![Welcome to Orange Frog Productions Answerbag User Guide (FAQ) Section [Banner]](images/abug/ofp_banner_abug.jpg)
Answerbag (AB) User-Guide - Page
Descriptions - Policing Answerbag
by Bill Sanders - October 20, 2008
Page last updated September 20, 2009
Links last verified
October 20, 2008
Page Links:
Joel and Rich, the creators of Answerbag, want it to be a self-policing site. To that end, every member is deputized to moderate and inform the Community Leaders of TOU violations. This page will tell you what they do, and contains information about the Penalty Box and what "Nuking an Account" means.
Community Leaders (CLs) AB FAQ Permalink
Community Leaders (CLs) are the "sheriffs" of Ansewrbag. They are chosen by the staff for their impartiality, level-headedness, and diplomacy. They are the ones who are out in the AB community, and who see situations as they develop. They are simply members, who after being selected, volunteer for duty. They are given a set of guidelines they must follow, and staff (AB-Rich) reviews everything they do. He reviews this and can and has reversed their decisions.
Their "power" consists of the abilities to:
- move questions into correct categories without review (handy when Adult questions get posted).
- stop arguments, fights, complaints, bad questions, spammers, offensive language, etc. as best they can
- penalty box, for the nonce, abusers who do not listen to reason, and continue doing what they are doing,
- recommend "sentences" to staff for those they have had to PB
- clean up (read: delete) comments that are "racial/sexual orientation slurs, threatening (one person expressed a desire to rape somebody's daughter for example), or extremely offensive or graphic in detail. Usually, the person the comments were directed at is hurt and does not feel comfortable with all of AB seeing such nasty things and a CL or the staff is contacted." [Source: Andy Ninja (a CL)'s answer to Kevisaurus' question " Who agrees with me that we should do away with Community Leaders?"]
I think there are also times they clean some comment threads up before staff sees it or a LOT more people would be PBed. And, no... Not just those comments of their friends. I've seen whole comment threads disappear - both those of the protagonist and the antagonist, and I don't believe the antagonist was PBed at that time.
However, CLs are not all-powerful, as many think. They serve as long as they wish or Rich allows them to, receive no points for their moderation, and must justify all they do.
And, yes. They can be PBed for the same offenses as anyone else, and can also be PBed for overstepping their bounds as CLs.
The current CLs, as of September 20, 2009 are:
| CL Name | |
| Galeanda New Window | |
| LynfromNM New Window | |
| Bacarluv New Window | |
| BigDaddyBS New Window | |
| The Chief New Window | |
| Brian I New Window | Please use AB's internal message system |
NOTE: It appears that Andy and Cyndi are no longer considered CLs. This may have been because they were gone for so long.
Please note I only used the first part of some of their member names. That's because the last part is subject to change without notice. In any case, the link on their name and the button following will go to their profile. You may contact them on a comment thread there. (Find the latest comment they've made in their Activity. If it's only been a few seconds, they're probably on. Use that comment thread.) Or, you may, use their email.)
Try to resolve personal issues yourself. Be as diplomatic as you can in comment threads. BOTH parties can be Penalty Boxed (PBed) if it really gets out of hand.
If you are having issues that require a Community Leader's (CL's) help, you notice spammers or offensive questions/answers/comments, copy the link. Use the URL bar at the top of your browser, or, if it's an answer or comment thread, on a PC, right-click on the permalink for the answer (in the header info), and COPY SHORTCUT (IE) or COPY LINK LOCATION (FF). This will copy it to your clipboard, and whichever way you contact them, you can CONTROL-V to paste it in your message.
You should first try to find them online. Go to their profiles (see table, above), and look at their Activity Summary. If they have been active in the last few moments (less than five), click on that question, and comment that you need a CL and point out the question/answer/comment (paste the URL there).
If THAT doesn't work, use their email. NOTE: You may click on or cut-and-paste their email address into your email TO field.
As a last resort ONLY, try the most recent Answerbag blog New Window. (The top blog is the most recent.) Click ### Comments, and enter a comment that a CL is needed at whatever question/answer/comment you need them. (See note from Rich, below).
SOME CLs will respond quicker to emails, and some quicker to comments.
Only hit ONE CL, if you find them currently online.
Please submit reports about individual threads or users via feedback, not the blog.
Complaints about penalty-box sentences should be also be sent to feedback, though I am aware of the irony of asking folks who have transgressed site rules to abide by them ;). Understand that all CL-imposed penalties get reviewed by me, and CLs don't have access to people's activity history at the same level of detail as I do. So in those rare instances where we do p[enalty]-box someone, CLs' penalty recommendations tend to be much more lenient than mine. Galeanda's post is exactly right ("There is a big difference between someone that has never been PBed before and someone who has been there repeatedly and even had their sockpuppet) in the PB. And some people calm down and behave after a warning whereas some continue till they get back in the box."), and creating new accounts to complain about original accounts being penalized compounds the problem: using (AB) in a self-serving manner, rather than respecting the community.
