Q: Whats this 'warning alert' thing supposed to mean/indicate?

I am curious.

[Laird]

Do you mean the "Alerts ([some number])" link in the header, with the golden bell icon to the left of it?

If so, it's the best match we've found for Skeptiko's alerts system. If you click it, it'll show you things like when a post of yours is liked, when somebody responds to a thread to which you're subscribed, etc etc.

If that's not what you mean, then please be a little more specific. :-)

Laird, in the top right corner of your post is a list of six things: Posts, Threads, Likes Received, Likes Given, Joined and then last, but not least, "Warning Level: 0%". What does that mean?

Linda

Oh, right, I'm sorry. Like Linda pointed out. The 'warning level' thing.

musta been the beer. i blame beer!

I suppose it is for those "3 strikes and you are out" forums.

[Pollux]

The "Warning Level"-system is a built-in forum feature that moderators of the forum may, or may not, us as a sort of "3 strikes and you're out" kinda tool. I assume it is a helpful tool on very large forums where each sub-forums have their own moderators, and if a forum-member wreak havoc all over the forum it's hard to get a complete picture of this havoc. So for example, if a forum have 15 sub-forums and some 15 000 members and some a-hole is being a pest all over the forum, in different sub-forums, one moderator might give him a warning in one sub-forum, then another moderator in another sub-forum, and then a third in another sub-forum. So when this pest has collected his "3-strikes" he is automatically out.

The Warning Level settings can be set to a whole array of different levels, not just a "3-strike", and it can be put with time-limits etc. Instead of a binary approach to troublemakers (either ban, or not ban) this is a "ladder" that let the forum-member contemplate his behaviour, and if he/she continues breaking forum-rules he/she can see for him/herself how near he/she is a complete ban. As of now we are not using it, and I hope we dont have to - but that depends on how the forum-members are acting. We'll see how this plays out, and if it in the future it will be put to use. But as of now, it is inactive, but still showing in the forum-box/window as a default-setting.

Alright. Thanks for the info!

[Laird]

Just in case folks looking back on this old thread are wondering, "Huh? What 'warning level' thing?": a few days ago we realised that the whole warning system can be disabled with a simple toggle, so we toggled it off. No more 'Warning level: 0%' beside everybody's posts. Hooray for quick-and-easy solutions.