Moderating, reporting, infractions & the staff forum
What are Moderators?
Moderators, or Mods for short are members with the ability to control certain aspects of the forum. They are the staff who watch over particular forums, and make sure that rules are not broken and make sure discussion doesn't deviate. Almost every forum has one or more moderator. The moderators of the forum are chosen based on the knowledge, dedication and respect they have gained in their time on the forums and through other Serebii.net related media.
What Moderators can do.
Moderator
*Regular Moderators have their names appear in Red.
Regular Moderators are the most common staff members you will encounter.
Moderators can:
- Close topics / open topics
- Delete threads and posts / restore threads and posts
- Edit posts
- Move Threads
but only in the forums they are assigned to. Exception is usually granted in the case of advertisement bots or anything more serious that requires immediate attention.
They also have the Forum wide ability to:
- Apply Infraction points from a standard set. Mods usually will not infract posts outside their section, but they have the ability to do so if needed.
- Edit or Delete Signatures.
Super Moderator
*Super Moderators will have their names appeear in Orange.
Super Moderators are the people you should notice about the forums a lot. They were once regular moderators, but have shown a level of dedication and ability that has put them at this high level.
Super Moderator can:
- Close topics / open topics
- Delete threads and posts / restore threads and posts
- Edit posts
- Move Threads
- Edit or Delete member signatures
- Apply Infraction Points, using either a Standard Set or a Custom options.
- Ban members without the need of Infraction points!
In every forum.
Administrator
*Administrators will have their name appear in Blue.
Administrator, or Admin, is the highest rank attainable on the forum bar one. The Admins have each shown themselves to be not only well known, well respected and excellent and their jobs, but completely trusted by Serebii himself.
Adminstrators can:
- Close topics / open topics
- Delete threads and posts / restore threads and posts
- Edit posts
- Move Threads
- Edit or Delete member signatures
- Apply Infraction Points, using either a Standard Set or a Custom options.
- Ban members without the need of Infraction Points
- Ban IPs (Prevent access to the forum from certain Pcs.)
- Close / Open / Delete / Restore Forums
- Change Styles
- Change User Names (Currently unavailable)
- Reverse Infractions and Remove Signature Strikes (but only if proved that they given incorrectly.)
- Many more things
Admins have control of the whole forum.
The only rank higher than Admin is
Founder, a rank that belongs to one person only, namely the creator of the forums, Serebii.
To see a list of all the Staff Members, their ranks and the forums the moderate, then click this link:
Moderator Issues
Since moderators have control over your topics and your profiles, sometimes you might get upset over what you think is unfair treatment. You should be assured that this is not the case. The moderators treat everyone fairly, and it is only through receiving bad treatment themselves that they will treat you differently.
However, should you have a complaint to make, first send a PM to the Moderator in question and politely put across your point. If you want to make a formal complaint against a Moderator, then you should go to a member of staff of a higher rank.
Moderator --> Super Moderator --> Admin --> Serebii
Contacting the Moderators
If you have any reasons to contact the staff and you think that it can not fit in to an automatic report, then you should send them a Private Message. The topic should be clear, so the Moderator knows it is a report of some kind, and the body of the PM should include the problem and a direct link to the page or profile.
Becoming a Moderator
A lot of people wonder how they can become moderators on the forum.
- Don't Ask. The most important of all points and it's first on the list. Don't post about it, don't send PMs about it, and don't talk about it in the chatroom. If you're asking about it, then you most likely don't have the necessary qualities required of a mod.
- Know the Rules. In the forums you frequent there are set rules that you should know. Not only that, but there's the overall forum rules. It says a lot about the person if they break basic rules, and a mod shouldn't be breaking the simple things.
- Have the skills. Do you have something to contribute to the forums? If you do, then you'll be considered to be in the ranks above the regulars. It doesn't make you better than them, it just means that you have something to offer that's new, exciting or useful. It will let others know that you have skills that make you stand out.
- Know the current situation. Look around, and check out how many mods there are at the moment.
- Be patient. Nobody is saying you wont ever be modded. You might, the future is never certain, but don't expect it. You might think you're modding material, but it's not your decision to make. Be a good member and do the best you can to help. Don't forget that you're here primarily to have fun.
- Understand. Realizing what a mod does. It’s not all fun and games. Mods have to do a lot on the forum, dealing with members, rule breakers, SPAM, forum maintenance and dealing with abuse from members. If you don’t think you can do all this on a regular basis then you are not mod material.
- Don’t Mini-Mod. By this we mean don’t act like a moderator. Don’t reply to spam and tell people not to spam. Don’t warn people when you don’t have the ability to back up your warnings. While the mods appreciate members helping out by pointing things out to newer members, we don’t need you to do our jobs for us. Mini-modding is not going to get you any closer to being a mod. Using the report function however is far more useful for us.
Reporting Posts
Moderators cannot be everywhere at once, so there is a way for you as members to tell us where there is a problem. The Report feature is represented in every post with a
icon. By clicking this you can send a message to the forum moderators telling them that the post is a problem.
All you do to start it off is to click the warning button and you are sent to a new page
All you need to do is add the details for the report. Make it straight to the point and clear as to what the problem is. If it’s about the member’s signature, be sure to mention that. If your comment is too vague, then the mod dealing with it won't know why you’ve reported it. Once you hit ‘Send Report’ two different things will happen. First, the moderators of the forum will receive an e-mail with the details of the report in (if the forum has no mods, then the admins will receive it). Secondly, a topic with the report in will be created in a special forum where all mods can see it, and deal with it if it is severe (such as a troll).
In some cases, it may appear that the Moderator has done nothing. Infractions are not visible to everyone but the recipient and staff members.
