I noticed someone had downvoted every single comment in a completely harmless thread Saturday, so I banned the member. It was a long-time member with quite a bit of helmet stickers, so maybe they were just having a bad day?

Anyway, that got me thinking, so I went to work and we now have the ability to send members to "11W Jail" for 1 day, 2 days, 1 week, 3 months—you name it. During this time, the member will not be able to login and participate on the site. They'll see a message indicating their account is in 11W Jail with the date and time the sentence expires.

How long are 11W Jail terms? Much like our judicial system, it will probably fluctuate, but the truly terrible stuff will earn permanent bans, things like downvoting every comment in a thread for no reason will get you about a week and depending on how grumpy the staff and the mods are, creating duplicate forum topics (we're talking same day or days duplicate, not something from a week ago) may land you in jail for a day or two. Same with posting inappropriate bouncing lady part GIFs, images, and general bad voting behavior (looking at you, stalking downvoters). 

Note: These examples reflect first offenses. Punishment for repeated offenses will gradually escalate up to a perma-ban.

My hope is that this cuts down on the duplicate posts, voting jackassery and other things that can become annoying from time to time, while sending a message that valuable contributions to the community are what we're looking for.

We're still exploring other solutions to keep Eleven Warriors great, including the possibility of voting on forum topics as well as a few other things.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.