Dealing with Misbehavior?

[TechWiz18]

Okay let's all be honest here we haven't all made the best decisions when it comes to dealing with misbehaved members on our forums or sites, but that is what makes us all human beings.

When I come across a member that is misbehaving or not following forum rules or website tos, I generally give that user a warning and then times after that I begin taking more action, eventually what is leads up to is if the persons actions do not change and they have multiple warnings in under a month, I ban them from the site usually for only 30 day's or a few weeks, under severe instances I will ban them permanently.


Now the question is how would you or do you handle the members/users of your forums and or websites? Also have you ever made a decision as a webmaster that you regret?

 

[PurpleCrow]

I had my first problem member a couple of months ago and I have to admit, I handled it badly.

They were being pretty nasty in a reply to someone who is new to Paganism and was just asking questions. I gently stated something along the lines of "play nice" in the thread. The problem member then informed me, in a reply to the thread, that I had no business sticking my nose in. Apparently the problem was, I wasnt stating that I was saying it as an Admin, not just a member. To me I am both and all posts I make are made as Admin and as a Member, no matter if its actual modding at the time. The member was eventually banned permanantly, basically they stated that they werent going to change their attitude and be respectful to other members so had no intention of sticking to the rules.

From then on, if there is a problem thread, a statement gets made within the thread in bold and in green, saying something along the lines of "An infringment of the Forum Guidelines within this thread has been dealt with through Private Message". It is then all dealt with through private message and if someone posts on the board about it the post is removed and the person is told not to post about it again.

If a member gets 3 warnings, they will be banned permanently.

 

[CyberFreak]

It is hard for me to say how i handle cases like this as it always depends on what the user did wrong, how long they have been a member and their past behaviour and if they have had any warnings previous including just verbal ones (not official ones). For this forum anyway, it is hard to have set list of how to deal with rule breakers as we have such a wide variety of misbehaviour ranging from breaking a bumping rule to mass spamming members or threatening people. Some obviously don't deserve bans while so are an immediate ban.

We have all made decisions that you regret. No one is perfect. You just have to do your best to think carefully before taking action (especially when it comes to bans) and not rush into it with all guns blazing and making a decision straight away.

 

[Nebulous]

You'd be amazed how far just talking to someone like a real person goes. Some are quick to send out threats and warnings, but I find that that just fuels the fire and causes more drama and outbursts of rule beakers on the forums.
Of course there is those select few who will be rule breakers no matter what. Thats when you have to ban or place someone on moderator queue.

 

[Black Angel]

Yes. In 2008, I had a member ask a question regarding the features on our host, as to whether or not they were codes, and while answering, another member went on a belligerent rant about how they would sue me and have my board deleted if they got "hacked" from any of the features and that they would get my personal info and operation system info and I would have to give them money for a new computer.

While my staff and I calmly explained that there is no way that that could happen, and explained to them why they were amiss in their thinking, I gave them a link to the support forum where they could ask any questions they had as the support staff there was better equipped to handle them and instead of that person asking questions, they spammed and flamed both my forum and the support forum.

The entire topic became one big mess between this troll, my staff, and the owner of the host, whom, remained respectful and courteous throughout the entire time this troll was on their tirade.

What's worse, is that this person was there to fill a package request, and had even gloated about it on the ad forum they came from.. causing a bunch of that person's cheerleaders to sign up to my forum with the intention to spam.

At that point, I had anticipated this happening, (since I had been through similar with ripper and impersonators on my brother's forum, and so, I knew exactly what to do) and they were subsequently stopped by the admin approval setting I enabled for new registrations, and they were all wildcard ip banned from the forum.

I got fed up and told the person to calm the f--k down and shut the f--k up and pretty much told them why in a nutshell they were wrong with their thinking, and their behavior, and said that while I appreciate that they were coming to do the package, that I will not tolerate their rude behavior on my forum.. and that furthermore, I did not appreciate them trolling the support board as that was not the reason I gave them the link.

I went back to the ad forum in question, and received a pm saying that I had been warned. I pm'd the admin, and told them what happened, linked them to the topic, and they said I wasn't warned, and apologized for that person's behavior, and said that they had been warned and demoted. After that, I removed my profile info, posted advert, package request and my topics and posts from that site, removed the link from my bookmarks and I never went back.

If I would have known then what I know now, I would have just banned that person from the very moment they became belligerent, and proceeded to get nasty from that point on.. seeing as how they had a reputation of doing the same and were banned for it on other boards. I don't usually do this and prefer to give a person a chance.. but in this situation, I should have.

I will always remain cool in these situations and will always give people a chance, but it should be noted that not everyone can or should be reasoned with. Sometimes you simply can't expect a person to be rational, and reciprocate the courtesy in which they received.. and you just have to give the troublemaker the boot especially if, reasoning with them hasn't done any good what-so-ever.