Appeal System

[TestingSomething]

I think it would be nice to have an appeal system for people who are suspended or banned. Would be useful for sites which may have a moderator take action on someone and may want to have an appeal system where it can be appealed to an admin or maybe to everyone for them all to review it as a whole.

I may make something like that myself because I've just always wanted to have that type of setup (similar to gamefaqs, that's where I originally got the idea years ago). That's what I feel is a good way to run a site, have some sort of appeals system and maybe a limit on appeals that can be made by a member. WOuld possibly fit in well with the report system?

[Amy T]

This is a good idea and I have seen some thing like it on site that uses Vbullitin.
They basicallyrewrote the report system and warning system where it was going through a ticket manager / support system.
And if you got a warning you could open that ticket and talk about that warning with the staff, same with banning so you could appeal that warning or banning.

[TrixieTang]

Plus one. :P

[RuneScapez]

+1 :)

[^^MeX^^]

I dont think this is necessary, if the case of if someone gets banned, i think you should review it and if needed, you will contact them, its your duty as the forum owner. So, Neutral. :P

[Morrigan]

I dont think this is necessary, if the case of if someone gets banned, i think you should review it and if needed, you will contact them, its your duty as the forum owner. So, Neutral. :P

I agree with this as you should do your research before anyone is banned or suspended. <_< There really can't be "no" reason that you banned them.

[Tarun]

Perhaps allowing the warn logs to allow you to also enter a ban reason? That way when they get suspended or banned, they can see why. They can't tell if they get a PM, because they are suspended/banned and can't read it.

[Chozo Sanctuary]

[cut]

[^^MeX^^]

What about just a custom page, like, they get banned, instead of getting the default error, it says, Sorry, you are banned from this site.


(and then the reason that the admin/mod enters)



i think that would be better. :P

[TrixieTang]

I agree with this as you should do your research before anyone is banned or suspended. <_< There really can't be "no" reason that you banned them.

I personally have a no disposable or fake e-mail addresses policy, I ban in the case I find those to prevent abuse, personally I'd like a way to let them appeal so if they want I can edit their e-mail to a real one they have and keep their name/account.

I personally think this is a good idea, It's implemented on a lot of imageboards, and I think a lot of forums would have a use for something like this, I do think there should be some way to do bans which can't be appealed, blatant spamming, illegal content, etc. though.

[Morrigan]

I wasn't saying it wouldn't be a great mod at all. But my feelings are that if you ban someone for an email (first off that's not very smart) but they can re-register with a proper email and it's their fault if they can't use that account name. When it comes to truly banning any account there should be thought put into it beyond "Oh it looks like a spam mail. /banned" I've not experienced any administrator that has done that withouut prior knowledge that its a spam account.

I can see the use but I what I don't see is the default USE of this feature that EVERYONE can use.

[Amy T]

I agree with this as you should do your research before anyone is banned or suspended. <_< There really can't be "no" reason that you banned them.

I honestly rarely ban so it has to be some thing really bad if they get banned and normally they already got more then one warning about the issue.
But I have seen a system like this on other sites and it works pretty good.

[Brett B]

Personally, I would have no use for this as it is very rare for me to ban a member, and since it is so infrequent, I feel it can be dealt with via email or an informal method of contact rather than a whole system via the board.

I have heard though that right now, when a member is banned, it does not tell the member that they have been banned/suspended, which is a problem and should be changed. They should also be able to see the reason why they were banned.

[Amy T]

I take care of issues with members via email and pm and in the few years my site has been running I have only banned 3 members.
The people were banned for causing issues and were talked to and warned before they were banned. Some times though I just bann them from a part of the site. Like if they are causing issues in the shoutbox I bann them from the shoutbox, been a while since I did that too.

[TestingSomething]

The problem is the site owner is not always the one suspending or banning. This idea is for appealing any of that, post restrictions, suspension, etc... which may be decided upon by someone who made a bad decision in taking that action. For big sites the admin is not going to have time to be making those decisions and that's also why there should be a limit on number of appeals. Like I said, it's done at Gamefaqs and I thought thatw as a very fair system. The way it is currently set up, someone could be abusing power and the admin may not know about it. Rather than have the user have to go figure out an email address and send an email that may not even be noticed and deleted as junkmail, the person could simply file an appeal.

One site I used to post on was run by a guy who didn';t pay attention at all to what the moderators did. It led to unfair bannings and someone even taking control of the admin's account. lol

I think it's also a given that the reason for suspension, banning, etc... should be right there for the banned person to see. That is something I suggested for years now and I was told it is done on vbulletin sites also.

