo Group Site as the meetup and exchange place….what we did was put out a call when tempers were flaring and whoever was available and good at diplomacy would then try to soothe the problem. It worked very well until I took a break from the site. Anyway, I think we might use this model which worked out easily and simply.
So please lets continue the work in progress.
To Teach313, I am not sure how or if to incorporate what you want included in this so I look forward to hearing more from you in that regard.
Let me also add that we were able to organize and do quite a lot on this site previously and see no reason why that can’t be done again.