Infractions
If you break a rule, you will probably end up receiving an infraction. Each infraction is worth a certain amount of "points" and the more points you have the closer you are to being banned. Infractions all have an expiration date (usually it is 45 days unless stated otherwise), at which point they will still appear on your profile but will no longer count towards point totals. Remember that only staff members and yourself can see your infractions.
The standard infractions appear below. Note that Supermoderators and Administrators can give infractions of any value with any expiration date.
Also, there are some variations that can occur with the standard infractions. If you receive a Warning instead, you will have an infraction with the same description and expiration date, but it will add 0 points to your total.
The other variation is the Extend option. Basically, if you are infracted for standard offense and then receive another punishment for the same offense, the second infraction will last longer. For example, if you receive a 3-point Spamming infraction (which typically lasts 45 days), and then 10 days later receive another 3-point Spamming infraction, your new Spamming infraction will not expire for 80 days (the time from the old Spamming infraction [45 days - 10 days] is added to the time for a new Spamming infraction [45 days]). Also note that this is not something manually done by staff members, it is now automatic and we do not choose whether to do it.
1. Foul Language - 1 point
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
2. Abusing Smilies - 3 points
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
3. Advertising - 3 points
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
4. Asking for/offering forbidden/hacked Pokemon - 3 points
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
5. Bumping Topics - 3 points
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
6. Discussing Cheat Codes/Devices - 3 points
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
7. Disobeying the Rules of a specific sub-forum - 3 points
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
8. Double Posting - 3 points
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
9. Mini-Modding - 3 points
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
Mild Signature Infraction - 3 points
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
10. Replying to spam - 3 points
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
11. Sending Chain PMs - 3 points
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
12. Sending Unsolicited PMs - 3 points
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
13. Spamming - 3 points
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
14. Triple Posting - 4 points
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
15. Abusing Image Macros - 5 points
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
16. Discussing Illegal Content - 5 points
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
17. Flaming/Insulting Other People - 5 points
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
18. Harassing Others - 5 points
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
Inappropriate Posting - 5 points (lasts 90 days)
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
Moderate Signature Infraction - 5 points (lasts 90 days)
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
Openly Complaining about Infractions/Punishment - 5 points
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
19. Outward Prejudice - 5 points (lasts 90 days)
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
20. Posting with intent to annoy others - 5 points
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
21. Quadruple Posting - 5 points
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
22. Reputation Abuse - 5 points
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
23. Continuously disobeying the Rules of a specific sub-forum - 6 points
Warning? No - Extend? Yes
24. Quintuple Posting - 6 points
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
Heavy Signature Infraction - 10 points (lasts 180 days)
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
25. Making an Alternate Account While Unbanned - 10 points (lasts 90 days)
Warning? No - Extend? Yes
26. Posting more than 5 times in a row - 10 points
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
27. Trolling - 10 points (lasts 90 days)
Warning? No - Extend? Yes
28. Unintentional Plagiarism - 10 points
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
Explicit Posting - 20 points (lasts 90 days)
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
Posting Malicious Links - 20 points (lasts 90 days)
Warning? Yes - Extend? Yes
29. Providing Links to Illegal Content - 40 points (lasts 90 days)
Warning? No - Extend? Yes
30. Intentional Plagiarism - 40 points (lasts 90 days)
Warning? No - Extend? Yes
31. Posting Porn or other explicit material - 70 points (never expires)
Warning? No - Extend? No
32. Advertisement Bot - 130 points (never expires) (this is only for actual adbots, and normal users will never see this infraction)
Warning? No - Extend? No
33. Evading Ban - 130 points
Warning? No - Extend? No
34. Giving your account details to a Banned user - 130 points
Warning? No - Extend? No
As for what the points actually do, these are the point requirements for bans:
15 points - 1 week ban
30 points - 2 week ban
45 points - 1 month ban
60 points - 2 month ban
75 points - 3 month ban
90 points - 6 month ban
110 points - 1 year ban
130 points - permanent ban
And remember that these are only active points, if your points expire they do not count.
When you get an infraction PM, you will see a message looking something like this:
and after you receive one, you can check the status of your infractions by looking at a tab on your public profile, which will look something like this:
Your infraction history will also appear in your Settings page and will look like this:
Remember Super Mods and Admins, and Serebii, can apply custom Infractions. The two applied to Serebii Member in that image are custom infraction and are deliberately set low.
Once you've reached the limit for a ban, the system will automatically ban you, at the same time as infraction that breaks the limit.
For more information about the infraction point system,
visit this thread.
Staff Contact forum.
What is it?
The
Staff Contact forum was created as a way for members (both banned and unbanned) to directly contact the moderating staff about an issue they are having with the forum.
The most important thing to remember about this forum is that when you create a thread, only you and the moderating staff can see it. No other registered members can see the threads you create and the posts within them. It is completely private. This means you can ask the staff anything you want without having to worry about other users seeing. Keep in mind that all SPPF rules apply here still.
When posting in the Staff Contact forum, if you are banned you will appear as a guest. This is the only forum where we allow non-members to make threads. If you are posting while not logged-in, you will not be able to see the thread after it is created. After you submit the thread, the forum will prompt you to log in and you still won't be able to see what was created. This is okay however, as the staff can still see what is posted. However, it is important
you provide your forum username and an email address when using this forum as a guest if you wish for the staff to respond to your question(s).
For regular members, keep in mind that:
- This is not a forum for game help.
- This is not a forum for asking for help with figuring out something on the forum.
- This is not a forum for pointing out something with the website.
- This is not a forum for sending a message to one specific moderator (unless you are banned).
A lot of these are already addressed in other forums on the site and if your question is about a specific thread/section or is directed at a specific moderator, then it is probably best to send a private message rather than use the Staff Contact forum. You can PM multiple people at once, so you can generally PM all of the mods of a specific forum at once if you wish.