APPROVED TEXT:
¶9 Offenses That Merit a Penalty
The following penalties are available to juries:
• Disabling PM privileges
• Temporary Suspension of posting rights in a specific forum
• Permanent Suspension of posting rights in a specific forum
• Temporary Confinement to the Bike Racks (a suspension of board-wide posting rights)
• Temporary Ban
• Immediate or Indefinite Ban (per Article 3, poster must appeal for reversal no sooner than one month after the ban is executed, and Administrators may wait an additional two months before convening a hearing)
There are no permanent, irreversible bans on Board77. But when a hearing is held to petition the reversal of a ban, the jury is permitted to uphold the ban and specify a duration.
General Guidelines for imposing penalties:
• The jury generally has discretion to impose the penalty it considers appropriate as long as the maximum penalties specified below are not exceeded.
• If this is a first offense and the jury feels that the time already restricted to the Bike Racks or the Jury Room is sufficient, or if they feel confident that because of the circumstances in which the error took place it is very unlikely to be repeated, they are not obligated to impose a penalty.
• If the offense is restricted to a single forum (e.g. There and Back Again or Thinking of England) the penalty may also be restricted to that forum (e.g. temporary or permanent suspension of posting rights).
• The penalty ought to relate as closely as possible to the offense; for example, if abusive use of PM’s is the offense, then PM privileges may be disenabled.
• Penalties may be greater for second, third or multiple offenses than they are for first offenses.
• If juries are in doubt as to an appropriate penalty, they should review penalties imposed for similar problems in the past and try to be consistent.
Offenses for which the maximum penalty for a first offense is an immediate ban:
• Spamming the board with ads
• Spamming the board with pornography
• Hacking the board
• Refusing to abide by the Decision of the Jury in a Hearing [maximum penalty is mandated by Article 4.]
• Threats of real life violence or other criminal acts against members
[maximum penalty is mandated by Article 4.]
• Deliberately introducing a virus to members of the board
Offenses for which the maximum penalty for a first offense is temporary restriction to the BikeRacks:
• In the Jury Room, any interference with a Hearing. [At the termination of the Hearing in which the poster interfered, a Hearing for that poster is held to determine any penalty]
Offenses for which the maximum penalty is a temporary ban if this is not the first offense and the problem appears to be persistent:
• Persistent posting of objectionable content:
•• abusive language toward another poster
•• attacks of a personal nature
•• defamatory remarks targetting nationality, ethnicity, native language, religion, gender, sexual orientation or age
•• advertisement of products for personal gain
• Persistent posting of offensive pictures:
•• pictures a reasonable person would find pornographic
•• pictures a reasonable person would find gratuitously violent or distasteful, that is, designed to shock and/or dismay other posters
• Using the board to solicit the participation of members in illegal activities:
• Repeatedly exposing the members to viruses through negligence.
• In the Bike Racks, repeated interference with other members’ thread
• Use of PM or Email to:
•• harrass another member
•• make defamatory remarks targetting nationality, ethnicity, native language, religion, gender, sexual orientation or age
Offenses for which the maximum penalty is permanent suspension of access to a particular forum:
• In the There and Back Again forum, repeatedly posting in a manner that prevents another character(s) from participating or greatly circumscribes their activity
• In the Thinking of England Forum, posting in a manner that ridicules, demeans or threatens other posters
[approved May 28, 2005]