Of course, Joey never got a time-out, they didn’t leave the playground, and he proceeded to throw rocks at his little brother for the next hour.

Just like a family, our online community must have some guidelines or rules in place for expected behavior.

And methods for monitoring behavior outside of expected, and clearly communicated guidelines.

Any behavior in breach of Community Guidelines will be enforced in the following progressive manner:

1st Offense - Moderation: we monitor all posts and comments as they are posted.

If necessary, we reserve the right to edit the post based on community guidelines. Users will be notified by private chat, and/or email if editing was necessary and why.

There is no process for contesting such edits.

2nd Offense - Warning: The post or comments in its entirety will be taken down and the user will be warned privately.

3rd Offense – Ban: reserved for third strikes, outrageous or flagrant guideline violations, spammers, or dangerous elements (i.e., threatening other members).

In certain cases, for example, someone who is a constant irritant but not actually evil, a temporary ban (like a timeout) may be imposed.

Once someone has been permanently banned, there will be no reinstatement.

Moderators and administrators will use IP callbacks and other such technology (location data, email addresses, et.al.) to prevent banned users from rejoining the community under a different username.