Starting on January 1st, 2010, we are going to be fully enforcing the GNP. Today we are giving out 95% warnings and 5% strikes as we all get use to the GNP. Based on what we see today the ratios will probably shift to 70% warnings and 30% strikes. Strikes will be given out for blatant violation of the GNP and/or when a user continues to get warnings and doesn't course correct their behavior. We very much want to have everyone participate on Askville but we will put our foot down when someone tries to take advantage of Askville's community.
By far the biggest abuse we see is when a user makes a derogatory remark about another user or group. We are creating a supportive community that encourages participation and camaraderie - snide remarks work against our goal. Please stick to the topic, build on the conversation and refrain from potentially offensive comments.
A new item we're adding to the suite of moderator tools is the ability to look at the question as a whole instead of individual abuse reports that are tied to an Askville users. A common piece of feedback was, "Askville is just reacting to people who have abuse trigger fingers." So, starting in Jan 2010, when the moderators get an abuse report we're going look at the entire piece of content (question, answer and discussion posts) and trim out all the violations in an effort to be fair and keep from having a series of orphaned discussion posts that point to removed content.
Enjoy your week on Askville.