Penalties

Moderators take the approach of solving issues and preventing escalation before taking punitive action, whenever possible.

Informal warning

A Moderator may DM you or otherwise let you know that your behaviour wasn't acceptable, and that continuing that behaviour will result in consequences. Providing there is no history with that user, and the infraction isn't too severe, this is the first step.

These warnings are logged internally but aren't displayed in Discord's #moderation-log channel. This is to avoid embarassing people who genuinely made a mistake.

Formal warning

This is a publicly logged action to formally reprimand a user for behaviour that was inappropirate but wouldn't be corrected through removal from our chats. This is the last step before a mute or ban.

Discord mute

A user who is muted loses the ability to engage in discussion on the Discord server for a set period. They're still allowed to participate in the subreddits.

The time scale for these mutes will generally follow the process of:

graph LR
  A[Offence] --> B{Consider history and severity};
  B -->|Severe abuse, doxxing, threats...| C[Indefinite mute to allow for ban process];
  B -->|Low level disrespectful behaviour...| D[Overnight mute or 24 hours];
  B -->|NSFW content...| E[24-48 hour mute];
  B -->|Consistent history of violations...| F[48-72 hour mute];

The maximum length of a Discord mute is 72 hours. Ideally, mutes should be long enough to allow for reflection but not exclude a person for longer than is needed.

Subreddit mute

The above may apply to a subreddit. For example, a Moderator may subreddit ban a member (the only effective way to "mute" on Reddit) for 24 hours due to CoC violations in the press subreddit.

Ban

A user who is banned may not be in any affiliated Discord servers or engage in the subreddits. Party representatives are expected to remove banned users from their party servers.

Bans are used where the Community Administrator belives that previous actions have not worked, or that the member involved is actively a danger to the community or a hinderance to creating a positive environment. The Administrator should take all measures to work constructively with the member before handing down a ban.

Typical ban lengths may include:

Offence	Penalty
Doxxing	Permanent ban
Illegal behaviour	Permanent ban
Harassment	2wk to 6mth
Hate speech	6mth to 1yr
NSFW content	1mth to 6mth