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Hearing on disruption of the Symposium Forum against halplm

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Rebecca
Post subject: Hearing on disruption of the Symposium Forum against halplm
Posted: Sun 25 Jan , 2009 11:12 pm
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On January 23, 2009, halplm had his posting rights to the Symposium restricted.

His posting rights were restricted after several warnings from Rangers. Halplm continued to disrupt the Symposium forum in many threads with his arguing in a non-productive manner with sauronsfinger. The nature of this arguing created what we felt was a forum-wide disruption and prevented members from being able to participate in fruitful discussion in that forum.

After halplm's posting rights were restricted, he continued his disruptive behavior in the Business Room forum and Turf forum and in the current Charter discussion thread (which is reserved for members of the committee). After further warnings, his board-wide permissions were restricted to the Bike Racks forum.

Soon after this, halplm sent out a Private Message to all members with the highest post counts. This generated many complaints, so his Private Messaging capabilities were then limited.

After starting multiple threads in the Bike Racks forum, in response to threads in other forums that he didn't have access to, we restricted halplm's ability to start new topics.


There was no one action of halplm's that warranted any suspension of posting rights. It was the totality of the issue that forced the Rangers to act. Given the numerous PM's and complaints within threads in regards to halplm, the Rangers felt a serious action was required.



Initially, the Rangers felt a 2-week suspension of posting rights in the Symposium was warranted, but given his further disruptions to the board and his extensive history with board disruptions, the Rangers feel further action is needed.

As it stands now, halplm has not engaged in any actions that would qualify him for a banning under the current Charter. Our actions were taken in what we believed would best prevent him from disrupting Board77 and it's membership.


-Rebecca, Holbytla, and Riverthalos

Added by Riverthalos from the Notice to Convene a Hearing posted in the Bike Racks:

This is a Notice to convene a Hearing against halplm on the following charges:
He has neglected his responsibility to refrain from using PM capability to harass other members of the board.
He has infringed on everyone's right to be treated with courtesy and respect by all posters regardless of their status, and the responsibility to treat others likewise.

Edited again:
Apparently people want more specific charges. I thought I listed them well enough above and don't want to read the Charter any more or waste any more of my time. So, I'm going to steal Estel's charges (posted on page 4) and list them here:
1.
Article 9 wrote:
Offenses that Merit a Penalty and Maximum Penalties a Jury May Impose
.........

• A temporary ban of specified duration can be imposed for persistent posting of objectionable content......

2.

Article 2
From Member Rights and Responsibilities - Note, this is NOT from the part that says no penalites can be enforced.
Quote:
1: Rights and responsibilities enforceable by procedures and penalties outlined in the Charter

A. You have the right:
To address personal disputes in the Bike Racks forum, and in other forums to post free of disruptions caused by the personal disputes of others.
3.

Article 2

Member Rights and Responsibilities - Note, this is NOT from the part that says no penalites can be enforced.
Quote:
B. You have the Responsibility:
.....
To refrain from using PM capability to harrass other members of the board.


4.
From Article 5: Dispute Resolution in the Outside Forum
Quote:
¶1: The Bike Racks Forum
The Bike Racks Forum is a read and write forum available to all members. It is used for:
• resolving disputes between individual members when these disputes do not involve a violation of board rules;
• off-topic discussions that are derailing a thread but do not warrant a thread of their own;
• restricting posters who have provided invalid email addresses.






Below is a current list of jurors for this hearing:
Ara-anna
Angbasdil
ToshoftheWuffingas
Marco (Jude)
Cenedril_Gildinaur
Estel
laureanna

The Loremaster position will be filled by Lurker.

Last edited by Rebecca on Wed 28 Jan , 2009 1:04 am, edited 3 times in total.
Adding some information. -Riverthalos

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Rebecca
Post subject: Re: Hearing on disruption of the Symposium Forum against halplm
Posted: Mon 26 Jan , 2009 12:11 am
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Taken from Article 5: Dispute Resolution in the Outside Forum:
Charter of b77 wrote:
¶4: Procedure for Hearings

When the Jury has sufficient information to decide the case, they may call an end to the hearing. They will post in the thread that the hearing is coming to an end twenty-four hours before actually beginning their deliberation so that the member has time to agree or present any additional information.

