Probation is an implicit usergroup used to significantly restrict a member's privileges on Midwest Nudists. Since our software does not utilize suspensions / temporary bans, probation is used instead.

Probation is mainly used for problematic members who need to be kept under close supervision for a temporary time. 

When a member is issued probation,  the following happens until probation ends:

• If the member was a staff member, they lose their staff roles. They are not returned automatically when probation ends; the member is deemed unfit to be a staff member for a long while.
• The member loses all of the privileges they earned via rank usergroups until their probation ends.
• The member loses any and all exclusive access privileges they had from any of the usergroups or clubs they joined until probation ends.
• All content the member submits during probation will require validation by staff before it goes public.
• The member is subject to a flood limit: they cannot submit a form any less than 15 seconds after loading it, and they cannot jump between pages any faster than every 3 seconds.
• The member cannot create new Private Topics nor edit existing Private Topic posts.
• The member cannot influence the karma of other members.
• The member cannot edit any of their own content.
• The member cannot send or escrow points to other members.
• The member cannot vote in polls.
• The member cannot upload any attachments or change their avatar.
• The member cannot download files.
• The member cannot use a signature.
• The member cannot rate content (but they can still submit comments, though they will require staff validation).

Introduction

Midwest Nudists utilizes a simple rank system to reward members for their activity and contributions on the website. We use 7 usergroups themed after the 7 primary Chakras of the human body (from Reiki) to make ranks a little more fun. As members rank up, they will earn additional incentives on the site as explained below. Ranks / promotions are based on the number of points a member earned in their life-time.

These ranks and rewards are subject to change at any time.

You can view your rank and the privileges you have unlocked at any time by going to your profile and viewing the "Ranks" tab. 

Ranks

The ranks / usergroups, and their incentives, are as follows, which can change at any time:

• Muladhara (Root) [All new members start here]
  • Maximum attachments allowed per post*: 1
  • Daily attachment quota*: 5 MB
  • Maximum avatar dimensions*: 100 x 100 (can only use one of our stock avatars)
  • Maximum post length: 1,000 characters
  • Cannot have a signature
  • Cannot submit a form less than 15 seconds after it is loaded
  • Can only choose between a few of our available website themes (see the Ranks tab on your profile for themes unlocked and themes you can unlock by ranking up)
• Svadhisthana (Sacral) [Promoted here after earning 250 life-time points]
  • Unlocked: Signatures (maximum 250 characters including Comcode and HTML)
  • Unlocked: Personal profile gallery; can have up to 40 images and 10 videos/multimedia in it*
  • Unlocked: Can submit events to the website event calendar
  • Unlocked more website themes
  • Increased maximum attachments per post allowed to 2*
  • Increased maximum post size to 10,000 characters
  • Removed 15-second form submission flood control
• Manipura (Solar Plexus) [Promoted here after earning 1,000 life-time points]
  • Unlocked: Can upload own avatars or use off-site images as an avatar*
  • Unlocked: Can create private chat rooms (they expire after 1 week of inactivity)
  • Unlocked: Can set own author profile for blog entries etc
  • Unlocked more website themes
  • Increased maximum attachments per post to 3*
  • Increased daily attachment quota to 25 MB*
  • Increased maximum post length to 30,000 characters
  • Increased maximum signature length to 500 characters
• Anahata (Heart) [Promoted here after earning 4,000 life-time points]
  • Unlocked: 500 Gift Points (when you send points to other members, it will subtract from your gift points first before it affects your actual balance; it's basically free points for you to give to others to reward them for great content)
  • Unlocked more website themes
  • Increased maximum number of media entries allowed in personal profile gallery to 80 images and 20 videos/multimedia*
  • Increased maximum avatar dimensions to 150 x 150
  • Increased maximum attachments per post to 5*
  • Increased daily attachment quota to 50 MB*
  • Increased maximum signature size to 750 characters
• Vishudda (Throat) [Promoted here after earning 12,000 life-time points]
  • Unlocked: ability to double-post
  • Unlocked: additional emoticons
  • Unlocked more website themes
  • Awarded 500 more Gift Points to share with other members when they publish great content
  • Increased daily attachment quota to 100 MB*
  • Increased maximum signature length to 1,000 characters
• Ajna (Third Eye) [Promoted here after earning 36,000 life-time points]
  • Unlocked more website themes
  • Unlocked ability to use the website even when it is otherwise closed to other members due to being too busy (this rarely happens)
  • Unlocked ability to download files even when the website bandwidth limit has been exceeded (this rarely happens)
  • Awarded 1,000 more Gift Points to share with other members when they publish great content
  • Increased maximum avatar size to 200 x 200*
  • Increased maximum attachments per post to 10*
  • Increased daily attachment quota to 200 MB*
• Sahasrara (Crown) [Promoted here after earning 108,000 life-time points]
  • Unlocked ad-free use of the website
  • Unlocked unlimited number of entries in personal profile gallery*
  • Unlocked profile filedump to upload any (safe / accepted) files of your choosing to share with others via your profile*
  • Unlocked more website themes
  • Awarded 5 Gift Points for every day since you joined the site, and will be awarded 5 Gift Points every day from here on, to share with other members when they publish great content

