Suspensions Policy

We would like to announce a change in terminology to reflect an evolution in our moderating policy.

Thus far, when a member's access to the site has been removed due to TOS violations, it has been called a ban. This conveys a finality that is not actually in keeping with our policies, as we are usually open to reinstatement so long as the proscribed activities will cease. Therefore, we will now be calling it a suspension.

There will be a few practical applications. First and foremost, if a member is not able to post on A2K, other members may be confident that it will just be a matter of time before the suspended member returns. (There are some exceptionally rare exceptions, comprising less than 1% of the total.) While we have never encouraged on-board campaigns to restore the access of a member (campaigns that are nearly always counterproductive), we hope that this announcement clarifies that such campaigns are moot.

The length of the suspension can be inferred from how often that member has been suspended in the past; if the suspension is the first, it will be significantly shorter than if it is the fifth.

Our hope is that this will reduce the number of misunderstandings, as people see that members are given numerous chances before losing access to the site in any significant way. Occasionally a member will simply not return after a suspension of his or her own accord; that is a separate issue, and is frequently the case with spammers, especially. We will usually require some sort of communication via the Help Desk and assurance that the Terms of Service are understood and will be adhered to before lifting a suspension.

We suspend people for a number of reasons. (See the "Contacting Moderators" announcement for further details.) The overriding purpose of a suspension is to stem a tide of violations. The most common reason is spamming. However, it can also occur if a long-time member is steadily spewing insults with no sign of slowing down, or any of a number of other violations. Often the violations are not known to the general membership because they are pulled as they occur.

Repeating an offense, or failing to get the message sent by having a violation pulled, is a major factor in garnering a suspension. A single violation (provided it is not particularly egregious) will usually simply be pulled, with no further action, as we do not have a problem with removing an occasional problematic post. However, membership here constitutes an agreement with our standards. If, for example, a member repeatedly posts an insult, which is repeatedly pulled, and then insists that he or she be allowed to deliver the insult, that will result in a suspension. We understand and accept that reasonable people might run afoul of our stated standards occasionally, but we require that members accept those standards in principle.

Note, the standards themselves have not changed -- we still expect our members to adhere to our Terms of Service, and violations will be dealt with as usual.

Thank you,

The Moderating Team at Able2Know.com