The purpose of the Jury deliberation is to decide whether the member has in fact violated the by-laws or committed a bannable offense beyond any reasonable doubt, and if so, to impose a penalty not to exceed the penalty provided in the by-laws. If no maximum penalty is specified in the by-laws the Jurors may use discretion based on the range of penalties contained in the by-laws for similar offenses.

Jury deliberations may be held in private, by PM or email. Jurors should strive to reach a decision within ten days. Agreement by four of the six Jurors that a by-law has been violated is required for imposition of a penalty. Four of the six Jurors must agree on the duration of the penalty, otherwise the lesser of all penalties considered by them will be imposed.

When the Jurors have reached a decision, they will email their decision to the member and then post their decision in the thread twenty-four hours later. Anything they have taken into consideration should be presented honestly when they state their decision.

Any Juror holding a minority position may express it in their post.

If the Jury has decided that the offense was not committed or that no additional penalties should be imposed, any suspended posting rights will be restored to the member within twenty-four hours.

If a penalty is imposed, a Ranger will change the necessary permissions within twenty-four hours. Time limits on penalties will be maintained by the Mayor and it is the responsibility of the Mayor to notify Rangers when the time limit on a penalty has expired.

If the decision of the Jury is to require something of the member, such as removal of a signature picture, the member will comply within twenty-four hours. Members who refuse to abide by a Jury decision may be considered for banning.

As soon as the Jury has posted their decision and that decision has been implemented, the thread will be locked. At the request of the member, it may be deleted.

Elements of the case may be summarized and preserved in the Archive with the name(s) of the involved member(s) and witnesses deleted.

A Jury may request that an independent member provide procedural oversight of their hearing to ensure that proper procedure is followed and to act as a resource for hearing participants, allowing the participants to concentrate on substantive issues. Members of the Jury Pool who have volunteered to familiarize themselves thoroughly with the Charter and to act in this oversight capacity are designated as Loremasters in the Jury Pool list. Service as a Loremaster in a particular hearing is voluntary.

A member may not serve as Loremaster to a Hearing if they are involved in the Hearing in any other capacity; and if a Hearing that employed a Loremaster is appealed, the Loremaster must be prepared to explain to the Appeals panel the rationale behind procedures that are in question.

If the Jury makes use of a Loremaster, the Loremaster's name and function will be listed in the first post of the thread alon
Charter of b77 wrote:
¶8: Appealing the Decision of a Jury

Only decisions that result in a penalty being placed upon a member can be appealed, and only by that member.

If a decision or a penalty is to be appealed, the member must appeal within three months of the date the Hearing was closed, or before the penalty has expired, whichever comes first. After that time, an appeal will not be allowed.

All timely requests for an appeal must be heard, and decisions made by an Appeals panel are final.

The Appeals panel will consist of four former Rangers. Starting with the Ranger whose term ended most recently, and moving in reverse order through terms served, former Rangers will express their availability and willingness to serve until four of them are assembled.

A member will present their Appeal in writing to a current Ranger, who will convene the panel of former Rangers. Each member of the panel will review the original Hearing Thread to evaluate the merit of the Appeal. They may confer among themselves in private by PM or email. Agreement by three of the four members of the panel will constitute a decision. Their decision must state whether to uphold or overturn the decision of the Jury, and whether to void, reduce or uphold the penalty imposed by the Jury. Any factors which they took into consideration should be stated honestly in their decision.

The decision will be sent to the member by email, and posted in the original Hearing Thread twenty-four hours later. The names of the Appeal panel are posted with their decision.

Ideally, an Appeals process should not take longer than seven full days.

Jury decisions and penalties can be appealed under the following circumstances:
• A decision can be appealed if the Hearing procedure specified in the by-laws was not followed. If the Appeals panel decides that the member was disadvantaged in any way by a breach of procedure, such as failure of notification, failure to announce the close of the hearing, failure to pursue witnesses, etc., they may overturn the Jury decision and void all penalties. The hearing must then be held again for that offense. The posting rights of the member cannot be restricted over the course of the second hearing until a proper Jury decision has been reached.