* This feature is subject to you having completed age / identity verification with Midwest Nudists. See the FAQ > Uploading Media for more information.

Karma is a measure of a member's reputation on Midwest Nudists as decided by other members and by staff. It is displayed on member profiles and forum posts under the avatar as a bar. Members who are on probation will not be able to see the karma / bar of others while on probation.

• The bar will contain a series of colors... either red, yellow, or green, representative of the member's karma.
• The bar will reach full capacity once a member's karma (either good or bad, whichever is higher) is 1,000 or more.
• Green is good. The more green a member has in their karma bar, generally the more reputable and established they are in the community.
• Red is bad. Any members with red in their bar are to be approached with caution as they generally have poor reputation. The more red they have, the worse their reputation.
• Yellow is neutral. It shows how much of the opposing karma a member has relative to the green / red that is displayed.
  • If a member has green, then yellow is bad (but not as bad as red); the more yellow they have, the closer their bad karma amount is to their good karma.
  • If a member has red, then yellow is good (but not as good as green); the more yellow they have, then the closer their good karma amount is to their bad karma.
  • If a member has nothing but yellow, then their good and bad karma amounts are equal or almost equal.
  • For simplicity, just know that the more yellow a member has, the more neutral their reputation.

You can view a member's good and bad karma values by hovering over or tapping the karma bar.

Good karma is earned in the following ways:

• Getting content awarded (featured) by staff
• Receiving 4 or 5 star ratings on content from others
• Being sent points from other members
• Being sent virtual gifts from other members
• Purchasing things to financially support the upkeep of Midwest Nudists
• Voting on polls

Bad karma is earned in the following ways:

• Receiving warnings / disciplinary action for violating the Terms and Conditions (a significant amount of bad karma can be earned for this)
• Receiving 1 or 2 star ratings on content

Karmic influence is how much a member can impact the karma of other members from giving ratings, sending points, or sending virtual gifts. The karmic influence of a member is not visible anywhere. The following criteria determine a member's karmic influence:

• The higher a member's total karma (good - bad karma), the higher their influence. This has the strongest effect.
• The more life-time points a member ever earned, the higher their influence. This has less of an impact than karma.
• Staff receive a small amount of additional influence.
• Influence is deducted for every formal warning a member earned in the last 90 days.

Please be honest when performing any actions which will affect your or another member's karma:

• When rating content, rate based on the quality of the content published: 5 = exceptional, 4 = good, 3 = average, 2 = poor, 1 = completely useless.
• Only send points to other members if they did something recently that made a positive impact for you.
• Only send virtual gifts to other members if you appreciate them or if they make a positive impact for you.
• Be honest when voting on polls.

Abuse of the karma system is a violation of the Community Guidelines / Terms and Conditions and may warrant a warning / disciplinary action. Staff randomly monitor the use of karma for potential abuse.

For Midwest Nudists, the burden of proof before disciplinary action is considered for a Terms and Conditions violation is clear and convincing evidence.

For context, there are three burdens of proof known in the United States:

• Preponderance of the Evidence - "Might have violated the Terms and Conditions", 51% confidence or more.
• Clear and Convincing Evidence - "Likely violated the Terms and Conditions", 67% confidence or more. This is where Midwest Nudists operates.
• Beyond a Reasonable Doubt - "Undoubtedly violated the Terms and Conditions", 98% confidence or more.

If staff cannot meet the required burden of proof in an incident, they cannot [reasonably] issue disciplinary action for that incident. They can, however, remind members to follow the rules and to inform them their recent actions are not tolerable and could be disciplined in the future.

Keep in mind that Midwest Nudists considers the big picture / community as a whole when making decisions regarding violations. Neither excuses, intent, nor motivations will reduce the disciplinary actions taken.

Absolutely! Not only is the software that runs the Midwest Nudists website (Composr CMS) open source, but the repository I created to make the specific customisations for Midwest Nudists is also open source.

