Forum Discipline

The H/PC Community is probably the most friendly user community you could come across when on-line.
It is incredibly unlikely that you will experience any problems from other members, however reset assured that if you did, we would take it extremely seriously.

If you have a problem, your first port of call should be with a member of the forum Moderators team. They will assess the situation and if required advise you on what to do or take any immediate action. If a problem requires escalation, it should be the Moderator who escalates it to an Administrator, not you the user.

The first line

We like to hope that we never have to step in to deal with a situation on the forums. However, from time to time it is necessary for us to intervene when we believe that a users actions are not best placed with the prosperity of the forum. Nearly always it is a procedural issue that we pick up upon, for example failing to use the Edit button and posting multiple times on a single train of thought, or double posting threads in different forums to try and attract attention.

We believe that the community should be a self regulated as is possible. If other users make suggestions towards your behaviour on the board, please do not take it as a personal attack, but in the light it was intended. For the most part, it will be old-hands who make suggestions, and it is they who have probably influenced the rules in the first place! Flaming users because you simply do not want to listen will not be tolerated.

Remember, all users on the forum have the capability to report issues to the Moderation team, and in that light the Moderation team are responsible to the abiding Majority, not to the insolent Minority. Remember, freedom of speech is a privilege, not a right.

Warnings

If a moderator makes a suggestion about the way you are posting onto the forum, you will be expected to listen. Moderators are not obligated to pull you to the side and make suggestions, however nearly always they will.

If you fail to listen the first disciplinary method we have at our disposal is to issue a formal warning. There are three levels of Warning

All formal warnings are recorded along with date and reason, and the HPC:Factor staff in their entirety are able to see the list.

1. Any user who runs up 3 formal warnings of any kind will have their case escalated
2. Any user who repeats an event which caused an Administrator Warning will have their case escalated

Escalation

If it comes down to it, we will take action against users on the forum whether it be for direct breach of the rules, being abusive or antisocial or failing to act as part of a community. There are a number of methods available to us should we need it. These are:

• Artificially decrease post counts
• Artificially Zero post counts
• Forcibly lock post counts, preventing any increase
• Temporary ban from starting threads / replying to threads
• Replace user ranking with alternate text stating misnomer
• Require Moderator to approve a users posts before they are made public
• Temporary account suspension
• Permanent ban

Right to appeal

All users will be afforded fair hearing if they feel that they have been mistreated by board Moderation. This included actions taken by an Administrator individually, but not as joint decision made by the HPC:Factor Owners.
The forums here on the site are not a public domain free-for-all. They are moderated, regulated forums which subscribe to a family "suitable for all" mentality. It is not a usenet group, and you do not have the right to say and do what you wish. This applies to ALL of us.
By using HPC:Factor, its forums and services you have willingly accepted this condition. If you feel so strongly that this is unfair, we ask that you respect the rights of other users who do with to accept this and not post on the forums.

Before you attempt to escalate a complain, please consider this, and consider what the rules here on the site state.
If you are certain you have been legitimately mistreated please contact an Administrator with full details of your problem.