In an effort to prevent a repeat of the Chartist banning debacle, I would like to propose a new feature on the forum: that forumites can provide positive or negative feedback on posts. If too much negative feedback accrues to an author, then they get suspended for a week, after which they can come back with a clean slate. Progressive suspensions become longer and longer. When someone clicks on the "thumbs down" icon to rate a post negatively, they must choose from one of a number of reasons: foul language, lewdness, racism, hate speech, slander, stupidity, etc. For example, I write one of my typical posts. 15 forumites read it and give me the thumbs down for "stupidity". Next time I got the the forum page, I see a negative rating. I can click on the rating to see a bar graph that shows my stupidity index quite high. Notwithstanding this, I post another completely brain-dead message. This time, 12 readers rate it "stupid". This pushes the stupidity index over the threshold, so next time I want to post, the system tells me "Sorry - you've been banned for stupidity; you will be allowed to post again on 18 March 2009".
This system will provide the following benefits:
People who post informative messages will be encouraged by readers giving the message the thumbs up, and be inclined to post more. People who post objectionable messages will be able to see that other forumites find the message objectionable, and may tone down their message before they get suspended. People will not feel so much need to argue with e.g. racist posts (thereby prolonging the post) - they can simply give the message a thumbs-down. The system would administer itself; Simon would not need to get involved in individual cases, so no-one would ask whether his decision was correct. This system would reduce the need for the NetNanny. If we can get rid of that, then we can use phrases like "too*****nock", "*****nal" and "Ad***** Ingram" without all of the stars appearing. What does the rest of the forum think of this idea? Are there any other ideas on this topic?