There's policies I'd like to change about RO's. I believe moderation should not excessively enforce RO's unless they directly violate the purpose. I also believe they should be less commonly given than they are. I believe thus are adequate reforms to the entire system of RO's. While ideally, I believe this website should remove the entirety of RO, there seems to be a demand for some users to obtain, and thus I will suggest reforms that can be made
First, I believe obtaining an RO or receiving a RO should be harder to obtain than it is now. This site is about expressing freedom of speech. If you dislike someone then that is life. Ignore this user. If you ignore them and they repeatedly follow you, you have enough evidence to claim an RO. This site is about freedom of speech and being comfortable to share our views. To restrict others is being blind and we shouldn't encourage others to do so
Another thing is that restraining orders should not be 90 day long limitations. The most an RO should be is 30 days, as that allows the users to calm down enough to think logically, while not being overly destructive of freedom.
Here are some reforms I have made to make a clear way of RO violations. Right now the definitions are as loose as a plate of jello, so I decided to beef them up into what I think is the ideal standard.
The A-H Rule Reform of Restraining Orders on DebateArt.com
A) If a person comments on the restrained users original thread that is not a DIRECT response to that person AND/OR is in response to another user that is NOT the user RO'd and the thread itself is a tame/vanilla topic, that user is not warned or punished
----A1) If a person comments on the restrained users original thread that is not a DIRECT response to that person AND/OR is in response to another user that is NOT the user RO'd, but the thread itself is a topic of conflict (religion/politics), that user is not warned or punished, but is reminded to remain cautious of the RO.
B) If a person comments on the restrained users original thread that is not a DIRECT response to that person, but the moderation team concludes there is enough evidence to warrant that user was looking for a reaction out of the restrained user, that user will receive a warning
C) If a person comments on the restrained users original thread that is a DIRECT response, but is not malice, that user is will be notified but no warn will be given
D) If a person comments on the restrained users original thread that is a DIRECT response and there is enough evidence that said user was in malice or response, that user will receive a warn
EXCESSIVE REPETTITION OF WARNS DUE TO VIOLATIONS OF A-D WILL RESULT IN A 3 DAY BAN
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E) If a person comments on the restrained users original threat is a DIRECT response and a situation has escalated due the post made being egregious enough to violate the basic terms of the CoC, that user is subjected to a 7-day ban.
F) If a person replies DIRECTLY to a restrained user in a different thread with no malice, that user will receive a warning
EXCESSIVE REPETTITION OF WARNS DUE TO VIOLATIONS OF F WILL RESULT IN A 3 DAY BAN
G) If a person replies DIRECTLY to a restrained user in a different thread and there is enough evidence that said user was in malice, that user will be subjected to a 3-day ban
H) If a person replies DIRECTLY to a restrained user in a different thread and a situation has escalated due the post made being egregious enough to violate the basic terms of the CoC, that user is subjected to a 14-day ban