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ravenvii

macrumors 604
Mar 17, 2004
7,585
492
Melenkurion Skyweir
Well I apparently got it for using the word "idiot"

someone else here got one for a double post. Nice to see the system is being used in the spirit in which is was created and for all the right reasons.

Did you just use the word "idiot", or did you call someone an idiot? Two very different things.

I told someone to shut up, and *bam* infraction. Telling someone to shut up is a much lesser insult than calling someone an idiot, I think.
 

dukebound85

macrumors Core
Jul 17, 2005
19,117
4,096
5045 feet above sea level
All the crap going on in the forums recently and this is what mods are doing. Oy.

The problem with only telling part of the story is that it is only part of the story. So any implications associated with the above comment are likely wrong. Oy.

That is the whole story though. My infraction states quite clearly it was for consecutive posting. The 2 posts in question are fine in of themselves and were minutes apart due to the continued reading and then replying to the thread. My mistake but it wasn't intentional by any means and now I have to always look at the infraction....forEVer as my buddy Squints would say
 

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xUKHCx

Administrator emeritus
Jan 15, 2006
12,583
9
The Kop
That is the whole story though. My infraction states quite clearly it was for consecutive posting. The 2 posts in question are fine in of themselves and were minutes apart due to the continued reading and then replying to the thread. My mistake but it wasn't intentional by any means and now I have to always look at the infraction....forEVer as my buddy Squints would say

For consecutive posts it is not a case of one issue = infraction.

You were PM'ed about consecutive posts in the past and it was a long standing running issue. The next step after a PM and continued consecutive posts is an infraction.

Just because it was associated with one post does not mean that that is the whole story.
 

kolax

macrumors G3
Mar 20, 2007
9,181
115
For consecutive posts it is not a case of one issue = infraction.

You were PM'ed about consecutive posts in the past and it was a long standing running issue. The next step after a PM and continued consecutive posts is an infraction.

Just because it was associated with one post does not mean that that is the whole story.

May I chip in to hear what you have to say on my infractions (I'm not fussed about them, just curious).

I got one for having an extra line in my signature. I logged on one morning, found part of my signature was missing, so I re-applied it. I later received an infraction. The mod who dealt with it said he removed a line from my signature, but failed to tell me; I received no PM saying he had removed a line from it. Seems harsh to fall into that sort of trap.

And the consecutive posting one was also a tad harsh.

I may have forgotten about previous warnings, but I don't recall any. As I said, I'm not fussed, just curious, seeing as we're on the topic. ;)
 

AppleMatt

macrumors 68000
Mar 17, 2003
1,783
21
UK
I got one for having an extra line in my signature. I logged on one morning, found part of my signature was missing, so I re-applied it. I later received an infraction. The mod who dealt with it said he removed a line from my signature, but failed to tell me; I received no PM saying he had removed a line from it. Seems harsh to fall into that sort of trap.

That's not fair!

Ages ago a mod PM'd me about my signature length. No infraction.

AppleMatt
 

iBlue

macrumors Core
Mar 17, 2005
19,180
15
London, England
I got one for having an extra line in my signature. I logged on one morning, found part of my signature was missing, so I re-applied it. I later received an infraction. The mod who dealt with it said he removed a line from my signature, but failed to tell me; I received no PM saying he had removed a line from it. Seems harsh to fall into that sort of trap.

Oh that one is a bit harsh and maybe a little close to home for me. I haven't had any infractions thus far but there was one slightly confusing moment a while back where I could have unwittingly fallen into that trap.

It went like this - I edited my signature and I could swear I put an indent of sorts into it and the next day or so later it was gone. I'm fairly particular about the layout of my signatures so I was a little miffed to find it that way, but because I had doubts a moderator would tinker with something so trivial I thought maybe I actually had forgotten to put the indent in myself, so I put it back. It wasn't even an act of defiance or anything, (because I still have no idea if it was my own mistake or not) it was more a matter of confusion and wanting to display my signature as I had intended. I would have been really peeved to receive an infraction over something like that.