[Amy T]

I do understand the idea for it.
WHT uses it on their forum as they have many admins and some times mistakes are made like the wrong person was banned.

[TestingSomething]

Personally, I would have no use for this as it is very rare for me to ban a member, and since it is so infrequent, I feel it can be dealt with via email or an informal method of contact rather than a whole system via the board.

I have heard though that right now, when a member is banned, it does not tell the member that they have been banned/suspended, which is a problem and should be changed. They should also be able to see the reason why they were banned.

For actual suspension it does tell they ahve been suspended and tells the date it will be lifted. but no reason is given.

If all sites had bannings infrequently it could be dealt with differently. And my site is inactive. But any site with many members at all will have a use for this and not want emails piling up. If emails and PMs are enough to ahndle it then the report center should not have been added. It was added because there needs to be a more centralized approach to handling these types of things.

Gamefaqs bans or suspends people constantly. I would venture to say 100+ per day.

[Morrigan]

The problem is the site owner is not always the one suspending or banning. This idea is for appealing any of that, post restrictions, suspension, etc... which may be decided upon by someone who made a bad decision in taking that action. For big sites the admin is not going to have time to be making those decisions and that's also why there should be a limit on number of appeals. Like I said, it's done at Gamefaqs and I thought thatw as a very fair system. The way it is currently set up, someone could be abusing power and the admin may not know about it. Rather than have the user have to go figure out an email address and send an email that may not even be noticed and deleted as junkmail, the person could simply file an appeal.

One site I used to post on was run by a guy who didn';t pay attention at all to what the moderators did. It led to unfair bannings and someone even taking control of the admin's account. lol

I think it's also a given that the reason for suspension, banning, etc... should be right there for the banned person to see. That is something I suggested for years now and I was told it is done on vbulletin sites also.

Well as an admin you should have more admins when your site gets bigger.
Not only that but all you said was that "admins don't watch their sites gives them a way" but if you're not watching I can think that's a fault of you're own as an admin??????

[TestingSomething]

Well as an admin you should have more admins when your site gets bigger.

Not only that but all you said was that "admins don't watch their sites gives them a way" but if you're not watching I can think that's a fault of you're own as an admin??????

So basically every admin should go around double checking what others do and then decide on their own that it was a bad decision and undo it? I am the only admin, I consider everyone else moderators whatever their group title may be. The bottom line is that on any busy site at all the site owner can't sit there checking who is banned over and over and then asking why they were banned. Not to mention if someone is only suspended or post restricted it's not even noticable to staff.

No clue why you said I said anything about admins not watching their sites. And why you would think it would be obvious when someone is banned. If I had moderators, admins, or anyone else making deicisons it doesn't mean I am "not doing my job" if I can't read their mind and know why they banned people. Also some moderators punish without even telling the person they are being punished. They should have a right to protest that to be sure that someone higher up realizes it.

Basically you're considering all sites as having equal admins. I don't like that setup. I like only me being the admin and anything a moderator does should be "appealable". It's not my job to know what is being done 24/7 and in fact if I am a site owner NOTHING is my job. I own it and my job is what I tell myself it is.

[Morrigan]

I'm not saying that at all but it almost sounds like you let your staff do anything without you knowing.

I think its more of my opinion that if the member feels they didn't do anything wrong or feel they were mistreated that the "best" appeal system is an email to the admin. <_<

[TestingSomething]

Well that's your opinion. I don't agree.

I don't even have staff. This isn't about me. But I don't know what you're even saying. Apparently you are saying a site owner is not doing their job if they don't know everything the staff is doing. Wel, if they ahve time to look at each move staff is doing BEFORE they do kit then they ahve enough time to not even need staff.

[Amy T]

I am the only one that can bann a member on my site but My staff are allowed to give warnings.
All warnings are recorded though so that we can all keep track of who got warned and why.

[TestingSomething]

Well it's not very likely an admin is going to randomly notice a suspension themselves and then go check posts and see if the person was suspended fairly. I would venture to say not even 10% would do that.

By the way I did some awesome typing in ym last post.

Like I said, this has been used on other sites for years and years. I think it's a disservice to the members to just toss out punishments with them not having an easy way to appeal it. And emailing consists of 1. a hassle on both ends and 2. No stat in the system to limit how often someone can do it.

If it's not implemented I will make it myself. Might as well wait until IPB 3 though rather than me make it and then have to totally change it to work with the report center setup.

[Morrigan]

I'm no longer going to argue the point but I don't think this is needed. While it could be really good it seems a little on the side of not needed more then a needed feature.

[Amy T]

I like the idea too but think it is better off as a mod as I would not use it.
as rare as banning is on my site I would probably use it once a year or less.