ORIGINAL: scottrc
I was going to ask this same question. I remember an explaination after RCU made the change, but I cannot locate that thread. I think it is kinda annoying to have to see it. And kinda degrading to the poster. It is like walking around with a big sign that says "I'm a habitual offender and I'm wainting for an ok from the police to let me go pee".
Good. It's about time that there was a price to be paid for being a habitual offender.
It's not really a disciplinary action per se .... typically it is used when someone has been repeatedly warned that their posts are inappropriate (for whatever reason - vulgarity / antisocial / bashing / pushing product), but they ignore the mod's warnings and keep right on doing whatever it was they they were told not to. It used to be that the only option with such people was to ban then for a while, but then Marc added this new mode in which the person could still post but that a mod had to "approve" each post before the public could see it.
As to how long it goes on ... depends on the behavior of the person in question. Anyone who gets his act together and learns from his mistakes, will typically have only a short period of having his posts require approval ; anyone who refuses to learn from the experience can expect to either have a long approval period, or have further action taken - such as being banned altogether.
Gordon