I didn't hear anything about it so I still don't know if it was really removed or if I'd forgotten, but because of my fussiness where my sigs are concerned I'm suspect it was actually removed, which seems a little odd. My signatures are never very big and flashy and I change it on a regular basis to various lyrics so nothing stays for long anyway, but I like my signatures how I like them. So long as they're not huge, ugly and in anyone's face I wouldn't think that is a problem. Mind you, this is the first time I've mentioned it so it's not been a problem but I wouldn't want it to be either.

As for the rest of this topic, geeeesh, no comment.
 

arkitect

macrumors 604
Sep 5, 2005
7,027
11,893
Bath, United Kingdom
…my fussiness where my sigs are concerned… My signatures are never very big and flashy and I change it on a regular basis to various lyrics so nothing stays for long anyway, but I like my signatures how I like them.
(Running the risk of sounding like a real old, a**e kisser) I think you certainly have the nicest signatures on MacRumors.
:eek:
 

bartelby

macrumors Core
Jun 16, 2004
19,795
34
Some people get worked up over the most trivial things...
Calm down dear, It's only a website.
 

Surely

Guest
Oct 27, 2007
15,042
11
Los Angeles, CA
Since we're talking about signatures now.......

I received a Profile Warning for a Signature Rule Violation as well. I didn't even know that I was violating any rules because my signature didn't really look all that different from the typical signature you see on these boards. All I did was have a line of space between the first line of my sig and the second line. I thought it looked cleaner.

The line had been removed and I had replaced it a few times prior to me receiving the warning, but I didn't know that it was a mod that was editing my sig. I just thought there was a bug with vBulletin or something.

I was sent a PM and the Profile Warning at the same time. The mod took the time to personalize the PM...... because of that, I wondered why he didn't just PM me and not bother with the Profile Warning. I mean, if he was writing the PM anyway, why bother with the PW? It would have been more courteous.

It doesn't really bother me that the PW is there right now, as I rarely look at my profile. However, it did bother me when I received it..... I felt that a PM would have been sufficient, especially since a personalized PM was sent anyway.
 

kolax

macrumors G3
Mar 20, 2007
9,181
115
All I did was have a line of space between the first line of my sig and the second line. I thought it looked cleaner.

I think that's all I had as well. It was 2 years ago, and I forget exactly what was wrong with my signature, but now you said that, it rings a bell that I had a space in my signature and it was removed without me being told, and I too assumed it was a bug or something.

I'm all for keeping stuff tidy on the forum, but when mods change things like your signature without telling you, how are you supposed to know if it is a bug or what's going on?
 

annk

Administrator
Staff member
Apr 18, 2004
15,109
9,175
Somewhere over the rainbow
...

I'm all for keeping stuff tidy on the forum, but when mods change things like your signature without telling you, how are you supposed to know if it is a bug or what's going on?

The first thing I'd do is check if there's anything in the rules about signatures that could explain it. Members are expected to be familiar with the rules, but there's a lot there and it can be hard to remember all the small stuff.

If after doing that I still had questions, I'd probably sent a contact (if it was specifically about moderation of my post) or start a thread here (if it's a question about a general forum issue).
 

JML42691

macrumors 68020
Oct 24, 2007
2,082
2
The first thing I'd do is check if there's anything in the rules about signatures that could explain it. Members are expected to be familiar with the rules, but there's a lot there and it can be hard to remember all the small stuff...
I think the difference with signatures (at least from my perspective, I've never had mine changed so I wouldn't know) is that when a mod edits a post for whatever reason there is a little note at the bottom that everyone on the forums can see that says "Last edited by: [mod's name]..." So at least with posts you know that a mod edited your post, even if just to remove a quote of a deleted post. But with signatures there is no automatic note saying who it was last edited by, a simple one-line PM saying "I edited your signature for violating forum rules, contact me with any questions," would be sufficient. Just a thought.
 

Surely

Guest
Oct 27, 2007
15,042
11
Los Angeles, CA
^^^^^ Exactly.



The first thing I'd do is check if there's anything in the rules about signatures that could explain it. Members are expected to be familiar with the rules, but there's a lot there and it can be hard to remember all the small stuff.