The git repository for Midwest Nudists can be found at Patrick Schmalstig / Midwest Nudists · GitLab . The "production" branch is the code currently used on the site. Note that personal media uploaded to the site via the uploads folder is not included in the repository, nor is server configuration via _config.php, for privacy and security reasons.

The code base for the software itself, Composr CMS, is at Composr ecosystem / Composr · GitLab . Note that we are running version 11, so the v11 branch is the most relevant.

Introduction

We take the safety and integrity of the community very seriously and will take action for rule violations. When you violate the Terms and Conditions / rules, if the staff have clear and convincing evidence, you will be assessed a warning against your account that will also include punitive actions. This will arrive to you in the form of a Private Topic and email with the subject, "Terms and Conditions: Notice of Violation." And it will include information pertaining to what you did and what actions were taken. It may also include further steps you should take to prevent further issues and violations.

The purpose of warnings and punitive actions is to decrease the amount of harm your violations may cause (damage control) and to discourage you from repeating those actions again.

Note that warnings do not expire, but they can be appealed if you believe you did not violate the rules or that the violation does not justify the punitive actions taken.

Punitive Actions 

The actions taken for a violation will depend on the severity of the violation / how much impact was caused on the community as well as your Account Standing. The following are a list of actions that may be taken against you:

• Your Account Standing being decreased
• Bad karma being assessed on your profile
• Points being charged from you
• Your violating content being deleted
• You being denied access to the relevant forum, topic, or section of the website temporarily or permanently
• You being placed on probation for a period of time
• You being removed from certain usergroups or your rank being reduced
• Your member account being banned
• Your IP address being banned
• Your IP or e-mail address being reported to spam blacklists (for severe spamming)
• If you spam and your spam contains links, we may contact the staff / management of the sites you spammed to warn them that you are spamming their website
• You being reported to nudist communities to keep a watch out for you (for severe violations that directly go against the core values of nudism)
• The police being contacted if your violation was a criminal offense 

How Warnings Affect Account Deletion 

If your account has one or more formal warnings on it, then your username, e-mail address, and IP address will be blacklisted if you later delete your account. Blacklisting means that your username / email can no longer be used on any accounts on Midwest Nudists. And no one from your IP address can create / edit member accounts anymore. This is to help prevent a moderation loophole where a member could potentially delete their account and create a new one with a clean slate.

Do You Issue Warnings For Small Violations? 

Sometimes yes, if the staff have clear and convincing evidence. Often, warnings for small violations will contain very minor punitive action, if any at all. Staff may elect instead just to give you a nag message to follow the rules if they do not feel a warning is necessary. But the point is that action will be taken whether it's a small warning or a nag message. We believe any incident however small needs to be addressed so others do not end up conditioning themselves that their wrongful action is tolerable (which often leads to them doing more severe things whether they intended to or not).

Be aware that, while we do understand this may give the impression of us being overly censoring / moderating, we are far from that. In fact, by having the many tools we do have at our disposal for addressing bad behavior, we can avoid having to ban people when it really isn't necessary to do so. Furthermore, every warning can be discussed and appealed. So if you disagree, so long as you are civil about it, the staff will have an open mind and consider your points (this does not mean they will agree with them but that they will listen to you).

Automatic Actions for Spamming or Hacking

This site has automatic spam prevention features. When these features detect spam, they will take action (either requiring approval for submitted content, blocking the attempt to submit content, or banning the IP address entirely). Additionally, this site features automatic security features that will ban IP addresses if they try to hack the site or brute force login. These automatic actions are not associated with the warnings system. Therefore, they do not come with a warning. But you will see a message from our website when these features intercept your requests.

If you trigger an automatic system, it is important that you do not repeat your action again, even if it is a bug / error. Doing so could get you auto-banned. Instead, let us know in a Support Ticket or [email protected] if there is an issue.

Your Warnings History

You can view the list of (formal) warnings that have been assessed against your account by going to your profile and clicking the "Account Standing" tab at the top.

Introduction

The "Account Standing" is a tab on your profile which can only be viewed by you and by staff members. This tab indicates your current overall account standing and a list of formal warnings you have ever received (along with their punitive actions, explanation, and a link to the Private Topic if applicable).

