Hello Family,

We recently implemented a new procedure, where those Members who find it difficult to take heed to the Moderator's gentle warnings, will be banned for 2 weeks, in an effort to get their attention. It is our hope that after this time away from the community, they will return with a renewed Spirit ... one that does not continually break our rules (http://destee.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8084) and peace.

Of course we hope that none of you ever have to experience this, but it is here if you need it.

Not every Member that gets banned will have benefit of this "opportunity," as there will be some that get banned immediately and/or permanently. The Moderators will make these decisions.

I've often said that none of us have ever managed a community of this size, hundreds of thousands of posts, online classes, voice chat, etc. We are all learning together. We don't know for sure, exactly what will and won't work, so we're testing things out ... if this doesn't work, then we'll try other things, until we find something that does.

Our community is changing daily, evidenced by the growth that increases hourly. No matter how much we long for the old days, they are gone. Every aspect of the community must keep up with the growth and change. Our management style has been successful for the majority of this community's life ... when we had a few hundred or a few thousand Members ... but it's not working as effectively or efficiently with 7000+ Members. There must be change in this area as well.

This is where you all come in ... :)

If you have suggestions or ideas on how we can maintain the abundant peace we've been blessed with, please share them.

You all may see, think, or know of something that may help the whole community in maintaining the high levels of love we have ... something we may never have thought of in a million years!

So Family ... if you have suggestions on how we can better manage this community ... please let us know. I can't promise that everything you share will be implemented, but i can promise that everything you share will be considered.

You are welcome to post them directly in this thread.

Thanks in advance.

Much Love and Peace.

:heart:

Destee

wat criteria has to be met in order to decide on the 2 weekks or forever... and... cant a member who has been banned come back wit a different name.. and we not kno it.... i remeber when we voted on whether or not that white dude shoudl be banned... should every member be voted on as a community....

Sister Daroc ... there was a time, way back in the beginning, where most every decision made was done so by the majority of the community. There are many threads here where i asked the Family to post their opinions on how we should proceed, but there are just too many of us now and it would take forever to make one decision if we waited for everyone's opinion on how to do things. This management style proved inefficient long ago. It was then that we began depending more on the Moderators to make such decisions, a smaller group, more intimately aware of the goals we have for the community. I don't think it's possible for us to go back to that way, of waiting for the Family, as a collective, to make decisions that need to be determined in a timely fashion.

As i mentioned above, there will be times that a Member is immediately and/or permanently banned. There are so many different scenarios that have taken place, and that could take place, that would warrant a Member being banned ... but basically it is about respecting our community and the Membership here. If folk are found to be breaking our peace, breaking our rules, they can't stay here.

The "2 Week Ban" is so new (and we are just feeling our way), we don't really have set (in stone) criteria on how it will work. I wish i could tell you that i've done all of this before, that i've managed many online communities this large and this old, and that i know exactly what works and what does not work, but i can't. I don't believe there is anyone here who can say that they have such experience and know without a doubt what will prove successful.

Thus far, the "2 Week Ban" has been used to get the attention of long time Members, who have been continually warned about breaking the rules, or being disruptive. I can imagine that we will be adjusting it as we go, as we see how it fits our community. When trying to apply the same consequence to thousands of people, and different situations, adjustments are often needed. We are blessed in that we don't have a lot of rules, so that makes it a little easier to manage. I do know that it will only be used for those who break the rules, so those Members who don't break the rules have nothing to worry about.

Yes, a Member that has been banned can come back under another name. This has happened in the past and for the most part, one of the following happens:

1. They re-register letting us know that they were banned and don't appreciate it, and we ban them again.
2. They re-register and that same behavior that got them banned the first time, gets them banned again.
3. They re-register honoring the rules (we don't necessarily know that it's them) and we don't have future problems from them.

There are ways to make it more difficult for a Member to re-register, but we don't usually implement them, as none of them are full-proof. If a Member is bound and determined to come back, as another name, they will do that. This is usually an indication that they "really" want to be here, and if they're willing to abide by our rules, that's all we ask.

Let me know if i've answered your questions Sister.

:heart:

Destee