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.

Restrictions Until Verification

To protect the safety and confidentiality of others, and to ensure no media of minors are uploaded, Midwest Nudists has an age / identity verification process. While not required, certain features are disabled for members until they verify:

• Custom avatars (uploading or using an external avatar via a URL)
• Uploading attachments (e.g. forum posts)
• Uploading any files or media (e.g. gallery entries, downloads, or the filedump)

Exception: These restrictions are not in place for Support Tickets (so you can communicate with staff effectively and provide screenshot evidence when necessary) and the catalog for uploading your verification photo.

You will also get nagged by a small reminder message on the page every time you load a page that contains one of these disabled features.

Verification Process

To get verified, click the link on the nag message telling you that you cannot upload media yet. This will take you to a "catalog" where you can upload a verification photo. The photo must include all of the following, unaltered (except to censor information on your ID card that we do not need, if you prefer), and all in the same / single photo:

• Your face, unobstructed
• A government-issued identification card (we will not accept temporary cards or papers), which must include the following in a legible and readable manner (everything else can be censored):
  • Your face / photo ID, and it must be similar to your actual IRL face
  • Your birth date, which must match the birth date you set on your profile, and must indicate you are at least 18 years old
  • The date the card was issued, and the date the card expires; the card must be valid
  • Any and all security features of the card which prove the card's authenticity, such as holograms, seals, logos, etc.
• A piece of paper, which you must hand-write the following information in a legible manner (other methods such as typing are not acceptable):
  • Your Midwest Nudists username
  • A 13-character Verification Code which is given to you on the form

Retention

Once you have satisfied the verification requirements, you will be granted the ability to upload files / multimedia. While you can now upload media, keep in mind that you are only allowed to upload media containing yourself; if other people are present, there are special rules surrounding that which may require you get written and documented consent. Please see the Terms and Conditions for more information (Section 11).

The photo you used to verify will be kept on record until your ID expires. You can request for us to delete it via a Support Ticket, but this means you will no longer be verified. It is important that when submitting your verification photo, that you change the "Visible to" option in Privacy Settings to "Myself only". Otherwise, other members will see your verification photo.

Your verification photo entry will automatically expire when your government-issued ID expires. At that point, the restrictions listed above will go into effect again until you re-verify with your updated government issued ID.

Help! I do not see the nag message!

If you do not see a message inviting you to get verified, then you are probably already verified. If you still cannot upload attachments / files / images, and you are not in probation (you will know if you received a Terms of Service violation message), then please let us know by opening a Support Ticket. It's probably a bug in that case.

Staff will get notified on a regular basis by the website software for content that needs reviewed for accuracy. This is via a feature called "Periodic Content Reviews". This feature is also available to members on some types of content if members would like to be reminded to review content for accuracy at a later or recurring date.

Spam has been a major problem on many websites, including other nudist websites. Therefore, we have a few systems in place to help significantly reduce spam:

Account Registration

New members must answer an open-ended question about their interest or involvement in nudism. These responses are manually reviewed by site staff. And new members cannot log in until they are approved.

The open-ended nature of this question means an answer cannot simply be searched online; the member must put in at least a little effort to write a passable answer. Considering this is a nudist website, we find it unlikely a legitimate spammer will be able to mimic a nudist with a good nature in their response.

Identity and Age Verification

Members by default do not have permission to upload multimedia or attachments; they must go through an age / identity verification process to get this permission. The full details are outlined in our Terms and Conditions. This safeguard ensures those who upload media, especially if anyone is nude, are at least 18 years old, and are only uploading media of themselves (unless others gave them written consent). It also deters spammers from being able to immediately spam the site with inappropriate media. 

Content Submissions

We have some automatic safeguards in place to help us reduce the amount of spam on Midwest Nudists:

• On every submission of a form, we run a check of the member's IP address with the Stop Forum Spam and Project Honey Pot IP blacklists. If the IP is listed, then either their submissions will require approval, they won't be able to submit anything, or they will be IP-banned entirely, depending on the threat level.
• On every page, we have hidden scripts from Project Honey Pot that humans cannot see and would never normally follow. If it is followed, the visitor is almost certainly a spam bot and will get listed on Project Honey Pot's blacklist.
• On every form, we have hidden fields that humans don't see and would not fill out. If any of these fields are filled out (usually by a bot), then the submission is flagged as spam and action is taken.
• On every submission of a form, antispam heuristics are run on the submission to determine the likelihood the submitted content is spam. If the confidence level meets certain thresholds, action will be taken.

When the website software determines someone to potentially be a spammer, one of three actions will be taken automatically:

• The content will be hidden and flagged for moderator approval, if the antispam system thinks the submission might be spam but is not confident.
• The attempt to submit content will be outright blocked if the antispam system is confident that it is spam.
• The attempt will be blocked and the IP address will be banned automatically if the antispam system is so confident that it was a spam submission that no reasonable person would ever submit something like that.

Report System

And of course, we have the report system as a last resort; no antispam system is perfect. Everywhere are report links and buttons which allow you to submit violating content to the staff for review. Please help us keep Midwest Nudists spam-free, and you will be rewarded!