The forum agreement (what you agree to when you join) has been amended, adding an extra paragraph which describes how we will handle a poster (or other party) who sets out to waste the moderators' and / or admins' time in the future.
We have no such cases ongoing at present (in fact I can only think of one or possibly two times it would have been considered in the past 7 years), but the subject came up when I was reviewing terms for another (new) interactive site I'm advising on, and I've learned the practise from the
BBC» and Local Ombudsman sites.
* See
{here} for the modified agreement
* See
{here} for a longer background on agreement changes from the standard (via my blog archive)
* This amendment comes into immediate effect for new registrants for the forum, and in 7 days from now (08:00 on 4th March 2013) for existing members.
For quick reference, here's the new paragraph. Long may it remain unused!
A "vexatious interacter" is one who posts / acts in such as way as to increase the workload and stress on the web site operator, and the web site team supporting that operator. The site operation and support team (including owner, programmers, administrators and moderators) will declare that a member or other party is a vexatious interacter in exceptional circumstances, and the team's decision as to what's exceptional will be final. Any sanctions which the team feels appropriate to safeguard the site and its aims, or to reduce the support work overhead that such a vexatious interacter may generate, may be taken without the application of our standard rules, methods, courtesies or policies. Vexatious interacters who wish to make a formal approach to the web site owners may do so in a letter sent via the Royal Mail, postage prepaid, to the address at which the domain is registered, and will be answered if appropriate within four weeks of the receipt of the letter.
