SUMMARY
Article 5: Dispute Resolution in the Outside Forum
The Bike Racks Forum (¶1)
The board will not intervene in disputes of a personal nature between members. We provide The Bike Racks forum where members can resolve disagreements.
If one or more members are disrupting a thread, the admins can split off the disruptive posts and send them to a new thread in the Bike Racks, but posters cannot be compelled to participate there. If they walk away from the argument, that’s OK.
Posters in the Bike Racks can ask for mediation if they want it. Mediators are members of the Jury Pool who have said they are willing to mediate as well as serve on juries. Thread participants must agree on one mediator.
Jurors (¶2, ¶3)
There will be a Jury Pool, and members become eligible to serve as jurors after 3 months and 100 posts. The Mayor is responsible for informing members when they become eligible. There is no board-wide objection process for entry into the jury pool as there is for entry into the administrative pool.
Six jurors will be used to decide a hearing. Jurors are selected in the order in which they entered the pool, given their availability (and age, if a TOE violation is involved). Members involved in a hearing are allowed to contest two jurors, so a sufficient number of jurors are assembled at the beginning to allow for objections. A current admin is responsible for assembling the jury.
Hearings (¶3, ¶4, ¶5, ¶6)
Hearings are held for violations of the by-laws, or to remove an admin or elected official from office. In cases that do not involve banning, jurors are allowed to impose penalties subject to restrictions set by the charter and listed below. In the case of a banning, members at large afterwards vote whether to uphold a banning decision by a jury.
The actual procedure for a Hearing is described in ¶4.
The board-wide voting provisions for a Hearing on a Ban are described in ¶5; and the provisions for a Hearing to Remove an Administrator are described in ¶6. We have postponed discussion of ¶7, Hearings to Remove an Elected Official, until after the Article concerning Elected Officials is finished.
Appeals (¶8)
Decisions made by a jury and penalties imposed by a jury can be appealed. A group of administrators hears the appeal and the process is described in ¶8.
Offenses that Merit a Penalty and Maximum Penalties a Jury May Impose (¶9)
Hearings can only be held for violations of the by-laws recognized by the charter, and juries are limited in the penalties they can impose for particular violations.
In general:
• An immediate ban can be imposed for spamming the board with ads or pornography, hacking the board, refusing to abide by the decision of a jury, threatening real life violence, or deliberately introducing a virus.
Immediate bans do not specify a duration, and the member must petition to have the ban reversed. (The petition process is contained in Article 3: Administrators, ¶5: Special Powers)
• A temporary ban of specified duration can be imposed for persistent posting of objectionable content or pictures, using the board for illegal purposes, repeatedly exposing other members to viruses through negligence, and using PM’s or email to harass or defame other members.
• For other violations, first offense penalties are restricted to temporary suspension of posting rights in specific forums.
Archives (¶10)
Interesting cases can be summarized and posted in the Archive Forum with the names of the posters removed.