lol, I love how Virge is handing out infractions in here like candy. It's like he thinks his honour has been impugned or something
ViRGE has been handing out sanctions, not infractions. There is a difference.
A moderator sanction entails any kind of moderator action, action which is intended to provide the necessary feedback (as determined by the mod) so as to alter
future posting behavior of the offending posting.
It is
not about retribution (benefiting the victim), it is about the offender and figuring out a way to rehabilitate them so they can integrate into the local society and be a positive contributor.
As such, sanctions are intended to be psychological as it is the psychology of the poster in question we are attempting to "assist".
Those sanctions may entail little more than a tiny bit of public embarrassment (a humiliating mod comment appended to their post), or warnings (official kind that goes in your permanent record), infractions (accrue too many and you get auto-banned by the system), and straight-up immediate "vacations" (our polite way of talking about people being banned).
Because everything is documented, just like a legal court system, the member's history of posting "issues" and "attitude" is taken into account when the attending moderator (arresting officer, judge, jury, and if needed the executioner) decides what level of sanction is needed at that point to provide the necessary feedback for the specific poster such that their future posting behavior is changed for the better.
Some people are repeat offenders, obviously not getting the hint, so we have little choice but to ratchet up the DefCon level and bring in heavier and heavier guns (longer and longer vacations). And even then some people still can't get the message, so its permaban time for them. But they've had plenty of chances by that point to get with the program. We don't permaban people lightly.
Pardon my ignorance, but how do you tell if/when you have an infraction?
If you go into your "User CP" (upper left corner of the web page) you will see a tab labeled "infractions" if you have received them in the past.
If you have never received an infraction or formal warning then you won't have that tab in your User CP.