Warning and Banning
<<BackOn a case-by-case basis, users may be allowed to switch to a new user account by sending an appeal to answer@echinacities.com; explaining the reason for the new account. In most cases, users who have been frequently warned and/or received temporary bans will not be allowed to switch to a new account.
In order to keep the Answers board a friendly and helpful place, users whose posts violate the Community Guidelines will receive a warning via email for each infraction. However, in the case of serious violations such as mass spamming or promoting illegal activity, we will not hesitate to ban a user immediately without prior warning. In the majority of cases, warning and banning will be handled according to the following “3-2-1” system:
1) Three warnings against a user during a one-month period of time will result in a temporary three-day ban, after which the ban will be lifted.
2) Two more warnings will result in a temporary two-week ban, after which the ban will be lifted.
3) One more will result in either a one-month or permanent ban, decided on by the moderators.
In the case of a permanent ban, after three months have passed, banned users may submit an appeal to answer@echinacities.com to re-join the community on a “parole” basis, which will be decided on a case-by-case basis. If after re-joining the community the user receives one additional warning, then their permanent ban will be reinstated, permanently.