if you ever feel that a fellow poster has violated the Community Guidelines, you can lodge a complaint with the Community Board. the Board will review the post(s) in question and determine whether or not a serious enough breach of the Community Guidelines has occurred to warrant action.
the Community Board aims to balance a high tolerance for free expression with low tolerance for expression that damages other users’ experience at VEB. when a violation occurs, it will usually result in a warning; most people will get a 2d and even a 3d chance to demonstrate their ability to participate within the bounds of the Community Guidelines. after a third violation, a member’s posting privileges may be revoked.
the Board members will not appreciate minor or petty complaints; please respect their time and energy. if you think a violation of the Community Guidelines has occurred, only file a complaint if the violation seriously disrupted your enjoyment of VEB.
REGISTERING COMPLAINTS
all complaints will remain anonymous; only the Board members will know who has filed a complaint about a particular post. to register a complaint, send an email to the Board at vivaelbirdos AT yahoo DOT com with the following information:
- your VEB user name
- the VEB user name of the person about whom you are complaining
- the URL(s) of the post(s) in question. to capture the URL of a post, click on the time stamp, which appears to the right of the person’s name; your browser will navigate to that comment, and the url will appear in your browser’s navigation bar. cut/paste the url into your email.
when reviewing a complaint, each of the Board members will vote on whether or not the complaint warrants action. if at least two-thirds of the voting members vote to take action, then the Board and / or Larry will make the following responses:
- first violation: the offending user is contacted privately by the Board and receives a warning.
- second violation: Larry issues a warning publicly, on the blog. the second warning puts the entire community on notice that a particular user should be watched to ensure his / her respect for the Community Guidelines.
- third violation: if the Community Board finds a member in violation for a third time, it recommends to Larry whatever action it deems appropriate: revoke posting privileges, issue further warnings, or some other action as circumstances may warrant. Larry will take the recommendation under advisement, make the final decision, and take responsibility for the action.
behavior that’s grossly detrimental to the community (rampant profanity, humiliating insults, obvious baiting / trolling, etc.) may result in an immediate revocation of posting privileges (ie, the user is banned), without recourse to the two-warnings policy outlined above. this "summary judgment" may be imposed at the recommendation of the Board or at Larry’s own discretion. when the two-warnings policy is waived and an immediate ban occurs, Larry or the Board will post a public notice on the blog to explain why the two-warnings policy had to be waived.
FRIVOLOUS COMPLAINTS
if any member of the community wastes the Board’s time by repeatedly making complaints that fail to be deemed violations, the member may be contacted by Larry and asked to chill out.