Account Standing Classifications 

Your Account Standing is classified in one of six categories which will appear on your profile's Account Standing tab:

• Good - You were never issued a formal warning
• Caution - You have a history of at-most two formal warnings with minor discipline taken. At this point, deleting your account will result in your username, e-mail address, and IP address being blacklisted (cannot be used with new accounts) to prevent a moderation loophole.
• At risk - You have a building history of violations. You are no longer qualified to apply for, nor run as, a staff member at this point. And you are at risk of more severe and restrictive discipline for future violations.
• Restricted - You have an active restriction in place (access to a zone / category / page being revoked, a privilege being revoked, or being silenced from a topic or forum). And you are at risk of more severe and restrictive discipline for future violations.
• Probation - Your account is currently in probation (you are very restricted with what you can do, and most content you submit will require staff approval before it becomes visible).
• Danger - You have a severe and unacceptable history of violations. The next time you violate the rules / Terms of Service, you will be permanently banned, no exceptions.

Does My Standing Improve Over Time? 

Not usually. The two exceptions to this are the Probation and Restricted categories; once you no-longer are restricted or no-longer in probation, you will typically go back to the 'at risk' category and stay there (unless you were in the 'danger' category in which case you stay there). We expect all members to follow the rules from the very start. So there are no rewards / decays for good behavior to make up for previous bad behavior.

What Causes Me to Drop a Category? 

• On your first formal warning, you will drop from the 'good' standing. Usually you will drop to 'caution', but for more severe violations, you could immediately drop further than that. Once you drop from 'good', you cannot ever go back to it (unless all your formal warnings get appealed).
• You will drop to 'at risk' on your third formal warning, when you were assessed 100 or more total bad karma from discipline, when you have a history of probation (under 14 days in total), or when you have a history of any privileges or zone / page / category access being restricted as part of discipline.
• You will be in 'restricted' when you are currently silenced from one or more forums or topics, or if you have an active restriction on a site privilege or page / category / zone access. You will usually go back to 'at risk' when the restrictions expire.
• You will be in 'probation' when your account is in probation. You will go back to 'at risk' when your probation expires.
• You will be in 'danger' when you've previously been account or IP banned and the ban was lifted (but not appealed), if you ever get reported to third-party blacklists for severe spamming, if you've been assessed 250 or more bad karma in total from discipline, if you have 6 or more formal warnings, or if you've been assessed 14 days or more of probation in total from discipline. This category takes priority over all others even when currently restricted or in probation.

We have a member-curated directory of nudist clubs, groups, venues / resorts, parks / trails, and websites you can visit.

We include lots of helpful information such as website/address, amenities, rates, member restrictions, and more.

For physical location listings, NOAA Weather Radio info and a weekly weather forecast will be presented from the National Weather Service.

If you made the personal choice to be offended by something someone said, and they were not directly targeting or cyberbullying you, then you should question yourself and ask why what they said made you uncomfortable. While Midwest Nudists wants all members to be respectful of each other, we also do not want to condone censorship beyond what is necessary. Members are encouraged to try respectfully working out their personal conflicts themselves (or blocking / ignoring each other and moving on if they cannot).

However, if they were directly targeting or cyberbullying you, or if what they said was making multiple people uncomfortable, you should report it to staff using the report links so they may review and potentially intervene. If you cannot use the report links, then take URLs and screenshots and send them via the contact us form under Help > Contact Us, or email [email protected] .

Here are a few examples to help determine when something probably should versus probably should not be reported to staff:

• Probably should be reported: Someone directly threatened you or is trying to coerce you
• Probably should be reported: Someone said something very obscene, and either it seemed intentional or multiple members express discomfort by it
• Probably should be reported: Someone is saying outright racist / sexist / etc things (if you are not confident it's intentional, try politely questioning / challenging them first, but remember they have the freedom to decline responding, and persisting to question / challenge them is harassment)
• Probably should not be reported: Someone sent you constructive criticism about something you submitted or said
• Probably should not be reported: Someone is challenging / questioning you (unless you decline and they persist; that then crosses into harassment and should be reported)
• Should not be reported (please do not waste our time with this one): Someone said something that goes against your beliefs (religious, political, etc, or not) but does not otherwise violate the rules

No; ignorance is no excuse.

Midwest Nudists expects that everyone read the rules / Terms and Conditions in full when joining the site. If you do not agree with them, then you should not use the site (though you can express your disagreements and counter-proposals respectfully in a Support Ticket or [email protected]). If you are unclear about something, you should ask the staff for clarification immediately.

When you created your account, you indicated that you read and agree to the rules and Terms in full (you had to or the site would not let you register an account). As such, you are responsible for any / all rules that you violate whether you did so knowingly or not.

Again, please do ask questions if you are unsure about something. And please let us know if you believe there is a better solution to something than what we are taking according to our rules or Terms. While the staff have a duty to keep the site safe, they are also here to help you.

Midwest Nudists does not allow discrimination of any kind based on a protected class. We also do not condone discrimination based on relationship status, even if it's a matter of safety (but we do not strictly enforce it as relationship status is not a protected class). A prime example of this is venues or clubs excluding single men from membership or participation.

