Hi everyone.
A while back, myself and the other site moderators tried to work out a way of resolving the drama that has been unfolding on the site by introducing a 3 strike system to control users who were abusing the community. If you broke a site rule you received one strike, and after three strikes were reached an appropriately timed temp or perma ban would be issued.
4. You will act like a mature adult, even if you aren't one.
Maturity is at the heart of a successful community. A small group of immature members and/or actions can bring down the quality of an entire community experience. Therefore we have decided to implement a three-strike system. If you are acting blatantly immaturely and it is causing any sort of problem in the community or the chat, you will be issued a warning to your account by a moderator. If you receive 3 warnings within a few months' time, you will be temporarily banned from the site to think about your attitude. Warnings are at the discretion of moderators, and your three warnings will be reviewed for legitimacy before you are temporarily banned. You will be notified each time you are warned, and a reason will be given for the warning - when possible, the incriminating post will be referenced.
Clearly this has not been working and we have seen that users are just using the strikes as opportunities to break rules without consequence.
Unfortunately this has led us to now introduce a completely non biased zero tolerance policy. This new non-biased policy will mean that no matter who you are, whether it's an elite group member, mapper with community status or being promoted or even a staff member, if you break any of the site rules you will be given
one (and only one) verbal warning before being punished with a ban ranging from 1 week minimum to permanent. Any rules which are already stated as being insta-ban worthy (ex. Rule #10) will still be treated as such - no warning will be given.
This website is being funded out of pocket, donations and ad revenue so you have a place where custom mappers, scripters and fans can come and find out what the latest news and info is regarding the custom modding scene - yet some users seem to think this site is their daily haven to come and verbally abuse people with complete disregard to the thread creator or other users participating in said thread. This is the point where we draw the line once and for all, so starting right now there will be no more sneaky little digs at people or trolling. Anyone who is found breaking the forum rules on the site or in chat will be warned one time then banned if it happens again.
This zero tolerance policy also covers the chat room. There will be no more name calling, spamming or general abuse in the chat room. It is there for all users not just select users and anyone seen to be negative towards new members will be warned one time then banned. We understand the chatroom is used for people to be more relaxed and comfortable, so the rules will be adapted to fit in line with this. We still expect people to be respectful towards other members when using the chat room and to also respect any present staff or moderators.
This is to all members, not just those recently responsible. You will be respectful to all users and their work. If you have nothing constructive to say then say nothing. If you chose to ignore these words then you will not last long as a user on this forum. All moderators must be respected, site and chat. If you are seen to be abusing or talking down to any moderator this will be seen as a bannable offense. We are here to moderate and help, not to be undermined or talked down to. If you feel a moderator has been abusive towards you then report it to a team member. This goes both ways.
This is the final time we will be seeing long-term drama on UGX and those who think it won't last will soon realize that we are not kidding around anymore. This recent drama has made the site and community look bad, we are not going to allow that to happen anymore. If you are not happy with this then just don't engage in the community anymore or just stop using the site altogether.
Again, this comes into effect immediately. Please respect staff and other users from this point on.
Best Regards,
treminaor
on behalf of the UGX-Mods Team, Staff and Moderators