Purgatory

User Level Info

3: Purgatory

Karma Required: N/A

Description: Account suspended indefinitely by admin for numerous TOU violations.

Next Level: N/A

Purgatory is a punishment which is more severe than a warning, but less severe than a ban. It is used when a user has violated the ToS either severely or numerous times, and results in the user's account being suspended indefinitely until one of the administrators feels the user is ready to return to the boards. While an account is in purgatory, it cannot be used and cannot gain karma.

Initially, purgatory was a manual level change outside the usual moderation system, to be returned to normal at the administrator's whim. In early 2004, however, it was adapted as a standard "less-than-ban" measure taken against suspended users. These purgatories come in several lengths ranging from 7 days to several months, and include a karma loss of varying amounts as determined by an administrator.

Purgatory is criticized by some users for being too mild a punishment; these users feel that it is often used in place of what used to be a ban in the past. Particularly, when a user who has been in purgatory before commits the same kind of violations and is once again not banned, this tends to generate complaints.

In various cases in which major violations have been committed, or violations have been made on alt accounts to prevent main account punishment, a purgatory has been given to all accounts on a usermap.

Purgatory was originally referred to as "Held" for a short period of time [1].