The below are internal procedures the AC follows in the event of a member complaint or violation.

When a person is elected to the AC, then he or she has a duty to conduct themselves in a professional manner for the good of the site and to uphold the creditability of what we are attempting to achieve on this site.
We want a workshop environment that is as self-governing as possible with only minimal rules of conduct. In reaching this goal it is imperative that the elected members act at times without any personal bias and only look at facts.
These few rules of policy are to guide successive AC members in dealing with certain problems. It is provided to offer a standardized guideline for dealing with the few issues that do warrant our interference.
People often have difficulty discerning if we are speaking “in private” or “as AC”. We need to make this clear to our members when we are asked.

Standardized punishments for violations. Permanent ban, determined length suspension, ( 24 hour, 3 day, 5 day, 10 day, 15 day, one month)

1. Sexual offenses toward other members, not erotic poetry: These will always vary with severity of offense, whether it was intentional or not and whether it is a repeated offense.

First offense, unintentional and not severe: Warning followed by apology from offending member.

First offense, intentional: 5 Day ban with apology from offender.

First offense, severe: 10 day to permanent ban according to severity.

Second offense: 10 day to permanent to be judged by AC.

No third chance.

2. Personal attacks against fellow members:

The imperative in these circumstances is to act quickly. It is unbelievably stressful for the person under attack to see war being waged on them and powerless to act. AC must decide, contact and request IMMEDIATE action from the Trustees

A: Send a message asking to take down the offensive post. Offer help with the problem (e.g. chat with the offender and the offended plus at least two AC members or Trustees). If it comes down, fine. If they simply don’t respond within 24 hours treat it as a refusal.

B: If it doesn’t come down, then enact a 10 day suspension. [and ask the Trustees to remove it IMMEDIATELY]

C: Habitual personal attacks continuing despite previous suspensions, will result in a permanent ban from Neopoet, and 2A & 2B can be bypassed to enforce the punishment immediately.

3. Comments perceived as hurtful without any obvious name-calling: Notify the commenter of a violation of our “be respectful”- rule [guideline] to determine is there was a violation. If so ask them to apologize.
If it happens again with the very same people involved, ask them not to comment on that person’s posts anymore.
If it continues to happen a second warning followed by a 5 day suspension.

4. Complaints about critique that doesn’t follow person’s request:

Since this is primarily a workshop site, then the following guidelines should be applied.

A. If the comment in question doesn’t violate the be respectful rule or the marked request on the poem, the complainant should be notified that their behavior is also against our guidelines and asked to stop that behavior.

B. If they continue with this and the comments are not disrespectful or violating the marked request, then they should face a warning of impending 3 day suspension.

C: If the comment(s) on that person’s poetry violate the guidelines and/or marked request, then refer to guideline #3.

5. If two people get into a fight and both spew hate: Try to separate them, coming with the warning of a pending 3 day suspension.

6. People who spam us:

First Offense: A warning if not severe

Second Offense: A 10 day suspension with possible permanent ban. Up to the discretion of AC.

Severe Offense: If Spam is severe and/or involves an obvious scam like any variation of the Nigerian Scams, then no warning, just permanent ban.

7. People who plagiarize others:

First Offense: A warning to remove and if repeated they will face a 5 day suspension.

Second Offense: A 5 day suspension with warning of stiffer penalties up to and including a permanent ban.

8. Any of these offenses occurring in chat: The offenders can be banned from chat instantly (for 24 hrs, I believe), and the chat committee can decide if it should forward the issue to the AC, so they can make a quick decision. The basic reprimands should be the same as the ones in the workshop.

9. Violations concerning AC members: The AC should be subject to the same guidelines as other members within reason. The AC should be able to handle these violations among the remaining members following the rules and policies set forth in the site guidelines and this AC manual. In the event of a tie, or someone feeling too close due to friendship or belief and this result is a tie, the matter must be referred to the Trustees for a final decision.

10. In the event that the AC has determined a submission features explicit content, the author will be contacted and instructed to categorize the work as explicit. After 24 hours have elapsed, the AC will re-categorize the work if the author has not. If the author modifies or removes the categorization they will receive a three day suspension and the explicit label will be restored. Subsequent removal of the explicit categorization by the author may result in a ban.
The AC will objectively decide among themselves how explicit content is defined on a case by case basis.