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Revoking warnings


Makoto

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Posted

Say a moderator warns a member for an offense they never committed, or perhaps you got drunk one night and started warning various members of your forum you didn't like for no apparent reason.
(This was not a real life example, don't worry.)

Or more realistically, a member appeals their ban/warning and you decide to accept their appeal.

What do you do? Well, first you probably apologize to the member and scold your bad moderator if the warning held no merit.

But then what? You want to revoke the warning and any action that was given to the user with the warning, right?

Well, you can remove any posting restrictions or suspensions manually, but you can't really ever officially revoke or "take back" the warning.

The best you can do is manually edit the users warning level, or even delete the warning from the database manually if you so wish. The first option still leaves the warning listed on the users account, unless you decide to warn the user again (without increasing their warning points) just to leave a note that the last warning was repealed. This can be confusing to your other staff members.. and even you, if you're as forgetful of an admin as I! The second option is more permanent, but it obviously requires the client to know how to venture into their database and manually delete the warning entry.

Well, I've got a simple solution!

Allow staff members to repeal warnings and suspensions!

The permission for repealing bans can be assigned on a per-group basis. You can have it set where only you (the administrator) can repeal warnings, or you can give it to your moderators if you so wish.

Warnings can be repealed through the MCP or through the users warnings page directly.

Once a warning is repealed, the points attributed to that warning will "expire" and any actions attributed with that warning will be automatically reversed.

The warning will still be viewable by staff members and even the user himself, but it would be "grayed out" and displayed as repealed or revoked, no longer active.

The staff member that repeals the warning may also give a reason as to why the offense was revoked if they so wish.

Posted

You can add value -1 to reason for warning to prescribe old sanctions.



That may work as well, but it's still "warning a user to remove a warning," it isn't very logical in itself.
Posted

Say a moderator warns a member for an offense they never committed, [u]or perhaps you got drunk one night and started warning various members of your forum you didn't like for no apparent reason.[/u]


[size=2](This was not a real life example, don't worry.)[/size]



You should warn yourself, restricting your account from posting for 24 hours. :D
  • 8 months later...
Posted

Good idea especially if you want to warn IPB user and there is a IPB1 user and you or a staff member happens to mix them up and issues a warning to the wrong user, this way the innocent user can see it was a mistake without a crap storm and countless PM's explaining it was a mistake.

  • 2 months later...
Posted

You can add value -1 to reason for warning to prescribe old sanctions.

This would deduct 1 from the count as a new warning but not remove the original, so let's say the original is due to expire in 30 days, well then another point is removed. The one you adjusted, and the original that was a mistake, will now also be removed messing up the count and giving them one less than they should have. So it offsets it yes, until the original expiry messes it up again.

A lot of mess when a simple reversal button could just remove the point and reason.

Posted

Yeah. I believe I made this suggestion before warning expirations existed (and such functionality was only available through a third party hook).

So it's another problem with the new functionality.

The warnings system overall could definitely use improvement, I think.

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

Hi, all.

My forum is trying to decide whether or not to implement the warning system. We have run tests, and the only thing I can find that doesn't appear to function properly is the "expire" thing. I set a warning point to expire, and though the clock ticks down and eventually the "details" describing the warning say "warning to expire 10 MINUTES AGO," the point remains. So all points, even expired points, remain forever? Unless manually deleted in the admin board, that is? Have I missed a setting somewhere?

How is an admin of a busy forum supposed to keep up with expired points that should be going away on their own when they expire? I understand why the warning would remain in the log, but if the points expire, they shouldn't stick around, making a member look more delinquent than they really are. And if an admin has a policy of "ban member when member reaches x warning points" the admin then has to investigate each and every point to see which ones have expired and which haven't. Unless I missed something somewhere?

Any further info on this is greatly appreciated.

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...
Posted

While I agree with you that it is a function that should have existed long before now, it is what it is.

It's feedback that's been acknowledged and is being added in 4.0, but there are going to be no more major releases in the 3.0 line.

Hooks are the only option if you want to continue using 3.0.

  • 1 year later...
  • 4 years later...
Posted
On 7/11/2013 at 1:17 PM, burnout77 said:

Hi, all.

 

My forum is trying to decide whether or not to implement the warning system. We have run tests, and the only thing I can find that doesn't appear to function properly is the "expire" thing. I set a warning point to expire, and though the clock ticks down and eventually the "details" describing the warning say "warning to expire 10 MINUTES AGO," the point remains. So all points, even expired points, remain forever? Unless manually deleted in the admin board, that is? Have I missed a setting somewhere?

 

How is an admin of a busy forum supposed to keep up with expired points that should be going away on their own when they expire? I understand why the warning would remain in the log, but if the points expire, they shouldn't stick around, making a member look more delinquent than they really are. And if an admin has a policy of "ban member when member reaches x warning points" the admin then has to investigate each and every point to see which ones have expired and which haven't. Unless I missed something somewhere?

 

Any further info on this is greatly appreciated.

Resurrecting this from the dead.... because we're still seeing this behavior.

Is this still the way things are supposed to work? Warnings expire, yet manual action must be taken to remove the points and consequences?

On 7/22/2013 at 7:39 AM, Mark said:

This will be added in 4.0 🙂

This comment suggests otherwise, yet I can't find documentation that says this has changed.

What we're expecting to have happen is that the number of points stay accumulated until the time they expire. Then the points are lowered by the expired amount and if the consequence threshold is no longer met, the restriction goes away.

Is that not how it works?

Posted

When you select a reason for the warning, it will automatically set the number of points and the  amount of time before those points will be removed. Depending on what has been set up in AdminCP > Members > Warnings > Reasons the moderator may be able to override either of these decisions (the number of points and how long before they expire).

If the new total number of points triggers an action to take (moderating content, restricting content or banning the member) this will also automatically be taken, including setting how long that punishment lasts. Again though, depending on what has been set up in AdminCP > Members > Warnings > Actions the moderator may be able to override the punishment.

The points expiration is different to the punishment length, but something like what you're looking for can probably still be achieved by setting them the same.

So you might do something quite complicated, like...

  • Set all reasons to be 1 point, points expire after 1 month
  • Have an action at 1 point that suspends the member for 1 day
  • Have an action at 2 points that suspends the member for 1 month

Then the flow would be:

  1. Member is given their first warning and is suspended for 1 day
  2. After their 1 day suspension...
    1. If they commit no further infractions, their points drops back to 0 after 1 month, after which any subsequent warnings would start this process
    2. If they commit a further infraction within 1 month, they would be suspended for 1 month, after that they would be reset to 0 points because their points and the expiration would expire at the same time

Or you could have something simpler, or leave it up to the moderator issuing the warning to make appropriate decisions.

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