Rules with an active member

[Hulk's iconHulk]

What would you do if someone who had contributed loads of posts, topics etc to your forum and is an active member broke the rules enough to be banned. Would you ban them or would you bend the rules because they're an active member?



In my view rules are rules no matter how many posts a user makes. They're part of my forum and therefore should follow my rules. I've banned active members in the past on a couple of forums and not afraid to continue to do so if need be.

 

[Hulk's iconHulk]

I agree. I've been on certain forums where the user should be banned for what they've done yet I see them still happily posting the same content and the admin is okay with it because they are active.

 

[Hulk's iconHulk]

Half the froum owners these days know nothing about what they're doing. Half the time I am asked questions by forum owners themselves on how to do such and such. Most of them just want people posting. No matter what they are posting.

 

[Bluezone777]

If people didn't put such a focus on the stats and instead focused their praise on those with good content then we wouldn't have these sorts of things going on. People demand every board be very active then wonder why post quality goes down the drain.



I usually focus more on intent then on what is said. If the intent is to cause trouble from where there was none then I invoke mod powers otherwise I just leave it be. i don't put up any rules thread because it just ties your hands on what you can do and just gives troublemakers a way to fight with you on rules even if common sense would tell you what you should and shouldn't do on a board.

 

[McConnaughay]

In my view rules are rules no matter how many posts a user makes. They're part of my forum and therefore should follow my rules. I've banned active members in the past on a couple of forums and not afraid to continue to do so if need be.

Agreed, but if the act becomes such a frequent thing, I'd bring into question whether I was being hasty when I wrote it in the rulebook. Ultimately, I believe that after a point the administrative team should reevaluate the passed decisions that they made if only to see if they overlooked something or if something has become outdated.

 

[Flurry]

Well yeah you ban em if they aren't doin' right. Unless you want others followin' their example and anarchy and chaos happenin' afterwards.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Well how we do things here, we usually try to discuss the problems with the member & try to resolve it by polite reminders of the rules first. If the member continues to break rules after 'talking it out' 1st, then he/she probably wants to be banned & is doing it on purpose.

 

[The Dragon Master]

Just because a member contributes a lot, that does not make them above the law. The rules should apply to everyone, from the member who posts 60 times a day, to the member who posts once every 3 months.

If you start letting certain people get away with things you don't allow others to get away with, you're setting yourself up for being called on favoritism. And if you don't do what you say you'll do in your rules, then the members will sniff that out and take advantage of it. In this situation, all the rules must apply to everyone equally.

Pretty much what Smooth said, liked.

 

[Jazzy]

What would you do if someone who had contributed loads of posts, topics etc to your forum and is an active member broke the rules enough to be banned. Would you ban them or would you bend the rules because they're an active member?

Sometimes a member of one forum is member of several others all well. I'm quite sure there are members who don't even read the rules. Even if they did, the rules vary from forum to forum. Like Nebulous said you just simply PM the member and nicely remind them of the rules. I've seen a cases where active members here were breaking a rule/rules. Once they received the reminder PM they apologized and stopped. They didn't even realize rules were being broken. You have to give members the benefit of doubt before you just go ahead and ban them. We all make mistakes and if you're to quick to ban then you've lost an active member. Repeat offenders, on the other hand, are a whole different animal. If after a PM and a warning they keep doing it then it's time for them to leave.