# warnings - eventual expiry? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [July 16, 2017, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warnings-eventual-expiry/791361 "2017-07-16T01:15:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warnings-eventual-expiry/791361/81 "2017-07-21T04:24:26Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > So, just set the expiry date for warnings for 3 years, instead of never. You dont have to do it for individual warnings, just all warnings. That doesn’t work either. I just tried it out. (You can set an expiry time for custom infractions.) Expired warnings remain visible on your User CP, so you and mods can still see that you received them. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warnings-eventual-expiry/791361/82 "2017-07-21T04:24:45Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I don’t think it’s possible to do that. We can _reverse_ warnings, but the original infraction message still remains, along with the reversal message. So if your problem is that you are reminded that you committed an infraction, you still would be. In fact, you would have two messages reminding you of it instead of one. Not accurate. If a warning is reversed, it shows as a single message in the infractions bar, but with the word “reversed” in the column for expiry date. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warnings-eventual-expiry/791361/83 "2017-07-21T04:26:28Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > In fact, you would have two messages reminding you of it instead of one. Actually, I checked and that’s not correct. The original warning just is shown as “reversed” (but it still remains visible in the User CP). ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warnings-eventual-expiry/791361/84 "2017-07-21T04:26:46Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Not accurate. If a warning is reversed, it shows as a single message in the infractions bar, but with the word “reversed” in the column for expiry date. Beat me to it. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warnings-eventual-expiry/791361/85 "2017-07-21T06:04:44Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I don’t think it’s possible to do that. We can _reverse_ warnings, but the original infraction message still remains, along with the reversal message. So if your problem is that you are reminded that you committed an infraction, you still would be. In fact, you would have two messages reminding you of it instead of one. > > It is possible to set a expiry date for warnings, but presently all the standard warning categories (being a jerk, insults, hate speech, trolling, etc) are set to never expire. I don’t see where it is possible to change that for an individual warning, and even so I don’t know if expiration would cause the warning to disappear entirely or just show as expired. > > In short, changing the system as far as I can see would require a major overhaul. To the best of my knowledge, we can’t just delete individual warnings so you won’t see them. I moderate a vB message board. We do set a date for expiration of warnings. 3 months, 9 months, one year. The warnings don’t disappear on expiration. They remain, but with an “expired” label. So it still does show that the user received a warning, we just don’t treat it with the same weight as current warnings. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warnings-eventual-expiry/791361/86 "2017-07-21T11:48:51Z")
Which is to say that at **cochrane** ’s board the vB software is supplying some weak “forcing” towards considering those “expired” warnings as (mostly) irrelevant when mods are debating a new warning or other adverse action. Whereas here at SDMB the mods do the relevancy adjustment manually. In either case all the warning history is fully visible to the mods and the warnee. Seems like “six of one; half-dozen of the other” to me. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warnings-eventual-expiry/791361/87 "2017-07-21T19:01:58Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > That doesn’t work either. I just tried it out. (You can set an expiry time for custom infractions.) Expired warnings remain visible on your User CP, so you and mods can still see that you received them. Ok, but at least we’d see “expired” which is some consolation. 3 years is pretty reasonable. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warnings-eventual-expiry/791361/88 "2017-07-21T23:17:37Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Ok, but at least we’d see “expired” which is some consolation. 3 years is pretty reasonable. Yeah, it’s the “never” expiry bit that I think needs adjusting. Dial it back to 1d3 years would be a fair compromise, I think. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warnings-eventual-expiry/791361/89 "2017-07-22T00:50:56Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > Yeah, it’s the “never” expiry bit that I think needs adjusting. Dial it back to 1d3 years would be a fair compromise, I think. I concur. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warnings-eventual-expiry/791361/90 "2017-07-22T01:16:46Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **SenorBeef** : > > Can you really not think about how that might work, or is there something to be gained here by feigning confusion? No “gotcha” here, just genuine curiosity. My flow for reading the 'Dope is to look at the forum listings for the forums I’m interested in (mostly GQ and CS). In doing so, I both find the new threads that I’ll find interesting, and the old ones that I’ve already looked at, and I can recognize at a glance the ones that I’ve already looked at because my browser gives them the “followed link” color. I just sort of assumed that everyone did it that way, and never really thought much about how others might use the board. ---
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warnings-eventual-expiry/791361/91 "2017-07-22T01:21:43Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > Yeah, it’s the “never” expiry bit that I think needs adjusting. Dial it back to 1d3 years would be a fair compromise, I think. Well this is something different than I understood the original observation. [ul] [li]I had thought the complaint was seeing the warning(s) in the CP. But instead it turns out you can make it so those are not seen. [/li][li]Then I thought it was the blue bar, but that seems not to be the case.[/li][li]Then, it was thought that expiring the warnings after some time period would work, but it turns out they are still visible.[/li][li]Now, it seems like the visibility isn’t an issue at all, but the idea that they are “expired”, even though that functionally does nothing.[/li][/ul] All actions are taken as judgment calls by the moderation team. We have all universally stated that older warnings are weighted less, and very old warnings hardly at all. I didn’t even know until recently how to find pre-2009 warnings. I can tell you they don’t come up virtually at all. So imagine we expired the warnings, what functionally would be different? I’m not getting the nature of the complaint if it’s not the visibility. With the visibility I could understand it even though I disagree that it’s substantively meaningful. Now I don’t even know. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warnings-eventual-expiry/791361/92 "2017-07-22T01:47:20Z")
Expiration is not important to me. In my ideal world, it would be possible to hide the whole infractions tab or have it be a side menu item but that’s the same world where I’m dating Tom Ellis and chocolate is a key component of weight loss. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warnings-eventual-expiry/791361/93 "2017-07-22T04:10:03Z")
> [@Bone](#): > > I didn’t even know until recently how to find pre-2009 warnings. I can tell you they don’t come up virtually at all. Pretty much the only time I look at those threads is when people ask about their old warnings like in this thread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/warnings-eventual-expiry/791361.md?page=4)