Moderation Policy Overhaul

[ConfusedCartman]

LittleBigPlanet Central has always been a great resource and destination for thousands of LittleBigPlanet fans alike. We are the busiest LBP fansite, and yet we have maintained a family-type atmosphere. Lately, however, we have seen a rise in the small minority of users who go against this sense of community spirit. I'm sure most of you have noticed members putting other members down, or posting only with the intent of riling others up.

This stops now.

Being a large site does not need to correlate with chaos. With that in mind, we have decided to take a hard line on negative and antisocial attitudes. We firmly believe in your rights to freedom of speech and freedom of expression, but as soon as you push the limits of your freedom to encroach on the freedom and experience of other members, we are going to have problems. If you choose to post in this manner, then you are choosing to give up your freedom to post, and potentially even your freedom to use our site.

Thus, starting now, if we catch you choosing to make any other members' experience at LBPCentral less enjoyable, we will remove your ability to post. Healthy, respectful debate can further knowledge and understanding, but the manner in which that disagreement or debate is expressed is the issue, and it is where we commonly witness the biggest problem. We don't want to deny anyone the right to post here, and I'm sure nobody out there wants us to take away this right. It's your choice. You can choose to be respectful to other members, or you can choose to go elsewhere.

How will we take away your ability to post? By giving you an infraction that pushes you into Silenced status. If you haven't read the Site Rules, you should really stop now and read those before going any further. Silenced status removes your ability to post until the infraction we dole out expires. As part of these moderation changes, the durations of all of the in-site infractions and their accompanying disciplinary actions have been increased. See the spoilers below for more. If you continue to commit serious, infractable offenses during your time here, you are choosing to leave our site, and your account will be banned.

Other Items:
One of the best ways that you can earn an infraction is to be disrespectful to other members. This takes many forms, and includes, but is not limited to:

• Publicly harassing another member for posting in the wrong section or for posting a duplicate thread.
• Trolling
• Mocking another member.
• Posting "Facepalm," "Thread Derailed," "Fail," and "Spam" pictures/videos/comments. These are now an automatic 4 point infractions, and will result in being Silenced.
• Asking for reputation or experience. This is disrespectful to the system in place. Earn these, don't demand them.
• Swearing. This a family site. If in doubt, use a different word; there are lots of them.
• Abusing new members of our community, simply for making minor site/internet faux pas.
• Arguing with Staff over a disciplinary issue. Discourse is fine, anger and name-calling is not.
• Trying to take moderation issues into your own hands. It's okay to be helpful, but not bossy.

If you see anyone else engaging in these antisocial behaviors, please remind yourself of the last item on that list. We have a report button to bring any potential issues to the attention of the staff. These are the times when a little bit of unfriendly sarcasm snowballs into a public brawl, which is the last thing anyone wants to see on the forums. Take two deep breaths, report it to the staff if a serious matter, and move on with your life.

Let us reiterate: We love this site. We have no intention of turning LBPC into a police state - where's the fun in that!? Most of you will never, ever be directly affected by the measures listed above and can carry on acting the way you do now. However, for those of you who enjoy using the rest of this community as a punching bag, your time is up. The truth is, none of us staff actually like giving out infractions, and disciplining is the worst part of a moderator's job. We would all be much happier if we never had reason to infract anyone. We hope that by taking a hard line on those few who exhibit disrespectful and antisocial behaviour, we can bring this site a big step closer to that ideal and make it a better place for everyone who frequents these forums.

We thank you in advance for your support and understanding in this matter.

Sincerely,

The LBPC Staff
- ConfusedCartman, Aya042, schm0, Morgana25, and warlord_evil

[comphermc]

My name is comphermc, and I approve this message.


Paid for by the Ad Council of ConfusedCartman, Inc.

[Morgana25]

Good call gents and lady. I think we all can agree that LBPC is a special place and I'd like it to stay that way.

[shade_twisted]

This is going to be a great idea.

[shadow3596]

Nice!
Thanks CC for this rules!
Now there will only be good people here!

[RockSauron]

I really wanna post a fail comment just to see what happens :O

Anyway, I was going on a rant a few days ago, do I have special privileges, or is it cause of LBPC: TG or was it cause I reported my own post or what? Eh. W/e

Still, very nice, Spaff knows you need it.

(cwatidudthar? It's like God but with Spaff... Meh w/e)

Or we need it. But yeah, at any rate, you guys are awesome and stuff. Especially in dealing with people confronting you. I can't do that ;-;

Tough but necessary since LBPC has gone to such huge heights, way different then the days of yonder...

... Am I rambling? Yes. Still, the point is, you do a good job. I honestly think each of you are crazy for doing all of this for no real reward.

I like crazy

Edit: Ok, fine, I was talking more to the mods... CC technically does get the reward of all that experience and references and stuff for jobs and stuff. But the mods? totally crazy.

[littlebigmeteor]

Keep up the good work.

[RickRock_777•]

Thank you, CC and Staff, for making this call. It is greatly appreciated.

[Deviantgeek]

Can we still post "facepalm", and other silly internet memes in general chat?

[chinook3]

Thanks I Love This Site! It's Nice And I Want It To Stay Nice And Be As Good As It Can Be!

This Post Was Sponsored By chinook3

[jwwphotos]

My name is comphermc, and I approve this message.

Well I never!! I take issue with that statement and am a callin ya out!
Kidding!! Just kidding.. put down the ban hammer!! NO Wait! AAAAACCCKKK!!!

Actually quite a nice post up there CC, and like compher, I couldn't agree more. Things have lately gotten way out of control at times and I love there will be a bit more consequences to personal attacks and the like. It is one thing to have some discussion, but we should be able to remain civil.

[HollieCat]

ya i know some people who had a bad experience on this site and end up leaving. this a good idea

[Sage]

Very good move... things were starting to get a bit out of hand, with the trolling and attacks... Thanks moderation team.

[Fishrock123]

Sounds good.

I can assume from what I have seen lately (and to some extent I also have posted) that this was needed.


Aye. Onwards into the future of LBPC we go, I suppose.

[piggabling]

Tough? Yes. Necessary? For the most part. I see that further rules needed to be put in place, but I'm going to have to see how well this goes first; before I totally approve.Not to be rude or against your policy, just honest feedback from a pretty active, long enrolled member. I've seen hundreds, or thousands, of threads and have seen very, very few threads that have gone far off track. Sure, we've seen a few extra over the past month, although, I don't entirely agree that it should get much more strict than it was before. Increases are normal, and decreases inevitably follow. Most derailed threads branch (and feed) off of some lack of common sense. Really, that's just about it. If we, as a whole community put an extra 10% of thought into our posts, the forum would be squeaky clean, apart from those little fingerprints on the window that are the unavoidable derailed threads.

Now, even after all that, I'm not saying, "Oh this policy is terrible." Not even close. This could, and probably will, make the forum a better place. I just don't want this to be the classroom where all the students are afraid to talk or joke around, because the class clown pulled one joke too far and got kicked out of class. Sometimes, the class really likes that class clown and didn't want to see him/her go... :[


Good luck with policy though. Seriously, I wish you and the community the best.