Dies to Removal

Compared to other hobby forums I have been on (for example, photography, other games, programming), this forum has an absurdly high relative ratio of warnings/infractions/moderator activity/long lists of rules of questionable utility but ironfisted enforcement/etc.

I'm not saying the staff is unfair or cruel. As of this moment, I don't think I have received or seen any warnings or infractions that looked technically, to-the-letter WRONG in terms of precisely whether they broke a rule or not. The mods seem to be doing decently in terms of interpretations and detail-orientedness. However, I have seen a huge number of warnings/infractions that don't look like they really improve the community in any noticeable way. Which I guess I would call more of a an overall misguided culture? Or something like that.

I would humbly suggest that the staff widely re-evaluate the
enforcement policies of the site to change this culture. Currently the procedure seems to be to place most of the discretion on the rules themselves:
1) Look at each post (or ones that are reported or whatever you do).
2) Does this literally break any rules?
3) If yes, take action.

I would suggest an alternative strategy of:
1) Look at posts that people report or whatever.
2) Ask oneself
2a) "Does this threaten or decrease people's enjoyment of Magic?"
2b) "Does this threaten or decrease our sense of community mutual respect or safety (illegality, flaming, harrassment, threats, etc.)?"
2c) "Is anybody actually a victim here at all, currently or potentially?"
3) If none of the above are true, don't worry about it, even if it might break a written rule.
4) If at least one of the above is true, THEN cehck to see if it breaks a written rule.
5) If it also does break a written rule, take action.



nThis way, any warnings or infractions that do occur STILL have a solid, factual basis insofar as the rule that was technically broken. This ensures that appeals and discussions can still occur very systematically and in a controlled, accountable fashion.

But it also adds a discretionary filter in front, to (hopefully vastly) cut down on the number of random citations for random rules whose breaking didn't actually cause any harm and never needed to be dealt with in the first place.

It makes it so that if you don't technically break any rules, that's still enough to feel safe. But also if you just act like a decent human being, that's ALSO almost always enough to feel safe, even if not worrying every post about whether you pass 20 different minor rule requirements. Leading to a more comfortable and less oppressive feeling community without actually creating any real new problems.

And it is still completely fair to everybody, too, because the same step by step procedure is
used on everybody, and the subjective portion is only used for leniency, not for punishment.



Anyway, just my two cents on how to make this place more inviting to newcomers like myself. Thanks for reading.
-Crimeo