• A decision can be appealed if the statement which opens the Hearing Thread, or the statement of the Jury’s decision exhibits any bias based on nationality, ethnicity, religion, native language, gender, age or collateral relationships that Rangers or Jury members might have with the member in question either in person or on other websites. A Jury decision can be overturned and all penalties voided in this case. If demonstrable bias exists, no second hearing will be held for the same offense.

• A decision can be appealed if new evidence comes to light before a penalty has expired.

• A decision can be appealed if there was insufficient evidence to support the finding that a violation occurred. The appeals panel can not overturn evidence. However, they can decide that the facts of the case do not justify a decision that the violation occurred.

• A penalty can be appealed if there were delays in executing the hearing, or if Jury deliberations took longer than seems reasonable for the type of offense in question. This might happen if the responsible Ranger was off-line at a critical time, or if witnesses did not appear promptly, or if Jurors did not deliberate promptly. If the member upon whom the penalty was imposed was restricted to the Jury Room for the duration of the hearing, they may appeal for “time served” to be deducted from the penalty.

• A penalty can be appealed if the Jury had discretion in determining the penalty, and the penalty they imposed is excessive by comparison with other penalties specified in the by-laws for similar offenses.
Charter of b77 wrote:
¶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 Rangers 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 disabled.

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 3];
• Threats of real life violence or other criminal acts against members
[maximum penalty is mandated by Article 3];
• Deliberately introducing a virus to members of the board.
• Falsely accusing a member of harmful RL actions in order to deny them access to the Thinking of England forum.

Offenses for which the maximum penalty for a first offense is temporary restriction to the Bike Racks

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:
1. abusive language toward another poster;
2. attacks of a personal nature;
3. defamatory remarks targeting nationality, ethnicity, native language, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or age;
4. advertisement of products for personal gain.

• Persistent posting of offensive pictures:
1. pictures a reasonable person would find pornographic;
2. pictures a reasonable person would find gratuitously violent or distasteful, that is, designed to shock and/or dismay other posters.

• Deliberately posting personal, real life information about another member such that their privacy is compromised, or posting any personal information about a minor.

• 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:
1. harass another member;
2. make defamatory remarks targeting 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


How To Use the Jury Room

Handbook for Jurors, Mediators, and Loremasters

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Holbytla
Post subject: Re: Hearing on disruption of the Symposium Forum against halplm
Posted: Mon 26 Jan , 2009 2:38 pm
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This hearing is now underway.
The rangers will now step away and it is up to the jurors and loremaster to conduct this hearing.
The rangers are still available to adjust permissions as needed but will, from this point on, not be involved in the process.

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halplm
Post subject: Re: Hearing on disruption of the Symposium Forum against halplm
Posted: Mon 26 Jan , 2009 3:52 pm
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I would like to request the rangers who have called this hearing to restate their reasons with references to the specific by-laws that I have broken.

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Riverthalos
Post subject: Re: Hearing on disruption of the Symposium Forum against halplm
Posted: Mon 26 Jan , 2009 3:54 pm
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I'll present my case this evening. It's going to take a while to assemble everything.

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halplm
Post subject: Re: Hearing on disruption of the Symposium Forum against halplm
Posted: Mon 26 Jan , 2009 3:55 pm
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There is no procedure for you to "present a case." There is only a procedure for you to list the reasons the hearing was called.

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Riverthalos
Post subject: Re: Hearing on disruption of the Symposium Forum against halplm
Posted: Mon 26 Jan , 2009 4:01 pm
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I have a day job that's going to need my full attention today hal. :)

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halplm
Post subject: Re: Hearing on disruption of the Symposium Forum against halplm
Posted: Mon 26 Jan , 2009 4:02 pm
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River wrote:
I'm in charge. I have a day job that's going to need my full attention today hal.
You are NOT in charge. You have no part in the hearing other than listing the charges.