The thing is, is that if you're not even thinking along the lines that you've violated a rule, you're not going to think to look at the rules to see if you've violated one.

That's why I kept "correcting" my apparent signature rule violation. It didn't even cross my mind that something as trivial as an extra line in a sig would be enough to draw attention of a mod to take the time to correct multiple times. I'm guessing the mod involved in my issue thought that I was battling it out for that extra line of space.

The rules list is quite extensive. I can keep track of the major ones (no insults, spamming, double posts, etc). The one I unknowingly violated is not one of those.

As I said, it doesn't bother me that the warning is still there, it just bothered me how it was handled when it occurred.
 

yg17

macrumors Pentium
Aug 1, 2004
15,027
3,002
St. Louis, MO
^^^^^ Exactly.





The thing is, is that if you're not even thinking along the lines that you've violated a rule, you're not going to think to look at the rules to see if you've violated one.

That's why I kept "correcting" my apparent signature rule violation. It didn't even cross my mind that something as trivial as an extra line in a sig would be enough to draw attention of a mod to take the time to correct multiple times. I'm guessing the mod involved in my issue thought that I was battling it out for that extra line of space.

The rules list is quite extensive. I can keep track of the major ones (no insults, spamming, double posts, etc). The one I unknowingly violated is not one of those.

As I said, it doesn't bother me that the warning is still there, it just bothered me how it was handled when it occurred.

And with all the time the moderation staff spent going back and editing it again and again and issue a warning, they could've sent a PM after the first time explaining what they did and why.

The staff says they don't have time for personalized PMs, but I think in cases like that, it would save a lot of time.
 

WildCowboy

Administrator/Editor
Staff member
Jan 20, 2005
18,358
2,769
The thinking behind silent modifications to user's signatures has simply been that they are such a minor issue that we just make the change and move on rather than spending the time to PM the affected users. The vast majority of users never notice (or at least never comment on) the changes.

Only when we've altered a user's signature several times will we reach out to them to inform them of the issue. We've typically done this using the infraction/warning system as it provides a convenient mechanism for contacting the user while also documenting the incident for the mod staff.

Could there be some room for improvement? Perhaps, and that's something we'll talk about as a staff. From our perspective, warnings we issue through the infraction system are generally for minor issues and we treat them almost just like an enhanced PM, and we don't expect users to take things more seriously than that.

But it seems like a number of users have a different perspective on them, whether it be from the boilerplate wording they receive in the messages, or the continued appearance of the incidents on their user profile pages.

The mods have a "wishlist" of changes we'd like to see made to the infraction/warning system if we could rebuild it from scratch ourselves, but in reality that is unlikely to occur. But that doesn't mean we can't talk about ways to make better use of the existing system, and we'll be looking at that.

Thanks for your input, everyone.
 

MacDawg

Moderator emeritus
Mar 20, 2004
19,823
4,503
"Between the Hedges"
I guess I am just old :-(
Most of these things just seem so trivial to me that they aren't even worth worrying about

And I never pull up my user CP, so I would never see an infraction if one was there
And if there was and it bothered me, I would just avoid going there
 

-aggie-

macrumors P6
Jun 19, 2009
16,793
51
Where bunnies are welcome.
Since the floodgates seem to be open on discussing infractions: I received an infraction, because someone reported that I was spamming “my" app. I don’t have any apps. All I was doing was suggesting a free alternative for the OP.:)
 

Sun Baked

macrumors G5
May 19, 2002
14,936
156
I guess I am just old :-(
Most of these things just seem so trivial to me that they aren't even worth worrying about

And I never pull up my user CP, so I would never see an infraction if one was there
And if there was and it bothered me, I would just avoid going there

I'm lost, missed everything only to find out it is all over one word.
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It's kind of the same, since you are unlikely to tell someone you think has intelligent, valuable opinions to "shut up."
Erm... *cough*... no comment.

(And in case you misinterpret, no that isn't aimed at you, but at the forums in general (and by forums I mean the iPhone forums)).

Can somebody please flag the posts with intelligent and valuable opinions, I'm having a tough time finding em lately. :p
 
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