Also understand that we can only review what gets flagged or reported. "You let this stand, but not that" assumes we've reviewed both, which is generally not the case."
[Source:
Answerbag Blog - New ways to watch
New Window.
(See Rich's April 16, 2008, 09:50 AM comment (#38))]
Penalty Box (PB) AB FAQ Permalink
The Penalty Box (PB) is where Answerbag puts those members who become offensive, attack others, or in other words, make the AB experience difficult and/or unpleasant for both the AB staff and other members. During the time a person is in the Penalty Box, their account is unavailable to them. Capabilities to ask, answer, rate and comment are removed, temporarily. For those who have "sockpuppet" (secondary accounts), these are NOT to be used for the time period for which they are "sentenced", If they are, you will run the risk of being banned from the site, or "PBed for life".
PB sentences can range from hours, to days, to months, to "life" (actually, because of a system limitation in the original design, 9999 days, or about 27.3 years). The Community Leaders (CLs) will normally make the first sentence (think of it as being arrested and put in the slammer overnight), because they are usually online when the offenses occur. PBing usually occurs after at least one warning by the CL. The CL also sends an email to staff, explaining the "arrest", and recommending a "sentence". Then Staff reviews the report, checks out the offense, and determines that actual PB "sentence", based on how "bad" it is, and the CL's) recommendation. If a member has been PBed, they should also be sent a warning email, explaining why they were PBed.
If, after release from the PB, the member continues in the actions for which they warned, they may be warned again. Continuation after the warning will result in a longer PB, "sentence", which may be a "lifetime ban". If a member is released and "plays nice" for a time, but then slips, the "sentencing" may be less, or may be more. This usually depends on the offenses.
Some of the reasons for being PBed:
You must not post to the Service any Content that, as reasonably determined by Answerbag, is or appears to be the following:
a. untrue, misleading, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, invasive to another person's privacy or protected data, hateful, or racially or otherwise objectionable; [NOTE: Read Offensive]
[Source:
Answerbag's
Terms of Use (copy in the AB User Guide.
Highlights and
square-bracketed notes are mine. -wds
Think of the shorter-term "sentences" being "grounded" or being put into "time out". The idea is to give the protagonist and antagonist time to "cool off", "think about the situation", and whether they'd rather stay and agree to disagree, or leave AB, either voluntarily or forcibly.
Too many PBs, on your record, or a grievous offense, and you may be banned, or "PBed for Life".
Be warned, though. If you have done something negative against AB or other ABers, no matter when in your AB career it occurs, it's pointed out, investigated and "proved", you COULD be PBed for life. There doesn't always seem to be a "statute of limitations".
"Nuking" an Account AB FAQ Permalink
"Nuking" an account is one step further than Penalty Boxing someone, even for life. It also resets the username to "anonymous", resets the avatar to the default, and removes all questions, answers, and comments of the member (or flags the questions and answers as spam/offensive).
A while back, they "Nuked" a couple of long-time members who had ... "pushed the envelope" ... WAY too far, apparently. They found they lost a lot of good questions and answers the members had given during their AB career.
At about that time, they created the PBing-for-Life process, which basically does the same as nuking, but it leaves the existing questions, answers, and comments. I believe they will "surgically" remove those that are spam or offensive, or the reasons for which the user was banned.
So, now, "nuke" an account is a rarity, though there's little reason not to "nuke" the account of someone who joined only to be a spammer, to attack or offend others, or to only cause grief on AB. I also believe they "nuke" underage ABers.
Send comments/questions about this page to Bill Sanders at:
Return to OFPv2/Main - FAQ
- AB User Guide Home
Return to OFPv2/Main - FAQ
Central
Send email to Bill Sanders
()
with questions or comments about this page or site.
This site, all text and graphics (unless otherwise noted) on it
were designed, developed and published by Bill Sanders of Orange Frog Productions.
It and it's CSS was validated and complies with both the:
CSS and
HTML 4.01
validators from W3C.
NOTE: All CSS validates except the "New Window Buttons"
which include some invalid code (ie: hacks),
added PicoSearch Tables,
and warnings for using transparent backgrounds when color foregrounds defined.
Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 by Bill Sanders / Full site last modified: October 21, 2006
Any reproduction, printing, or selling of this content is
prohibited without express written consent from William D.
Sanders.