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Holbytla
Post subject: Re: Hearing on disruption of the Symposium Forum against halplm
Posted: Mon 26 Jan , 2009 4:10 pm
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We made our case in the opening post. We will have no further part in these proceedings.

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halplm
Post subject: Re: Hearing on disruption of the Symposium Forum against halplm
Posted: Mon 26 Jan , 2009 4:12 pm
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You case lists no specific violations of the by-laws. If there are no specific violations, then there is no justification for a hearing. I will not and should not be forced to "guess" what violations I'm accused of, and must defend myself against.

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Rebecca
Post subject: Re: Hearing on disruption of the Symposium Forum against halplm
Posted: Mon 26 Jan , 2009 4:15 pm
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hal, we stated our reasons for holding this hearing in the first post, as we were outlined to do in the Charter.

It is up to you and the jury to decide what by-laws of the Charter you broke.


We are stepping away from this now.


Holby, River, and I will no longer be posting in this thread.

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halplm
Post subject: Re: Hearing on disruption of the Symposium Forum against halplm
Posted: Mon 26 Jan , 2009 4:17 pm
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If the rangers who have called this hearing can provide no single by-law they believe I have violated, then there is no justifcation for this hearing, as they never should have called it.

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ToshoftheWuffingas
Post subject: Re: Hearing on disruption of the Symposium Forum against halplm
Posted: Mon 26 Jan , 2009 4:34 pm
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Reporting for duty.

I gather members of the board can contact jury members with thoughts on the matter. I don't know how the other jurors feel but I am quite comfortable with being contacted.

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halplm
Post subject: Re: Hearing on disruption of the Symposium Forum against halplm
Posted: Mon 26 Jan , 2009 4:46 pm
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If the rangers who have called this hearing can provide no violations of the charter's by-laws as their justification for this hearing, then we should end it immediatly, and move to have a hearing against these three rangers for abuse of power with regards to both my suspension of posting rights, and calling this hearing for no reason.

I cannot present my case unless I know what I am accused of.

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Cenedril_Gildinaur
Post subject: Re: Hearing on disruption of the Symposium Forum against halplm
Posted: Mon 26 Jan , 2009 4:59 pm
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All right, from Rebecca's opening post.

You are accused of disrupting the Symposium in many threads by arguing in a non-productive manner with sauronsfiger after several warnings from the rangers. This resulted in a temporary Symposium ban.

You are accused of disrupting the Business Room and Turf once the Symposium ban was instituted. This resulted in confinement to the Bike Racks.

You are accused of PM spam. This resulted in your PM abilities being curtailed.

You are accused of disrupting B77 by starting many new threads in the Bike Racks. This resulted in loss of ability to start new threads.

Those are the four charges as I understand them. Other jurors can tell me if they agree or if I'm way off base.

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Ara-anna
Post subject: Re: Hearing on disruption of the Symposium Forum against halplm
Posted: Mon 26 Jan , 2009 5:02 pm
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I am also here reporting for jury duty.

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halplm
Post subject: Re: Hearing on disruption of the Symposium Forum against halplm
Posted: Mon 26 Jan , 2009 5:02 pm
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Yes, I can read the charges, I need specifics on what by-laws they are violations of.

Our by-laws are very specific, and it is my contention that I have not violated any of them. If I cannot reference them directly, I cannot make my case. If the charges are vague and based on what rangers and other posters "don't like," that is another issue entirely, as a hearing should not be called for such reasons.

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Jude
Post subject: Re: Hearing on disruption of the Symposium Forum against halplm
Posted: Mon 26 Jan , 2009 5:07 pm
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I'm here and reporting for duty as well.

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Estel
Post subject: Re: Hearing on disruption of the Symposium Forum against halplm
Posted: Mon 26 Jan , 2009 5:21 pm
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Here and reporting for duty.


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Estel
Post subject: Re: Hearing on disruption of the Symposium Forum against halplm
Posted: Mon 26 Jan , 2009 5:24 pm
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Can the rangers post or PM the jury with the history for the situation in which both Hal and SF were banned from the board for two weeks.


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