An enhancement to the Warning System
Basically the warning system has been used both as an administrative tool for me, and as a yard stick for other users to see how someone behaves in public in an open forum such as this.
But it is still a work load I have to bear under, administering this thing, and there are better things I would rather do with my time. This is a free site, but sometimes the workload and hassles of it make me ponder the wiseness of continuing with such a task as this has become.
So I think it is time to start making the people who are inclined to abuse this site to either start paying for it or go elsewhere. I have already gone on record being against outright banning, so this will be a method in which people will ban themselves as needed. Basically it boils down to my getting paid to deal with some of the people who cause the most problems here or giving them incentive not to come back.
Now in some respects, this will be much like the speeding ticket system we all know and love on our public highways. The threat of having to pay a speeding fine tends to keep most of us driving within the posted speed limits. Those that don't know the rules and have to accept their lumps if and when they get caught.
But of course there are some differences. Speed zones are posted and you have a speedometer in your car which you can just compare the numbers and figure out if you are breaking the law or not. Very black and white. When you get caught, you are given your ticket and life goes on normally. But you either have to pay the fine, go to court to fight it, of risk losing your driving privileges if you just ignore the ticket.
The warning system fines here will necessarily be slightly different.
Here, you get your access suspended immediately upon receipt of the warning fine. Everyone with a valid email address in the system who gets a warning fine will receive an email notifying them of this event. At that point your access to this site is COMPLETELY suspended until you pay the assessed fine. Fines will be on the following schedule:
First offense - $10
Second offense - $20
Third offense - $40
Fouth offense - $80
I can add more as needed in case I get some wealthy fool on here.
Unlike the posted speed limit signs and your speedometer, determining when a warning fine is appropriate has to be a judgement call on my part. It is NOT black and white. But certainly, when it comes, it will not be a surprise to you nor to anyone else. You will normally get regular warning points first, unless you blew in here in a rush and immediately started making so much of a ruckus that you left me no other choice but to immediately institute the fine and suspension.
Once received, ff the person receiving the warning fine and suspension does not feel getting back on this site is worth the money, then so be it. Have a nice life. We will both likely be happy about the result.
Now, I don't expect to utilize this very much. I have already used it once and so far the person fined has apparently decided that $10 is too stiff a price to pay to come back here. That is his decision to make.
If a person is under warning suspension and someone posts negative material about them, that's just going to be tough, I suppose. That is not cause for me to rescind the fine and suspension. No matter what, unless the person pays the fine, they are not welcome back here. Anyone going through alternate logins to bypass the suspension will have their accounts deleted as soon as it becomes apparent who the person really is.
So anyway, that's the way it is. Some people will like it, some people will hate it, and most people will ignore it. But there it is, nonetheless.
Oh, one other point here. I do not, cannot, and WILL not, read every message in the BOI much less this entire site. YOUR getting warning points has nothing to do with someone else's message. I read YOURS. I probably did not read the other one. Your response in like kind to another message does not excuse your behavior. If you threaten someone that has threatened you, and you get warning points and the other person doesn't, that does not mean I am singling you out. It just means that when I skimmed over the thread, YOUR message caught my eye. I am not going to go reading back through every message in the thread to see if your message was warranted because you responded in a like manner to someone else. So no, I probably will not go back over a dozen pages to find that other message and assess the other person warning points as well.
In other words, ff someone else acts like a jerk and you respond like a jerk, then you are independently a jerk as far as I can tell. Responding as a jerk to a jerk is no excuse for your behavior. And yes, it is entirely possible that one of two jerks may get away with it.
