We have begun making use of the forum warning system to notify members of a rule violation.  If warned, you will receive a notification (as a personal message) with the specifics.  When you have an active warning, the warning level will display for you in your profile.  Moderators can see your warning level, but other members cannot.  The warning level gives you an indication of how close you are to receiving a suspension, and whether any restrictions are in place.  Your warning level will depend on the severity of the offense, and may increase which repeat infractions.

Under 10%: No special treatment.
10% - 34%: Added to the moderators' watch list for monitoring.
35% - 59%: Forum posts and gallery photo uploads require moderator approval.  Making gallery comments are disabled (we don't currently have the ability to hold and approve gallery comments).
60% - 100%: No posts, personal messages, uploads, or comments permitted.  You may continue to log in and view the site read-only.
Banned: Cannot log on, no access to the site.

Once warned, your warning level will usually decrease by two points per day.  Moderators may also manually adjust your warning level depending on the circumstances.  In general, you can except to receive 5-20 points per incident, though in severe cases more points could be assigned.  To help ensure objectivity, I am requiring that multiple moderators be involved in any decision to issue more than 20 points per day. 

Separate from the warning system, members with less than five forum posts (Newbies) will require moderator approval of their first five forum topics.  In addition, new members will require moderator approval of their gallery photos until we are confident that your uploads consistently meet our standards.  Existing members may be placed on approval should we notice quality issues with a substantial portion of your uploads.  Note being put on photo approval is not itself a warning and will not count towards your warning level.

Hopefully this approach will make it more clear to all of you what your standing is, so you are not surprised when any particular behavior leads to consequences.  As always we encourage you to work with the moderators if we bring any concerns to your attention.  Misbehaving or complaining following a warning is not a good way to resolve a matter.  Instead, please contact us by PM (or the administrator email if suspended) in order to work though the issue.