We've been noticing many more people have been violating the rules lately, particularly those relating to inappropriate language and content. Admittedly, us moderators have been letting more slide than we ought to be. Northwest Firearms has been and always will be a family-oriented site; it is because of this we have these rules in place. In order to restore our family-friendly atmosphere we are going to be watching for rule violations closer than we have been in the past.

I wanted to start a thread to notify all of you of a system of set guidelines we are going to be implementing for Moderators to follow here on NWFA. This set of guidelines can be found in the Community Rules section of the Rules & Information tab above for quick reference

Moderator Rules & Procedures

NorthwestFirearms.com maintains a list of rules we expect our members to follow. We feel it is only fair we maintain a set of guidelines for Moderators to follow. You can think of this as a Bill of Rights for our members. However, please remember, we reserve the right to revoke membership from this community or disable a member's posting ability for any or no reason whatsoever.

Warnings & Infractions

We're no longer going to require a verbal warning, mostly for lack of being able to track them but also because adults should not require two warnings. If you choose to give a verbal warning rather than an official warning for the first offense, that's certainly fine. With the elimination of official verbal warnings, that will put us on a one/two system of warning/infraction. Warnings and infractions are split into minor and major categories, resulting in either one or three point penalties.

* Warnings - Warnings are infractions with no penalty points. These serve as an official notice of wrongdoing, and will stay on your NWFA record permanently. Upon receiving a warning a member should re-read the community rules. Moderators are required to issue warnings before issuing infractions

* Infractions - Infractions are official records of rule violations within the Northwest Firearms Community. Infractions carry penalty points of various numbers depending on the rule(s) violated. These penalty points will expire either 15 or 30 days from the day the infraction was given. If you have an infraction that has not expired and you receive an infraction for the same violation, the expiration for the new infraction will be amended to the expiration of the previous infraction.

* Bans - Any member with 10 or more infraction points at the same time will receive a temporary ban of 7 days the first time and a permanent ban the second time.

Additional Notes

* When a warning or infraction is issued the moderator is required to explain in detail the reason for the warning or infraction, as well as answer any questions the member may have. This is a courtesy to the member, please be polite. Pleading your case is acceptable; Arguing or becoming abusive with the moderator may result in additional infractions.

* If a warning or infraction was issued to the member at any time in the past for the same rule violation a warning is optional, not required.

* If a member has an active warning or infraction for a major violation and violates a different rule, it is highly recommended, but not required, a moderator issue another warning. This provision is in place to prevent members from violating multiple rules and ignoring warnings issued. Moderators are expected to use this provision sparingly.

* Moderators do have the ability to issue outright bans. However, this ability should only be used in case of a spammer circumventing our anti-spam measures or in case of an emergency. All outright bans will be reviewed by Joey Link as soon as possible.

* If a member violates the same rule twice or more before being given a warning or infraction, the member is to be given only one warning or infraction.

Editing and/or Deleting Member Content

Moderators have permission to edit or delete member content which is in violation of the community rules. Moderators do not have permission to edit or delete member content which is not in violation of the community rules without a specific request and/or permission from the member. If member content is edited or deleted due to a rule violation and a verbal warning is being given, the moderator is required to private message the member and explain the reason for the edit or deletion. If member content is edited or deleted due to a rule violation and a warning or infraction is being given, moderators are required to provide details when giving the warning or infraction.