The Escapist forums are different from other forums on the internet. We try to maintain a system that balances intelligent discussion, debate and fun. The penalty system is meant to provide guidance to users - it allows users to better understand the rules and adjust to the differences from other Internet forums. The Escapist uses a strike system that grants you a maximum amount of 8 penalties to learn how to adhere to forum policies. Once a threshold has been broken, there is no way to gain strikes back. Here is the breakdown of all 8 stages:
- Up to 4 Warnings (Green)
Warnings do not negatively impact your account but will stack against you for penalties.
- Probation (Yellow)
This is your final warning. Once you receive probation, you are always on probation. All penalties after this will be suspensions, and all badges for good behavior will be negated.
- 3-day Suspension (Red)
You will be unable to post in the forums for three days, and all badges for good behavior will be negated.
- 2-week Suspension (Red)
You will be unable to post in the forums for two weeks, and all badges for good behavior will be negated.
- Permanent Ban (Red)
Your posting rights on the site, as well as other methods of community participation, will be revoked permanently.
We do not enjoy banning people, but we will not hesitate to do so if we think that a person's removal will have an overall positive effect on the community. We also reserve the right to increase the punishment as we see fit, and any punishment above a warning will put the user at a minimum of the probation level. For example, advertisers get an automatic one month suspension, which means that any future infractions (once the suspension has ended) will result in a minimum of a suspension.
You will be able to see your Forum Health Meter in your profile as a colored bar progression, using the colors listed in the penalties list above. Ban Histories, which the health meter loosely represents, are also taken into account when moderating.