While we understand the safety concerns surrounding why an entity may choose to discriminate based on relationship status, we believe this is a very toxic and bandage solution to a bigger problem.

There are numerous issues with banning people from nudist activities based on their relationship status. Here are a few:

• It is discriminatory and makes a wrong general assumption that everyone in the target group cannot control themselves in nudist environments.
  • For example, banning single men perpetuates in the nudist community that all single men are perverts or predators and cannot control themselves in nudist environments. This is far from the truth. While statistically speaking, most sex crimes (in the United States) are committed by men, this still overshadows the fact that an overwhelming majority of men are not like that. Furthermore, most men who commit sex crimes are not actually single, rather they are a partner of the survivor.
• It makes a wrong assumption that (in this example) single people are far more likely to be problematic than people who are married or are in a relationship.
  • This is not true. Those in a relationship can be just as problematic in a nudist setting as those who are single. The staff of Midwest Nudists can recall several incidents of couples doing things to get themselves banned from nudist resorts and clubs.
• In the example of excluding single people, it especially discriminates against those who choose not to be in a relationship or who are asexual / aromantic.
  • Arguably, those who are asexual / aromantic will be the least likely to cause any issues in a nudist resort because they have no interest in sex to begin with.
• Considering relationship status creates a paradox where, in order to keep sex out of nudism, we are considering a factor which, in our wrongful generalizations, is associated with how one perceives sexuality.
  • To explain in more simple terms, we are assuming those who are in a relationship are monogamous and much less likely to act sexual in a nudist environment than those who are single. By banning those who are single, we are creating a paradox where we are considering sexuality (the likelihood someone will act out sexually) in order to keep sex out of nudism. Therefore, we bring sex into nudism when trying to keep sex out of nudism.
• It is a blanket solution to a larger problem: not enough education and proper leadership / guidance in nudist communities.
  • We believe that banning people based on something like relationship status from a nudist function is a blanket solution which does not address the bigger problem. Instead, nudist venues / organizations / clubs should be taking the time to educate those on what nudism is and is not. They should also be taking the time to ensure proper training among their leadership, ensuring leadership will assert at all times the core values of the venue / club and nudism, taking prompt and appropriate action against bad behavior, and promoting a safe but inclusive environment.

While not explicitly against the rules to submit / promote entities which discriminate based on relationship status, Midwest Nudists discourages you from doing so. Instead, please bring this matter up with the entity and see if they are open and willing to re-consider their approach to safety.

Do remember that entities who discriminate based on a protected class will likely be rejected from promotion on Midwest Nudists; such is a violation of our Terms of Use. "Men only" or "women only" groups may be allowed providing they are not "men only" or "women only" for prejudiced reasons against other genders.

We can build form pages for your venue / club / organization

Forms can be used for a wide variety of things: member registration, event sign-ups, and more

Form entries will be e-mailed to an e-mail address of your choice

We can also make surveys if you want to receive feedback from others on something

Need someone to manage and send out newsletters? Midwest Nudists can do it!

We can list your subscription on our block for members to choose which newsletters to subscribe

Managed Web Hosting through PDStig, LLC is available for nudist venues, clubs, and organizations

PDStig, LLC will kick back 30% of web development income to a nudist cause of your choice

We have an option for simple sites utilizing the members / core functionality of Midwest Nudists

Please e-mail [email protected] if interested

We balance the decision making power between members and staff

Members can report anything that violates the rules or not in the spirit of nudism

Members can vote on decisions (such as changes to rules / features / staff members)

The more a member contributed in content to the site, the more voting power they have

We also have a karma system so members can understand who is most reputable / established in the community

Yes.

Midwest Nudists has tools you can utilize to download or purge most of your data. These can be found in your member profile. Go to your profile > Edit > Personal data.

On this page, you can select categories of data to download or purge. You can then specify if you wish to download the data or purge it.

When purging data, the data is either deleted or anonymised ("anonymised" means that the data cannot be traced back to you; all personally identifiable information about you [member ID, username, e-mail address, and IP addresses] are scrubbed from every applicable record). Note that not everything can be purged. This is explained in the tooltips / help icon next to each category.

There is a limit to how often you can download or delete your personal data as indicated on that page. This is because downloading or purging of personal data puts a heavy load on the web server. The limit ensures the server can continue functioning properly.

You can request more specific data to be downloaded or purged by contacting the staff (open up a Support Ticket). You can also purge [almost] all your data upon deleting your account on the "Delete" tab.