Google's video sharing service YouTube has just made some important changes to the policy enforcement systems and, according to the officials, there's more modifications to come in the near future. Most changes concern the unaccepted user behavior such as violating the internal guidelines or uploading clips which are prohibited on YouTube.

First of all, there's the new YouTube rule which lets the administrators to temporarily mute a user, instead of suspending or banning him. Thanks to this new feature, the members who get muted are able to watch clips and browse the website, but they're not allowed to comment the videos. "Right now it is set up to affect users who have two Community Guidelines warnings in a six-month period and will last two weeks," the YouTube team explained in a blog post published today.

Another important change concerns the users whose clips were removed from the video sharing service following an infringement of the Community Guidelines or due to copyright infringement, the YouTube team stated. In the past, users were usually notified by email that a certain clip was removed from YouTube, but due to the fact that these messages sometimes reach the spam folder, they can't be read by the user. That's why the "new system also displays the notice on YouTube the next time they access the site."

Last but not least, there's a modification concerning the users who infringe the Community Guidelines and receive warnings. "It didn't seem fair that a user who uploads three videos that violate the Community Guidelines over the span of a year was being treated the same as someone who uploads those same videos over the course of a week. To change this, we've made it so that violations are now rescinded after six months. Accounts that had one or two warnings (as of April 16, 2008) for Community Guidelines (or Terms of Use) violations have been given a clean slate and are going forward under the new system, too!" the YouTube team commented.

As mentioned, there are more changes to come in the near future, so in case you're interested in this topic, keep an eye on the news to find out what's new.